After 22 years, the late-night, self-described “gringo-mex” taco spot San Loco has closed its Stanton Street location on the Lower East Side after its final service on Monday.
Owners Jill and Kimo Hing are looking for another space in the neighborhood and hope to reopen. The restaurant’s Avenue C location, which opened in 2019, remains in business.
The Hings cited inflation in food, rent and insurance costs that made maintaining the Lower East Side location unsustainable, as well as post-pandemic changes to the neighborhood and the eatery’s clientele.
“There was a very robust live music scene down here, which is virtually nonexistent now,” Kimo said at an outdoor table on Monday, while his son worked the register.
“We used to be open until 4 a.m. during the week, 5 a.m. on the weekends – it was that music crowd, but it was also a lot of people that worked in bars and restaurants and clubs, and it was very active,” Jill said.
“That kind of nightlife just isn’t here anymore,” she said. “And those kinds of customers aren’t here anymore.”
Jill and Kimo Hing
Courtesy Jill and Kimo Hing
New Yorkers who spent any part of the last two decades in “Hell Square,” as the blocks around Ludlow and Rivington are often called, almost certainly know San Loco, which opened on Stanton Street in 2002.
Back then, the neighborhood was transitioning from a haunt for downtown darlings like musician Elliott Smith or director Jim Jarmusch to a late-night binge drinking area that many locals avoided and neighbors decried.
Jill Hing’s older brothers opened the initial San Loco on Second Avenue in 1986. Kimo, a young punk who grew up in the neighborhood, was working next door at the long-gone Cajun restaurant Al Jeers.
“Jill was working at the Lismar Lounge at the time, and she used to come in, and I would go down to her bar, and then we struck up a relationship,” Kimo said.
Kimo Hing
Courtesy Jill and Kimo Hing
The two married and eventually took over the business from Jill’s brothers. They’ve enjoyed having San Loco Stanton Street become a fixture in the neighborhood, for the party crowd as well as more wholesome revelers, like their son’s childhood soccer team.
When they brought their son to kindergarten, Jill said, the teacher immediately lit up. She was a regular patron and began telling them about her nights at San Loco before suddenly clamming up, realizing none of the stories were kid-friendly.
“I was like ‘It’s San Loco, I understand. Everybody’s done it, it’s totally fine,’” Jill said.
The Hings plan to expand the menu at their Avenue C location, with all the classics like the Queso Loco still in place, but adding new shareable plates and specials.
“Out of all the San Locos that have existed, this one had been open the longest,” Kimo said. “It’s very bittersweet. It’s like leaving home.”