On the corner of Branch Street and York Boulevard, snuggled nicely into the brightly colored homes surrounding it, lies one of Highland Park’s top restaurants, Pocha Los Angeles. A modern Mexicana restaurant rooted in tradition and Angelina Pride, Pocha LA merges Mexican and American cultures while maintaining respect for both in a healthy and vegan-friendly way. Although the restaurant was launched three years ago, the idea sprouted incidentally in January 2019 when Risoli, founder and owner of Pocha LA, added a printed-out “Pocha,” a derogatory term used by native-born Mexicans against US-born Mexican Americans who don’t speak Spanish well, to her vision board.
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