Danny Trejo on 55 years without drinking: 'It's the best time in history to be sober'

Be careful when trying to make the aptly named Red Alert mocktail from Danny Trejo's latest cookbook. The first step, in addition to boiling the ancho chile syrup, requires roasting the pepper over an open flame or directly under a grill, where mine caught fire.

I'm standing in my kitchen using an oven mitt to handle a tray containing a flaming charred bell pepper. As I blow on the shiny, now blackened fruit, I feel a rush of adrenaline..

This particularly exciting drink from the cookbook, “Trejo's Cantina: Cocktails, Snacks, and Surprising Non-Alcoholic Drinks from the Heart of Hollywood,” is his favorite, he tells me in a Zoom interview. A chapter on non-alcoholic beverages includes agua frescoes and other non-alcoholic cocktails made with fruits, spices, herbs, and infused syrups and teas.

“The thing is, they all taste good,” he says. “We make sure everyone tastes good.”

At 79 years old, the famous actor and notorious tough guy has achieved 55 years of sobriety. And the book, published in the spring, marks a decades-long journey of recovery that now dovetails with a growing alcohol-free trend, Trejo's growing restaurant empire, the launch of his zero-proof tequila, and his personal mission to give back.

“This book is dedicated to the recovery community, of which I have been a member for over 50 years,” the introduction reads. “May you always find the hope, compassion and strength that can carry you into tomorrow. You got it!”

“Trejo's Cantina” is a follow-up to his first cookbook, “Trejo's Tacos,” and an autobiography published in 2021 titled “Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood.” Focusing on his life growing up in Los Angeles, the latest is a tribute to Hollywood and the Eastside saloons he frequented with his father and his aunt and uncle, as well as his journey through addiction and recovery. . He describes saloons as “festive gathering places where people come to enjoy life and celebrate each other's company. “I opened mine up to be all-inclusive for both drinkers and non-drinkers.”

Since opening Trejo's Donuts & Coffee in 2017, it has opened four restaurants in Los Angeles, including its taproom in Hollywood, with others coming soon to downtown Los Angeles and London.

Fruit and Spice Juice: Danny Trejo's Red Alert and Coco-Pina-Guava Fresca mocktails are recipes from his book, “Trejo's Cantina.”

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

His cheerful cantina, on Cahuenga Boulevard in the middle of Hollywood, has bright blue and green walls, Danny Trejo decor and souvenirs for sale near the entrance. The long bar and comfortable tables invite everyone, whether they drink alcohol or not.

And although the “mocktail” trend has been going strong for years, Trejo doesn't like to refer to his drinks as such.

“While some people like to call a non-alcoholic drink a mocktail, I don't think that word does the delicious new creations justice,” he writes. “They're not 'mocking' at all. They are totally original, authentically delicious and true to themselves. And they'll never give you a hangover or give you a DUI!

I finish making Red Alert by pureeing the peeled roasted pepper in a blender with fresh shelled strawberries, freshly squeezed lemon juice, water, and the ancho chile syrup. I pour the vibrant red, lightly foamy mixed drink over ice and garnish it with a sliced ​​strawberry. It hits all the sweet, spicy and acidic notes of a cocktail, without alcohol.

At a time when bartenders are inventing non-alcoholic menus and non-alcoholic wines, beers and “spirits” are gaining popularity, Trejo is capitalizing on a trend. But his connection to the booze-free movement goes back decades, which he says was the impetus for creating his own brand of non-alcoholic tequila, which appears on the mocktail menu at his cantina. .

“It's a plague on the Latino community,” Trejo says during our interview about the effects of tequila. “I said, let's make one, let's make a good one, and it actually tastes pretty good.”

Those familiar with Trejo's story know that the actor, who has played brave roles in blockbuster films such as “Desperado,” “Heat,” “Machete” and the “Badass” franchise, wasn't always destined for stardom.

Trejo spent his early childhood in Echo Park and his formative years and difficult high school days in the San Fernando Valley facing probation, parole and finally prison. In 1968, Trejo had reached his lowest point while he was incarcerated at Soledad State Prison when a riot broke out on Cinco de Mayo.

“Some people say, 'You know, I drank but it wasn't that bad.' Well for me it was that bad”says Trejo.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)

“It's funny, everyone thinks Cinco de Mayo means the fifth of May, but it doesn't,” he says. “It means you better get the bail money because you're going to jail. On Cinco de Mayo you shoot a gun. You hit a neighbor. Your wife stabs you. Something bad happens on Cinco de Mayo.”

For Trejo, this meant ending up in solitary confinement for months. But in the summer of 1969 he left prison for the last time. “I haven't looked back,” he says.

“Some people say, 'You know, I drank but it wasn't that bad.' Well for me it was that bad. So I can always remember the moment I was stabbed. I can remember when I was shot. I can look back and I'm running from the police. I can look back at when I was sitting in the hole. I have a past that tells me, 'Yeah, it was bad, buddy!'

“I have to look at that, but even that won't stop you. You have a mind that will say, 'Come on, come on.' You had a lot of fun!' and will actually try to trick you. “It's like an allergy of the body combined with an obsession of the mind.”

He says that on the road to recovery he faced social pressures to drink. “It happened to me when I first stopped drinking when I got out of the penitentiary. I didn't drink and people said, 'What do you mean you don't drink?' No, no, come on, here,' and they tried to buy me a drink and sometimes it was really awkward,” she says.

These experiences have informed Trejo's cocktail menus at his restaurants, as well as the recipes in the book. “So we started with these 'mock' cocktails and I love them because no one knows I'm not drinking.”

In the chapter titled “Secrets of the Non-Alcoholic Bar,” Trejo describes how to make teas and syrups to complement non-alcoholic drinks like the Green Apple, made with green apples, fresh lemon juice, a homemade honey-cinnamon syrup, and soda. . or Trejopache, made with brown sugar, whole cloves, cinnamon sticks, dried chamomile, lime juice and sugar.

“What a difference it makes today for non-drinkers,” says Trejo. “We live in the golden age of soft drinks and it is without a doubt the best time in history to be sober.”

Trejo's Cantina in Hollywood, for both drinkers and non-drinkers, serves alcoholic and mocktails.

(Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times)