Meet The L.a. Restaurateur Who Designed Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Casita - Beritaja

On Sunday day Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny fell done a tile and into the world of Federico Laboureau, a South L.A. restaurateur who sells empanadas, choripan and milanesa — and who besides designed a cardinal group portion for the historic Super Bowl halftime show.

Laboureau could about often beryllium recovered successful his Argentinian restaurant, Fuegos LA, which he operates pinch his partner successful emotion and business, Maximilian Pizzi. But pinch years of acquisition successful accumulation creation and fashion, he precocious recovered himself dreaming up the wrong of Bad Bunny’s casita, a group portion antecedently seen only from the exterior during the Grammy Award-winning rapper and singer’s “No Me Quiero Ir De Aqui” residency successful Puerto Rico.

During the Super Bowl halftime show, the casita made an quality again, and this time, the world would spot its interior for the first time.

Laboureau’s rendering of the interior of Bad Bunny’s casita.

(Fuegos LA / Lucia Raiden)

“I was like, ‘This is amazing,’” Laboureau said.

Though not a shot instrumentality — he’d been raised connected Argentinian fútbol alternatively — he viewed the occupation arsenic symbolic, an emblem of the Latin organization opinionated together successful a ambiance of fearfulness marked by national migration raids and deportations.

“For a Latino — aliases I deliberation for everyone — a casita intends a temple wherever you get together pinch your family, pinch your friend, wherever emotion happens,” he said. “It’s not about the existent set, but being portion of a immense arena and showing Latinos we are here, we are not going anywhere. We are massive. We are happiness, we are passion and we are community.”

The capacity besides spotlighted different L.A. restaurateur: Villa’s Tacos’ Victor Villa, who danced down a plancha connected the field.

A friend successful accumulation had reached retired to Laboureau successful December, inquiring whether he mightiness beryllium willing successful participating successful a top-secret project. He signed a mini heap of paperwork, past learned what his occupation would entail: designing the wrong of the staged casita belonging to Bad Bunny, aliases Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.

They presented Laboureau pinch “a achromatic canvas box”: a 20-by-20-foot group featuring 3 windows and 2 doors. They constructed the faux casita astatine the Shrine Auditorium and Expo Hall, minutes from the restaurant.

The restaurateur envisioned a boilerplate abuelita’s house, which could correspond Bad Bunny’s, aliases his, aliases anyone’s. As personification raised by his grandmother, Laboureau saw the acquisition arsenic a measurement to retrieve and reconnect to his ain practice and capable the abstraction pinch “little comfy details” for illustration porcelain figurines and integrative flowers. Wanting the knickknacks to look appropriately aged, he and his squad scoured flea markets and thrift stores successful summation to prop houses.

Bad Bunny pretaped the conception wrong the casita, faux-falling done the tile and rather virtually crashing a family gathering earlier exiting to the remainder of the performance.

Laboureau, Fuegos LA co-owner and designer, left, connected group wrong the casita pinch Bad Bunny, right.

(Federico Laboureau)

Laboureau and Pizzi met successful Argentina about 17 years ago, pinch Laboureau moving successful manner and Pizzi successful the events industry. They relocated to Mexico City, past to Los Angeles 12 years agone aft shifting profession attraction toward intermezo production. While present they’ve created for Disney and Amazon, among others, and bought a location and became citizens.

But the movie manufacture crushed to a halt during the pandemic and manufacture strikes. Laboureau and Pizzi needed to pivot, and arsenic lifelong nutrient obsessives, they launched their ain institution — without having immoderate acquisition arsenic chefs.

They began Fuegos LA humbly, hand-making empanadas successful their location room and freezing them, past trading to friends. With word-of-mouth success, they rented a commercialized room 3 months later, which allowed them to grow via transportation platforms.

“We started the business pinch 2 pesos, pinch nothing,” Laboureau said. “We’d waste 2 empanadas and past pinch that money, put successful fliers. We’d waste different empanada, we’d bargain packaging. Literally it was for illustration that.”

Pop-ups and transportation improved their business, but pinch increasing interest, they needed a imperishable space. They recovered a location successful a South L.A. portion mall, took hospitality classes and expanded the paper pinch Argentinian stalwarts — and immoderate of them tinged by the world flavors of the couple’s travels. Now they root their meats from Argentina and their nutrient from section farmers markets.

They besides usage their storefront arsenic a taste hub, offering tango nights, a organization farmers market, unrecorded jazz and storytelling supper clubs. They began expanding their business to different storefronts wrong the portion mall; later this month, they scheme to unveil a caller eating room on pinch Argentine pizzas.

Fuegos LA’s occurrence has been gradually building beyond their dreams, but fixed migration sweeps and a ambiance of fear, Laboureau said that immoderate days he feels for illustration his “American dream is an American nightmare.”

But Pizzi and Laboureau tally their business pinch an ethos akin to Bad Bunny’s love-conquers-hate connection from the Super Bowl and Grammy speech: Everything tastes amended pinch love. Love, he said, is Fuegos LA’s “main recipe,” and a guiding ray during a tumultuous clip for Latin communities successful the U.S.

“I person my American passport, but it’s challenging, what my organization is going through,” Laboureau said. “In a infinitesimal erstwhile our president is declaring the charismatic connection is English, having the main show of the Super Bowl wherever somebody’s singing successful Spanish is thing historical. It was being portion of thing very powerful for my community.”

While Laboureau brought empanadas to Bad Bunny’s dressing room, he’s unsure if the megastar had a chance to effort them. But Benito — on pinch each Angelenos — has an unfastened invitation to effort them astatine Fuegos LA.

Fuegos LA is located astatine 3957 S. Western Ave., Los Angeles, and is unfastened Tuesday and Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Thursday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.