Villa's Tacos just made its Super Bowl debut, and it wasn't outside Levi's Stadium serving up delicious food to football fans.
The restaurant had a cameo in Bad Bunny's fast-paced halftime show.
Right at the beginning of the Puerto Rican singer's performance at Super Bowl LX, as he walks through fake sugar cane fields, he passes a series of small businesses. He grabs a piragua, a traditional Puerto Rican shaved ice dessert, from a vendor, then hands the cone to Victor Villa, while the owner of Villa's Tacos stands behind a cart emblazoned with the business's name. The singer then ducks under the fists of boxers Xander Zayas and Emiliano Vargas.
Villa, who started the taqueria as a pop-up shop in the Highland Park neighborhood in 2018, took to Instagram to express his gratitude for the opportunity, underscoring his family's immigrant background.
“We sold our first taco in the front yard of my grandmother's house in Highland Park over 8 years ago and I feel like every taco along the way brought me here. Today. For this moment!” the post said. “I couldn't have sold that first taco if my parents hadn't made the difficult decision to leave their homeland in search of a better life and immigrate to the United States.”
The Los Angeles establishment, known for its fresh-pressed blue corn tortillas, grilled meats and cheese-encrusted tacos, has been featured three times in the LA Times 101 Best Restaurants Listand it is also in the michelin guide. The restaurant's ambitious, maximized layers of delicious ingredients have been hailed by LA Times restaurant critic Bill Addison as “skillfully designed chaos,” ultimately embodying the “Los Angeles dreamer, the entrepreneur.”
Villa's Tacos was also featured in season 3 of the Netflix series “Taco Chronicles.” The restaurant has two locations in Highland Park and one in downtown Los Angeles. Great Central Market.
In a subsequent Instagram post, Villa thanked the Grammy winner again for the opportunity. “It's crazy where a taco can take you,” he wrote.
