In historic Grand Central Market, vendors come and go — but when its longest-running stall quietly closed shop, it sent shockwaves through food and historic-preservation communities.
Roast to Go served its last gordita at the end of 2025, ending nearly 75 years of meats and Mexican antojitos. And while the legendary meat emporium is gone, La Sandunga, a new Oaxacan stand from a familiar market face, just opened in its place.
Roast to Go served roast chickens, guisados, tacos and more from a stall at the center of the sprawling indoor market. Since its founding in 1952, the stand earned generations of fans — including late L.A. Times Food critic Jonathan Gold, who once tweeted, “If they touch Roast to Go, I will be down there with a machete.”
Owner Sunnee Chung — who operated the stall for the last 20 years — decided to retire, in part due to health complications, and closed the restaurant in December.
Fans and historic-preservation advocates Richard Schave and Kim Cooper of the local tour group Esotouric posted multiple updates on the fate of the former stall, including the preservation of its hanging menu board.
Grand Central Market owner Adam Daneshgar told The Times he wanted to maintain Roast to Go, even offering the stall’s managers a path to ownership in an attempt to keep it going.
“Ultimately,” he wrote in an email, “there was no one willing and able to take on the responsibility of continuing the business. So we did the next best thing we could for the space and for the community — we helped pass it forward … We’re grateful to Sunny [sic] for decades of love poured into Roast To Go, and we’re excited to see new stories begin in the same space.”
Before Chung departed, she tipped off a nearby vendor and friend about the impending vacancy: Olio Wood Fired Pizza owner and Oaxaca native Michael Robles.
“She called me and said, ‘I’m going to leave the space, if you want to take that,’” Robles said.
After getting the approval to take over, he set out to build his long-dreamed-of Oaxacan food stall using family recipes. Roughly 80% of La Sandunga’s ingredients are sourced from Oaxaca, including tlayudas, chapulines and quesillo. The coffee is also sourced specifically from his hometown.
Robles was raised in Santa Catarina Juquila, about three hours from Oaxaca City. “I came to this country in 2004 with a lot of dreams,” he said.
He’d always wanted to be a chef, having spent formative years cooking at home with his grandmother.
Robles found his first U.S. job at California Pizza Kitchen, where he learned to make pizza and pasta. He furthered those skills when he eventually landed at Nancy Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza, and again at Olio, then owned by founder Brad Kent. In 2022, Robles helped Kent open Highland Park bagel shop and pizzeria Bagel + Slice.
The following year, Robles became the owner of it, as well as Olio, but still dreamed of opening a Oaxacan restaurant.
When he took over the Roast to Go stall, he added a grill and a plancha visible to guests, as well as a trompo. It took two months to ready the space.
Now he’s serving a robust menu of Oaxacan specialties, including chicken in mole — made, as in his family, by mixing red and black moles — thanks to mole pastes sent by his parents in Oaxaca. The lamb barbacoa is inspired by his grandmother’s recipe, and requires a multiday process that calls for roasting the meat with avocado leaves for five hours. The tlayudas are nearly table-sized and heaped with meats, smears of black bean, nopales, quesillo and more. The al pastor that spins on a trompo behind the counter is also made with a familial recipe, coated in a generational marinade.
The new stall is involving even more members of the family, with Robles’ sister aiding in the business’ paperwork and his brother helping with day-to-day operations. Robles’ wife makes the sauce for the chilaquiles.
The sauce, rice, beans — everything, Robles said — are cooked fresh daily. He wakes up at 4 a.m., then makes his way to Grand Central Market by 5 a.m. to begin cooking.
Opening a taste of his hometown in Grand Central Market is especially meaningful, Robles said, given the location of his stall. He knows he has big shoes to fill.
“I want every Roast to Go customer happy with me,” he said. “I know the people are going to miss Roast to Go’s food, but I want to bring different foods you’re gonna love. That’s why I try to make everything fresh and everything good: so every person’s gonna be happy.”
La Sandunga is located inside Grand Central Market at 317 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, and is open daily from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.
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