On the West Coast’s buzziest marisco stall, chef Gilberto Cetina’s menu bursts with taste—and blows dated notions about Mexican delicacies out of the water.
For those who handle to snag a desk on the buzzy Los Angeles marisco stall Holbox, you’ll be able to anticipate to come across greater than meals. Certain, you in all probability got here to munch on its next-level baja fish tacos, tangy ceviches, and spicy pulpo, however you may also rub elbows with cooks contemporary off their shifts, an Angelonian in flip flops wanting to pattern this week’s catch, or an influencer reviewing Yelp’s number one restaurant of 2025.
The act of packing into the Michelin-starred counter tucked in Historic South-Central Los Angeles’s Mercado La Paloma is a part of the attraction of chef Gilberto Cetina’s ardour undertaking turned industrial success. Since incomes his trade stripes—together with prestigious accolades, like a semifinalist nomination for this yr’s James Beard Awards for Excellent Chef—Cetina is targeted on absorbing the second whereas persevering with to serve diners braving lengthy traces to eat up his punchy creations. His enterprise went comparatively unscathed by the town’s current wildfires, however the devastating disaster served as a reminder of how fickle the trade is. When requested what’s subsequent, he bristles a bit. “It’s actually simply having fun with what we’ve constructed and attempting to maintain that star for a number of years,” Cetina tells Latina. “We like the place we’re and we love what we do and we simply wish to proceed to do it higher.”
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
Rethinking Mexican Mariscos
With no formal coaching however a lifetime supporting his household’s culinary enterprise ventures whereas rising up between California and Mexico, Cetina opened Holbox’s doorways in 2017 decided to do Yucatan-style seafood justice inside Los Angeles’ meals scene. “It was all the time presupposed to be a aspect undertaking, a bit place for me to hang around and have enjoyable with fish,” he says of the outpost neighboring his dad’s restaurant Chichen Itza.
Holbox has since developed to embody the completely different coastal areas of Mexico via the lens of seasonal regionally sourced Southern California produce and seafood. Embracing the simplistic spirit of Mexican cooking that facilities contemporary substances and conventional taste profiles, Cetina’s full of life dishes burst with spice, chili-fueled acid, and warmth.
“I knew that the rationale that the entire marisco spots in Los Angeles sort of are likely to style the identical [is] as a result of they’re all working with a sure set of substances priced appropriately for what the expectation is of Mexican meals,” Cetina says.
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
A technique Cetina stands out is his deep appreciation for corn, a staple in Mexican cooking he’s seen missed at different marisco eating places, with the ingredient typically being overpowered by lovely fish. He takes satisfaction in Holbox’s handmade tortillas, that are crafted by former staffer Fátima Juárez’s Komal Molino. The masa shines within the laborious multistep dehydrated and fried crunchy tostadas raspadas at present paired with native white sea bass ceviche in a salsa macha avocado cucumber puree.
“I knew that each one the marisco spots in L.A. are likely to style the identical [because] they’re all working with a sure set of substances priced appropriately for what’s anticipated of Mexican meals.”
Then there’s the mesquite grill, a vessel via which Cetina channels his reverence for the primal spirit of cooking a freshly caught fish on a stick over a hearth on the seashore. He gushed over spot prawns, a current spotlight on the menu. The delicacy is discovered at over a thousand ft of the ocean’s depth then stored alive in tanks till their heads are fried then our bodies and tails left uncooked marinated in chile, even probably the most seasoned seafood lovers can’t comprehend a shrimp’s texture might style so contemporary.
Falling in love with seafood whereas spearfishing and catching conch and octopus on the coast of Yucatan as a teen, Cetina now not dives for his supper, calling it a “younger man’s recreation.” He now collaborates with native fishermen who assist him navigate the challenges of sustaining a seafood restaurant amidst climate change and economic uncertainty, informing the menu by tipping him off when there’s an overabundance of invasive species like field crabs. Staying away from large seafood distributors additionally retains prices secure and protects Cetina towards a number of the shocks felt by different restaurant house owners impacted by tariffs, labor immigration legal guidelines, and the availability chain.
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
Difficult the “Low cost Taco”
Cetina by no means imagined his curiosity of the ocean would lead him to a undertaking like Holbox. All through his youth, meals was all the time a way of survival for his household, however spending weekends serving to his dad and mom make tamales to make lease led him to reject the craft. He tried to struggle off what appeared like his preordained destiny by finding out laptop science as a substitute. “I didn’t suppose cooking was in my future,” he mentioned. “I believed I used to be gonna be the subsequent Invoice Gates.” When his dad first wanted an additional pair of fingers to assist understand his dream at Chichen Itza, he volunteered to do every little thing from take out the trash to work in entrance of home. What was presupposed to be a brief stint coaching a chef in his dad’s method in 2010, changed into an obsessive try to grasp the kitchen that hasn’t waned.
Regardless of his willpower, Cetina didn’t hit the bottom operating when he ventured off on his personal. Holbox didn’t resonate with diners at first, “It created a enterprise that was not straightforward to promote, and it was onerous to get clients on board,” he mentioned. Individuals weren’t able to spend $7 on a taco on the time, which Cetina believes displays the misperception that Mexican meals ought to all the time be low-cost. Even a rave review didn’t transfer the needle.
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
Then, simply as Holbox gained traction with native media and on-line in 2019, the workforce was compelled to confront the COVID-19 pandemic months later. “It fully stopped us in our tracks,” Cetina mentioned. He anticipated it’d take one other couple of years to regain their footing.
However as a substitute Holbox met the second and continued to develop in reputation. Locals leaned into a spot the place they may take pleasure in a satisfying meal in an unpretentious setting. “I feel clients had been hungry for that human connection and [to be] in an area that felt like neighborhood,” he mentioned. “It’s a mix of various folks from completely different backgrounds, cultures, completely different components of city, completely different cities, completely different states, that love good high quality seafood, marisco fanatics.”
Now on a pricier, twice-a-week tasting menu that serves simply 16 company nightly, Cetina pushes the boundaries of conventional Mexican seafood with enjoyable and cheeky choices like abalone tamales, fish head pâté, and stuffed cabbage with fish sausage. Although he admits it’s in all probability not probably the most fiscally sound endeavor, it brings him pleasure, “That’s in all probability a really egocentric undertaking on my finish.”
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
“Prospects had been hungry for that human connection—to be in an area that felt like neighborhood.”
Cetina stays dedicated to serving daring high quality meals, irrespective of the setting. Whereas inspiring meals could be present in markets and road distributors all over the world, he feels the U.S. is behind on embracing these areas. He believes his method within the kitchen wouldn’t change if the meals had been served in a high-end white tablecloth eating room.
“Lack of a maître d’ or a hostess, a wine record, and a white tablecloth doesn’t outline the standard of a meals expertise,” he says. “There’s one thing actually lovely and tremendous interesting to me about striving for excellence regardless of being in a humble setting. The truth that we’re in a mercado, it’s not a cause to not put every little thing that we are able to into the cooking.”
Photograph credit score: Liam Brown
