Zertuche’s work focuses on repurposed, recycled and reused items. She later moved to San Diego, where she worked as a bartender at Martinez’s restaurant. “All my inspiration comes from that life,” said Zertuche. Zertuche was raised on a ranch in Torreón, and her father was in agriculture. A self-taught mixed media artist, she helped design the restaurant’s colorful interiors and funky artwork. That’s Lorena “Loló” Zertuche, Martinez’s life and business partner. These days, you’ll still find Martinez and Ruelas inside the restaurant, either on the line cooking or running plates and drinks to tables (and sometimes both).īut there’s one more crucial component that makes Loló Loló, and not just by providing the name. I Latina was also where Martinez met Juan Carlos Ruelas, a busser who worked his way up to a full-on business partner and moved to San Francisco to help open Loló. Michaela Vatcheva/Special To The Chronicle
Zertuche used to work at the restaurant every day, but now comes once a week. Lorena “Lolo” Zertuche, partner and designer of Lolo in San Francisco, works as a host. These dishes became instant hits, menu mainstays that would make their way to the present-day Loló as we know it. It was here that Martinez developed signature dishes like the rare seared Tuna Tacon tacos served with creamy shrimp aioli and a sticky-sweet salmon bone reduction, and the Taco Tropical, in which crispy panko fried shrimp and chipotle aioli are served over thinly sliced raw jicama that act as a tortilla. He called it I Latina, an Asian-Mediterranean-Mexican fusion place. But now his parents were sick, and in Guadalajara, unlike S.F., Martinez had the capital to open a restaurant. He’d opened a restaurant in San Diego, then moved to San Francisco, where he waited tables and soaked in the vibe and diverse food culture. Jorge Martinez, 36, had recently returned to his native Guadalajara, Mexico, after a decade in California. The original Loló opened in 2007 in a smaller space around the corner before expanding to its current location in 2013. Inside, the energy is high, the music is loud, and people are chowing down on crispy panko-crusted avocado tacos and super savory chicken tinga tostadas. Said crowd leans young, hip and fashion-forward - they’re sipping on glasses of cloudy natural wine and ice-cold coupes filled with mezcal negronis as they wait for a table at the bustling 72-seat restaurant. Pass by Valencia Street near 21st Street on most nights and you’ll see a crowd gathered outside Loló, the soon to be 16-year-old Mexican-Californian restaurant in the Mission District.
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