Wes Ávila, the current chef at Ka’Teen in Hollywood and former operator of Guerrilla Taco and Angry Egret Dinette, is opening his most ambitious Los Angeles restaurant on Friday, September 6. Set in West Hollywood, MXO serves steakhouse fare inspired by Monterey, Mexico. “This idea has been in my head for years and it will be something no one has ever seen in Los Angeles,” he says.

On October 21, 2014, Ávila took the stage at Pabellón M in Monterrey as part of the chef conference, Paralelo Norte, promoting northern Mexican cuisine. The chef, who founded Guerrilla Tacos in 2012 as a street cart before upgrading to a food truck in 2013, was part of a culinary movement known as Alta California cuisine. The modern Mexican American style of cooking caught the attention of chef Guillermo González of Pangea, an early practitioner of modern Mexican cuisine and a co-founder of Paralelo Norte. The subject of Ávila’s conference presentation was the fine dining taco. Corn tortillas had become the canvas for Southern California innovators like Ávila, Ray Garcia (formerly of Broken Spanish, B.S. Taquería), and Carlos Salgado (formerly of Taco Maria).

Chef Diego Hernandez, whose latest project in the Valle de Guadalupe will open soon, said Ávila’s presentation encouraged chefs in Mexico to fully embrace contemporary tacos in their restaurants. Before this, it was rare for chefs in the country to put tacos on a tasting menu, and it was four years before chef Enrique Olvera introduced his taco omakase at Pujol. Ávila found inspiration for MXO from visits to Monterrey’s steakhouses and seeing expert grillers featured at Paralelo Norte.

After closing Angry Egret Dinette, Ávila directed his energy to MXO, a co-production with restaurateur Giancarlo Paganini and SBE, who has an equity partnership with singer Marc Anthony’s company, Magnus. MXO, which means Mexican origins, will be centered around wood-fired cooking on a Santa Maria grill. And yes, there will be tacos.

MXO has 150 dining room seats wrapped around a central bar. Before MXO, the space was home to the Spanish Kitchen for a decade. The new tenants were keen to retain the existing outdoor patios with firepits. The restaurant’s design comes from Jae Omar of Jae Omar Design, a firm noted for its work on celebrity homes, including ones for Joe Jonas and Zedd.

Once seated, diners can expect whole cuts of dry-aged steak such as porterhouse, rib-eye cap, and bone-in New York steak grilled over hot embers. The show-stopping birria beef martillo uses braised wagyu beef shank and comes with marrow and consomé. It costs $275 but is large enough for a group of eight to 12 to share. Other mains include a whole spatchcocked chicken marinated in achiote and turmeric, and a seared striped sea bass paired with a tomato and cabbage salsa inspired by Mariscos Jalisco’s iconic shrimp taco.

Dishes are served with flour or hand-pressed corn tortillas made from Kernel of Truth masa along with an assortment of salsas, including salsa tatemada (fire-roasted salsa), grilled onions, chiles toreados, and guacamole. Diners will build their own tacos with meat coming off the grill.

In addition to typical steakhouse accompaniments, diners can add a lobster ceviche, a braised and seared cabbage Caesar salad, and roasted carrots and pumpkin seeds dressed in a salsa seca. Ávila was influenced by the vegetable preparations at Hermosillo’s restaurant Palominos and Monterrey’s La Nacional.

The beverage menu includes agave-focused cocktails, like the Negroni made with Dos Hombres, and a sizable wine list drawing from California’s best regions, as well as some bottles from Mexico and Burgundy.

For Ávila, who dodged health department enforcement as a street vendor, dealt with flat tires as a food truck operator, and was the unofficial plumber at Angry Egret Dinette, he’s elated that the Alta California cuisine he helped build is entering its next phase. “We are finally reaping the rewards,” says Ávila. “LA needs a Mexican steakhouse.”

MXO is located at 826 N. La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA, 90069, and is open from 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday and until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.