AI job losses – LAist

Walking into Mexican Monk Brew House, you’re greeted by a space filled with natural light. Repurposed cathedral window frames hang as artwork alongside a few well-placed mirrors; Selena plays over the sound system.

A massive mural of its logo dominates an exposed concrete block wall. A robed monk dressed in a sombrero and serape, eyes closed, cradling a beer as an offering — an image that tells you immediately who this place is for and who built it.

Located in the city of Paramount, Mexican Monk is an independently Latino-owned craft beer taproom, the first of its kind in the area. The space is the vision of independent craft brewer Ray “Ricky” Rivera, who has spent the past decade building toward this moment. He’s partnered with David and Ashley Vazquez, who have operated Horchateria Rio Luna since 2016 — first at a smaller location, then in their current home in 2020 — the cafe next door where Mexican Monk now lives.

Mexican Monk is currently in its soft-opening phase, open Thursday through Sunday, with a grand-opening celebration planned for the coming weeks.

Half a mile away

Last summer, the city of Paramount found itself at the center of a national debate about who belongs when federal immigration agents massed near a Home Depot on Alondra Boulevard and the community spilled into the streets to meet them.

David Salinas is the second-generation owner of Paramount Barbers. He watched the raids ripple through the neighborhood in real time.

“Foot traffic wasn’t happening. Everyone was just on alert,” Salinas said. According to local business roundtable meetings he attended, commerce in the area dropped 20% to 30% on average in the aftermath. “For some smaller businesses, that became tough.”

But even as the neighborhood absorbed the blow, something was already taking shape a few blocks away.

Crafting a partnership

Like a lot of things these days, the Brew House began with an exchange on Instagram. Rivera noticed that Vasquez had started offering beer at the cafe, specifically from Brujeria — a local, Latino-owned brewery in Pico Rivera — and sent him a DM. What followed was a series of visits, casual conversations, and eventually an unexpected pitch: Vasquez and his partners had an empty 1,400-square-foot room adjoining the cafe and were looking for someone to bring it to life.

Rivera had been sitting on the Mexican Monk concept for about five years — a robed monk in a sombrero, a brewer, a mythical figure with a whole backstory. He pitched it. Vasquez, who was born and raised in Paramount, loved it.

“We knew our city was underserved regarding cool, trendy spaces,” Vasquez said, noting that residents have long made the drive to Long Beach, Orange County, or downtown Los Angeles to find what Mexican Monk is now bringing to their own backyard.

Rivera had a background in brewing, first as founder of the L.A.-based homebrew club SoCal Cerveceros, and then with his solo contract brewing operation Norwalk Brewhouse. Its flagship beer is named Bidi Bidi Blonde Blonde, a blonde ale named after the Selena classic.

Mexican Monk, he said, is the physical realization of what Norwalk Brewhouse was always building toward — a space where the culture isn’t a footnote, it’s the foundation.

What’s on the menu

The beer list reads like a who’s who of the Latino craft beer world — there are six house brews contract-brewed locally, from Sippin’ Santos, a Mexican-style lager, to La Blanca 1544, a Belgian-style witbier, all priced between $8- $9. The remaining taps and a curated can wall of 26 selections draw almost entirely from independent Latino-owned breweries across Southern California and beyond.

For food there’s six different types of wings, including a spice-forward chorizo dry rub, a nutty salsa macha, and the standout of the bunch, the mole wings, whose chocolatey, earthy depth works surprisingly well with their slightly hop-forward West Blessed, especially after a proper dip in their house-made jalapeño ranch. The menu rounds out with nine-inch pizzas made with Mexican Monk lager dough and truffle fries.

For barber David Salinas, Mexican Monk is a catalyst — the kind of anchor business that he hopes will inspire others.

“Ray and I talked, and we were saying there needs to be a little bit more,” he said. “It can’t just be his brewery for him to succeed. He needs a community around him.”

That may be growing. When you walk through the door at Mexican Monk, what you find is something quieter and more durable than a protest or a headline. A city imagining what comes next, one pint or plate of wings at a time.