40-Year-Old Taco Stand Will Have to Sit Out ‘90s

Everything seemed so much easier, almost innocent, when Joe Cano got started. It was 1949--Disneyland didn’t exist, and the term fast food had yet to be coined--when a young Cano opened a small Mexican restaurant in north Anaheim, serving tacos, tostadas and burritos to anyone with a few dimes to spend on a hot meal.

He called it the La Palma Drive-In Restaurant (his patrons dubbed it the “Bean Hut” in reference to the spicy beans he served), and for the next 40 years, Cano’s little taco stand stood amid a sea of development and change.

On Saturday, the long era of the La Palma Drive-In came to a close, as Cano helped clear the restaurant of its last furnishings. The old Bean Hut is going the way of the rest of Orange County and is being upgraded; it will become a dental office.

Peak of Popularity

At its peak of popularity in the late 1950s and 1960s, Cano said, the restaurant catered to as many as 1,000 high school kids on weekend nights. People got married there, danced there and ogled the celebrities who stopped by for a quick burrito.

“The Righteous Brothers used to come around, and every Friday night you’d see Marlon Brando here,” said Cano, 62. “He’d come by after picking up his son from the St. Catherine’s military school. We never bothered him. But he was a regular.”

With success, the little taco stand at 940 N. Anaheim Blvd. near La Palma expanded, eventually added curb service, a restaurant and a piano bar.

Business Was Better

“I operated it for 33 years and then leased it out,” Cano said. “It didn’t do so well after that. But we used to have a big business. People from all over would come there. The No. 4 plate was our best seller. Let’s see, that was a combination plate of a taco, tostada and enchilada.”

Suzette Cano, Cano’s niece, said she remembers it having “a kind of ‘Happy Days’ atmosphere. Kids would sneak out of their houses to come down to see everyone. There would be car clubs there, people from Long Beach and all over. It’s kind of sad to see it go.”

For Joe Cano, the end did not come without a dose of nostalgia.

“Right now,” he said, “I feel like crying. I actually spent more than half of my life there.”

Cano has no connection with the large Cano’s Restaurant in Newport Beach, he said.