One of Mid-City’s most beloved taco counters is planning its final full-service shift. Sky’s Gourmet Tacos, the Pico Boulevard institution that helped put Black tacos on the Los Angeles map, will close its full-service restaurant on August 15, 2026, after 34 years in business. Owner Barbara “Sky” Burrell is preparing to trade her longtime storefront for a catering and ghost-kitchen model, ending a neighborhood era built on shrimp tacos and her signature “sassy” sauce, and leaving a familiar stretch of Pico without its anchor tenant for the first time in decades.
Burrell told Eater LA that “times have changed,” and said evolving city policies and rising operational costs pushed her toward the decision. According to the outlet, Sky’s marked its 34th anniversary on Pico earlier this year, and Burrell is now negotiating a new prep kitchen that will handle catering and delivery orders. Full-service dining will end on August 15, 2026, but she plans to keep Sky’s recipes in circulation through off-site production and event catering.
Sky’s Origin And Signature Dishes
Burrell opened Sky’s in 1992 as a small takeout taco stand before moving into a larger space on Pico. Over time, one item emerged as the clear headliner: a shrimp taco dipped in a sweet and tangy house sauce, then crisped on the griddle until the tortilla crackles. The Los Angeles Times credits Burrell with helping popularize Los Angeles’s Black taco tradition, a blend of Black and Mexican flavors that has grown into a distinct and celebrated thread in the city’s food culture.
From Counter To Catering
Sky’s growth over the years has not been limited to Pico. In the 2010s, Burrell branched out, opening Sky’s Gourmet Marketplace in Marina del Rey in 2016 and a Westchester outpost in 2018, while steadily building a robust catering arm that serves studios and institutions. As reported by the Los Angeles Business Journal, catering has long been a major revenue driver for Sky’s, and it now sits at the center of Burrell’s post-storefront strategy.
Regulatory Pressure And Advocacy
Burrell and other independent restaurant owners point to mounting regulations and rising costs as big reasons to reconsider brick-and-mortar operations. The Independent Hospitality Coalition advocacy page outlines ongoing efforts to update state and local rules, including campaigns to remove an outdated drinking-fountain requirement and to adjust other building and health-code mandates that coalition members say add up to significant extra expense for small restaurants.
What Fans Can Expect Next
For fans unwilling to say goodbye to their favorite shrimp taco, the news comes with a caveat. Sky’s plans to keep many staples available through catering, wholesale partners, and online sales. The restaurant’s site lists sauces, seasonings, and cheesecakes available for order, and the catering line remains open. Burrell is in talks to secure a new prep space that would power the ghost-kitchen side of the business while the Pico dining room closes on August 15, 2026, according to the restaurant’s own site at Sky’s.
The loss of Sky’s as a sit-down spot will be felt both on Pico and across Mid-City, where the restaurant has drawn neighborhood foot traffic for decades. As the Los Angeles Times has documented, Burrell’s work helped define a version of the Los Angeles taco that reflects the city’s Black and brown culinary intersections. Even without its dining room, her pivot to catering and ghost kitchens means those flavors will keep moving through the city, just from behind a different kind of counter.
