L.A.'s best rotisserie chicken may be at this former gas station in Pasadena - BERITAJA

On a Saturday night, the parking batch astatine Loli Farms successful Pasadena is simply a maze of cars. People triple parkland on the entranceway to the erstwhile state station. Someone blocks 1 of the driveways. Cars are near unmanned, hazard lights blinking while their owners unreserved successful to retrieve takeout orders. Others simply fastener their doors and caput inside, praying they decorativeness cleaning their chickenhearted bones earlier the group they blocked in. The chickenhearted present is worthy the risk.

The edifice is simply a temple to pollo a la brasa, the rotisserie chickens recovered astatine pollerías each complete Peru. For decades, Pollo a la Brasa was the king of the genre successful Los Angeles. Its parking batch astatine the area of Western Avenue and 8th Street successful Koreatown arsenic hellish. Maybe moreover much so. And the eating room sometimes truthful afloat of smoke, your eyes burn. But group travel successful droves. Tourists, policemen, students and your awesome aunt who lives successful Hancock Park who heard that Nancy Silverton is simply a fan.

After brining overnight and getting marinated successful a blend of cumin, garlic, paprika and panca chiles from Peru, chickens are cooked successful the restaurant’s rotisserie oven.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Loli Farms whitethorn beryllium moreover better. The ventilation strategy much efficient. And the chicken, a batch much consistent.

Owners Sandra Loli and Mauricio Vincenzi met while moving together astatine a Peruvian edifice successful Glendale. Vincenzi, a pastry cook from Argentina who trained successful Peru, and Loli, a cook from Lima, opened Bodegon 69 Peruvian edifice successful Old Pasadena together successful 2021. The paper is an homage to the about celebrated Peruvian dishes, pinch large platters of ceviche and tiradito, saltados and atom pinch chicken, beef and seafood. But nary pollo a la brasa.

The chickens require a wood-burning oven, but the permitting process to instal the 1 Loli and Vincenzi procured from Italy proved excessively difficult astatine the restaurant. They decided to prevention it for a pollería, and opened Loli Farms successful precocious 2024.

The oven is the bosom of the restaurant, burning astatine about 750 degrees Fahrenheit, pinch a upland of wood stacked nearby. The chickens slow move arsenic glowing flames thigh astatine their skin. The spits are tightly packed and perpetually rotating, churning retired 48 chickens each hour.

An intense, carnal request takes complete mid-bite into a Loli Farms chickenhearted leg. I inhale the fume that wafts from the skin, a heady, saccharine and earthy operation of pecan, pome and almond woods. The bronzed tegument is tacky pinch the bird’s ain fat and sugars, and beautifully caramelized on each ridge. My lips and fingertips are glossy earlier I decorativeness excavating the bones.

Loli brines the chickens overnight, past marinates them successful a blend of cumin, garlic, paprika and panca chiles from Peru for 2 days. Her chickenhearted hums pinch a gentle smokiness and a complex, fruity chile spirit that’s warm, rounded and highly addictive. I person watched group of each ages and sizes works their elbows connected a array and demolish a full chickenhearted themselves, only pausing to scope for the 2 compression bottles of condiments.

One is aji verde, a fiery, electrical greenish condiment made pinch Peruvian yellowish peppers, and huacatay, a pungent, achromatic mint pinch hints of tarragon and citrus. It stings pinch a sharp, contiguous heat. The different is aji amarillo, a creamier, milder, ray yellowish condiment fragrant pinch oregano and garlic.

Loli and Vincenzi intended for the edifice to beryllium a ceremony of Peruvian culture, and about of the existent property successful the eating room is devoted to a superette stocked pinch shiny packages of sweets, full dried achromatic potatoes, crushed aji amarillo and plantain chips. A cooler on the eastbound wall holds dozens of cans and bottles of Inca Kola, the neon yellowish carbonated beverage that really outsells Coca-Cola successful Peru. Imagine Redbull infused pinch Dubble Bubble. If you’re watching your sugar, there’s diet, but that signature, cloying, herbal sweetness remains, without the calories.

Vincenzi uses the monolithic purple maize kernels, known arsenic maiz morado, to make chicha morada, a warmly spiced portion of corn, pineapple, cinnamon and clove autochthonal to the Andean regions.

Large achromatic kernels, aliases choclo, are boiled and served pinch slabs of tangy goat cheese, presented arsenic 1 of a twelve aliases truthful sides for your chicken.

The coleslaw leans sweet, for illustration the type astatine Kentucky Fried Chicken earlier they hack it up into itty bitty squares of cabbage and carrot. This comparison should publication arsenic the highest compliment. The aforesaid goes for the mashed potatoes, which person that same, azygous soft texture synonymous pinch the potatoes from Colonel Sanders. Only astatine Loli Farms, they’re crowned pinch a ladle afloat of chickenhearted drippings, alternatively of gravy.

The yucca frita are crunchy, aureate tiles pinch fluffy, almost cheesy centers of cassava. The saccharine murphy fries could beryllium limp astatine times, but the regular fries are dependably crisp and well-seasoned. They service arsenic the guidelines for salchipapas, a thoroughfare nutrient recovered passim South America that originated successful Lima successful the 1950s. At Loli Farms, the fries are hardly visible nether overlapping zigzags of mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise and coins of fried beef sausage.

A yarn llama stands adjacent the rate registry astatine Loli Farms successful Pasadena. Half the existent property successful the eating room is devoted to pantry equipment and Inca Kola from Peru.

(Ronaldo Bolanos / Los Angeles Times)

Easily distracted by the rotating chickens, it took a fistful of visits earlier I moreover noticed the sanguche information of the menu. The sandwiches are served connected crusty rolls that illness into cutlets of beef Milanese, shredded chickenhearted aliases lomo saltado. The past is simply a root of nationalist pridefulness successful Peru, and 1 of the about recognizable expressions of really Andean ingredients melded pinch Cantonese stir-fry techniques introduced by the country’s Chinese immigrants. Strips of beef are cooked successful a screaming basking wok pinch cherry tomatoes, bulb and French fries, past seasoned pinch soy condiment and achromatic pepper. It makes for an fantabulous sandwich filling, served pinch a cup of nutrient broth zippy pinch vinegar, hoisin condiment and cumin, for dipping.

At the moment, dessert consists of immoderate packaged, chocolate-covered cooky catches your oculus successful the market, and a mini lawsuit of alfajores, a shortbread and dulce de leche sandwich cooky that Vincenzi bakes for the restaurant. Soon, he plans to grow the bakery offerings pinch saccharine breads and various jellos and marmalades.

For now, there’s plentifulness to warrant my play visits. Just retrieve to inquire for other sauce, and parkland connected the street.