How The Oinkster Served Hope in the Wake of the Los Angeles Fires
In early January 2025, as multiple wildfires tore through the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Max Guerrero held his breath, unsure whether The Oinkster—the beloved “slow fast-food” restaurant his father, Andre Guerrero, opened in 2006 in the northeastern L.A. neighborhood of Eagle Rock—would survive the flames. At one point, Max and his brother Frederick, who co-own the business, headed to the restaurant office to figure out what they’d need to grab if the blaze that became known as the “Eaton fire” crept closer.
“I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like if this restaurant wasn’t here, and all of our hard work all of a sudden was erased off the face of the Earth overnight,” said Max.
photo by: Max Guerrero
Exterior of The Oinkster.
Unlike many other legacy restaurants in Los Angeles, The Oinkster—which in 2024 received a Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grant, a joint program between the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express—escaped damage. In the days that followed, it quickly transformed into a hub for relief efforts, offering not just free meals but comfort and familiarity to a shaken community. Local car clubs also rallied around the restaurant, using its spacious parking lot as a central gathering place to organize cleanup crews and distribute aid across affected neighborhoods.
Natalie Woodward, associate manager for the Backing Historic Small Restaurants program at the National Trust, said that is exactly the kind of impact the grant aims to support.
“Providing funding to these restaurants helps them survive tough times and continue as legacy businesses for future generations," said Woodward. "In a crisis, it means people have a place they know and trust—a spot where they’re welcomed by familiar faces and can grab a meal from people who truly care about their community.
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Slow Fast-Food
Andre Guerrero, a chef and restaurateur who is now retired, immigrated to California from his native Philippines in the late 1950s. He opened The Oinkster—one of several restaurants he owned and operated in Los Angeles—in Eagle Rock, the neighborhood where he raised his sons. Max and Frederick both attended Glendale High School, while members of their extended family attended the nearby Eagle Rock High School. Today, the area has a sizable Filipino population. “We have really deep ties to the community and to preserving the neighborhood,” said Max Guerrero.
The Oinkster operates out of a classic A-frame building—an increasingly rare architectural style emblematic of mid-century California fast food restaurants. It was, in fact, a former fast food spot that Andre Guerrero frequented in his youth. The Oinkster quickly built a strong following for its unique approach to "slow fast food"—elevated, house-made versions of American classics like burgers, pastrami, and Belgian-style fries. Everything is made in-house, right down to the ketchup—and The Oinkster has cultivated a loyal following because of it.
“When you've been open for this long, and you reach a point where you can be called a legacy restaurant, it goes beyond just serving food,” said Max Guerrero. ”People who have been patrons for 18 years become more like family than customers who are just buying food because you hear their stories.”
In 2024, The Oinkster was one of 50 restaurants across the country that received $50,000 Backing Historic Small Restaurants Grants. The funds allowed the Guerreros to repair the restaurant’s neon sign and repaint the entire building—critical upgrades that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.
“Being a small business, there's not always money to throw at painting the building or making all these repairs to beautify the space and make sure it looks good from the outside,” said Max. “Having that financial aid to preserve this building, which is so iconic in the neighborhood, it really helps us to serve our neighbors and to create a safe and clean space for the community.”
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The BHSR grant also allowed the Guerreros to have their parking lot repaved to repair numerous potholes, buy new tables and chairs for the patio, revamp the patio floor and redesign the landscaping with drought-tolerant native plants. All of the improvements, Max said, were made “with the goal that this restaurant will be here for another 18 years and that the next generation will have the same experience as the generation before them.”
photo by: Max Guerrero
View of the exterior spaces of The Oinkster.
photo by: Max Guerrero
View of some of the work that the BHSR grant provided at The Oinkster.
A Community Pillar
In the days after the Los Angeles fires, which scorched tens of thousands of acres across the region, destroyed some 15,000 homes and businesses and severely polluted the air, The Oinkster became a hub for one of the many grassroots cleanup efforts that sprang up around the city.
It all started when a friend of Max’s, Nick Tolosa—founder of the local Makina Driver’s Club—reached out to let him know that local truck owners from various car clubs were eager to help. They needed a place to meet, organize, and launch their relief efforts, which included heading out into hard-hit neighborhoods to assist with debris removal. Other community members—V from Squirrel Concepts, Chuy and Bubba from Timeless Autoworks (Eagle Rock Car Club), and Carter Kendall the creative director of Nomad Wheels—showed up every day coordinating the movement of trucks and making sure things ran smoothly.
The Oinkster’s parking lot, a well-known neighborhood landmark that had welcomed car club gatherings before, was an obvious choice.
“We hosted them, we fed them,” said Max Guerrero. “We had the trash container on our property so that they all had a place to come dump, and so that it was all going to the right place. They were also managing donations that were coming into the restaurant, dropping them off at donation centers. So it was a huge team effort.”
photo by: Max Guerrero
Locals gather at The Oinkster as part of the recovery efforts in Eagle Rock.
Guerrero said the restaurant also donated $500 worth of restaurant gift cards to the fire station next door and also served free meals for both first responders and evacuees who passed through their doors. He quickly lost count, but estimates that the number of burgers he distributed in those days was “in the hundreds.”
“We had a lot of friends and family who lost everything, and it is our responsibility, not only as a restaurant, but as good people and a community pillar, to be there and support these people however we can,” said Max Guerrero. “It was beautiful to see what everyone was willing to do.”
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