On a recent trip to LA, I somehow convinced half of la familia to venture downtown on a muggy summer’s night to check out the Guatemalan Night Market. The fact that none of them knew it existed made me slightly nervous, that maybe I was taking them into the seedy bowels of LA for no good reason but I had seen secret whisperings of the pop-up market for a few years now and so I did my best to confidently lead the way, crossing my fingers that I wouldn’t get us all robbed in the process.

The night market materializes every night on the corners of 6th street & Bonnie Brae near downtown LA and finding it or at least finding parking is half the battle. LA is known for some crazy parking laws but downtown is another animal entirely; there were cars straight up parked in the middle of the street with not a care in the world but I wasn’t being that brave with a rental car, so we had to circle around a few times before finding a spot.

Once we all piled out of the car, we headed down the street and the closer we got to 6th, the more numerous the food stands were and the better it smelled. Some stands were legit, with popup tents and multiple people working and some were little more than grocery carts with charcoal fires inside and a solitary woman standing there, cooking up a storm.

Each one offers something different, from tostadas & tacos dorados, to shucos and garnachas. Everyone chose something and though I was looking for the perfect Guatemalan trifecta; salsa, frijoles & aguacate tostadas I settled for finding one of the three, guacamole tostadas.

The night sky deepened and the streets began to fill up as more & more guatemalatecos got off work and headed to the market for a quick bite to eat. Since the market runs all the way to midnight every night, there were still stands being set up as we were packing up to leave which was too bad as they had some killer music blaring from their popup restaurant and if we weren’t already so full, we definitely would have struck around a bit longer.

As we headed back to the car, I was thankful for the warm summer nights that allowed the market to thrive, thankful to a city that, if not encourages, at least permits such markets to exist, and most of all, I was thankful to all the Guatemalans, who brought a piece of their homeland with them every night onto LA those streets and let gringas like me share in a small part of it. It was delicious and something I will never forget. Buen provecho!

Guatemalan Night Market

1834-1898 West 6th Street, Los Angeles CA 90057

Open Daily 5pm-12am *Bring Cash*