Michele StuevenCasa Vega, the Ventura Boulevard institution that has been a local hangout since 1956, unveiled the Ray Vega Patio on Saturday, a new, 3,000-square-foot expansion honoring founder Rafael “Ray” Vega, Jr., and commemorating 90 years of Vega family restaurateurs in Los Angeles.
Christy Vega inside the Ray Vega Patio ( Karla Ticas)
The new patio nearly doubles the restaurant’s footprint and represents one of the most significant transformations in its history.
The Vega family’s restaurant legacy began in 1936, when Rafael and Maria “Mary” Vega immigrated from Tijuana and opened Café Caliente on Olvera Street, at a time when Mexican-owned businesses operated on the outskirts of the city’s dining landscape.
Built behind the original restaurant, 3,000 square feet of indoor-outdoor dining includes 100 seats, an 18-seat bar, a tiled central fountain surrounded by seating for 24, and a retractable roof for year-round service. The expansion transforms two former parking lots into a new gathering space.
Vega opened the restaurant in 1956 at age 22, working days selling insurance and nights in the restaurant alongside his parents. He brought his mother’s recipes to the San Fernando Valley long before Mexican cuisine was embraced beyond downtown Los Angeles. Casa Vega was the first sit-down Mexican restaurant on Ventura Blvd.
In 1958, Casa Vega moved to its current location, with Hollywood heavyweights like Marlon Brando, Cary Grant, Rock Hudson, Nancy Sinatra, and Dyan Cannon becoming regulars. It became an international landmark in 2019 when it was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The booth shared by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt in the film is one of LA’s toughest tables to secure for a new generation of diners.
In 2025, Maria Christina “Christy” Vega bought the Ventura Boulevard property after her father passed away in 2021 at age 86, and continues running it as a family business.
Courtesy Christy Vega