A well-established taco truck called La Parilla Loca does business six days a week in the East Oakland area, and was the latest food establishment to suffer an armed robbery this week.

KTVU reports that the acclaimed Tijuana-style Oakland taco stand and truck La Parilla Loca was robbed at gunpoint at about 11:45 pm Wednesday night at the spot where it normally sets up and does business, the corner of San Leandro Street and 98th Avenue. According to the Oakland Police Department, five armed suspects in ski masks approached the truck and demanded money. And per KTVU, the suspects then “fled the area with the business' entire earnings for the day” as well as “some of the workers’ belongings.”


La Parilla Loca is more than  just a simple taco truck, though one does place their order at a truck. The food is prepared in a fairly large kitchen operation under tents, and it also has a tented dining area. And yes, La Parilla Loca does draw long lines. While a seemingly low-budget operation. SFGate raves it has “tacos that rival Los Angeles' best,” and the Chronicle wrote that La Parilla Loca was part of “Bay Area’s golden age of tacos.”

The taco stand’s owner Mariana Aguirre told KTVU her main concern was for the workers, who were back on the job the next day. "Right now, I know that it’s hard for them to work right now, because I know that they’re thinking, you know, what if later at night they come again," she said.

Notably, La Parilla Loca does business in that same Oakland Airport/Oakland Coliseum area in East Oakland that recently saw the closure of Oakland’s only In-n-Out Burger over crime concerns, as well as the closure of a nearby Denny’s for the same reason.

The Denny's location had operated there for 54 years.

The La Parilla Loca stand had primarily been a cash- and Venmo-only business. Given the recent robbery, Aguirre told KTVU that the business would be transitioning to all-cashless transactions.

Related: Someone Robbed The El Tonayense Taco Truck At Gunpoint This Week [SFist]

Image: Monica B. via Yelp