33 years after the Register called it "gourmet food on a Grande scale," Las Barcas is still at it
The family-owned Beach Boulevard restaurant, in business since 1987, still serves the burritos, carnitas and fish tacos that made it a Huntington Beach fixture.
On the wall inside Las Barcas hangs a framed review from the Orange County Register, dated Friday, Oct. 8, 1993. Yesterday marked 33 years since Mary Jo Griffith's "Gourmet food on a Grande scale" review ran in the paper's Show Weekend section. The restaurant at 21032 Beach Blvd. is still there, still family owned, still serving the food she wrote about.
The story starts far from Surf City. Alberto and Carmen Denenberg moved their family from Buenos Aires to Huntington Beach with a dream of opening their own restaurant. They set out to build what their website calls "gourmet Mexican, a fusion born from their Argentine blood and their adopted home in Surf City," and opened their doors in 1987.
Even the name carries two tellings. The restaurant's website says Las Barcas was named for the fleets of sailboats that cruise off the shores of Huntington Beach. The 1993 Register review said "Las Barcas" ("the boats") happened to be the name of Alberto's Argentine hometown. Either way, the boats stuck.
In 1993, the centerpiece of Griffith's review was El Grande Burrito, which the Register called "the restaurant's largest burrito" and priced at $3.95. She also singled out the No. 24, a shredded beef chimichanga, and noted the self-serve salsa bar. The menu has grown since, but the signatures remain: the restaurant is known for its monstrous one-pound burritos, its perfectly seasoned carnitas, Baja crispy fish tacos and chimichangas, with dinners served alongside beans and rice the way the family has always served them.
It has always been a family operation. The 1993 review pictured owner Alberto Denenberg with his sons Steve and Briant showing off the El Grande Burrito. The restaurant says their children, Steve, Jacqui and Antonio, worked there after school and on weekends, and Las Barcas still stands in its original location, now larger to accommodate the generations of regulars who grew up eating there. The official Facebook page puts it simply: "Serving the BEST Mexican food since 1987. Family owned and operated."
For celebrations, Las Barcas runs a catering menu that covers tacos, burritos and taquitos for parties, holidays and game days, a service the restaurant has promoted for years around Thanksgiving, Christmas and the Super Bowl.
Las Barcas is open Sunday through Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The full menu and catering information are at lasbarcas.com. The restaurant's Yelp listing shows a 3.9-star average across 858 reviews.
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