Boyle Heights food truck serves up bone marrow tacos

BOYLE HEIGHTS, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Pepe's Red Tacos, a food truck in Boyle Heights, adds a little something to their birria tacos for extra flavor - the special ingredient, beef bone marrow.

"Which is commonly eaten in, in back home in Mexico," said Joe 'Pepe' Mercado, owner of the food truck. "Here in the U.S., it's very unique. And so when we introduced it into a taco form, that just makes a whole new recipe that is unknown to most people."

The Mercado family said they are the first that they know of to open a bone marrow taco truck in LA.

They started their business a year ago using a birria recipe that's been passed down generations, along with the tradition of adding bone marrow on tortillas.

"This is a great way to introduce that. And to keep the tradition alive of you know, eating bone marrow," said Yaneva Newnam, Mercado's daughter. "I mean it has besides the fact that it's so good, it has so many other health benefits, which is probably why our grandparents, you know, just keep going."

A year later, they have four taco trucks throughout Los Angeles county, including Hacienda Heights, Highland Park and Harbor City.

"With so many businesses struggling right now ... who would know that within one year, in a pandemic, that we would be lucky enough and fortunate enough to be able to grow the way we have under these circumstances," said Mercado.

The Mercado family's next goal is to open a taco truck in Orange County to serve up their bone marrow birria tacos.

Click here for locations and hours of operation.

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