King City’s outdoor food market, La Cocina, has become a regular gathering place.

Big speakers set the mood, playing a broad range of Latin music. Under this festive aura, there are about 20 food vendors across three parking lanes. While lines do form, people are keen to socialize while enjoying an extended evening after work or school. They grab a bite to eat from a variety of offerings ranging from Salvadorian pupusas to Sinaloan sushi, a Mexican-Japanese fusion, and drinks including fruit smoothies and coffee. There are treats, including raspados and churros. One vendor deals in plants and a variety of nuts, Latin spices and chilis.

Since the beginning of 2017, La Cocina – or The Kitchen – an outdoor food market with food trucks and stands, has served the community of King City from its parking lot location outside of El Mercado Los Cascabeles or “El Mercadito” and across from King City High School.

“People are not just coming on cars, they’re coming on bicycles, on foot, on skateboards and it has become la plaza, there is a sense of community,” says La Cocina coordinator and property owner of El Mercadito, Tina Lopez. “People come because it’s fresh food, less expensive and all homemade.”

Lopez (who is the mother of Monterey County Supervisor Chris Lopez) says La Cocina began after the farmers market run by the city’s chamber of commerce had to shut off part of the street. The disruption caused some frustration. In addition, “the produce part just wasn’t working.”

Food vendors came to Lopez for guidance and she found a solution. “We pulled it off the street and put it someplace safe – and it’s a family atmosphere,” she points out.

According to Lopez, La Cocina is the only outdoor food market in King City. Despite the diversity of vendors, they have become committed to the event in an unexpected way. In the summer of 2024, La Cocina became the first open-air market to become certified by the Blue Zones project in Monterey County. This means most of the vendors offer healthy, plant-based meal alternatives on their menus.

“Just about everyone was able to tweak and come up with a Blue Zones dish, just from their regular menu. One vendor does fruit with high-protein yogurt and granola and doesn’t add lechera,” Lopez says. (La lechera is a heavy, sweetened, condensed milk.)

Another vendor sells grilled Mexican sopes instead of fried, and also offers roasted sweet potatoes, Lopez points out.

Juan Valenzuela, 49, a Greenfield resident originally from Sinaloa, Mexico, has had his yellow food truck Churros Y Tacos Don Juan at La Cocina since the start of 2017, selling tacos, quesabirrias, flautas, sopes, burritos, tortas and his most popular treat, churros.

Valenzuela began working in the lettuce fields, then eventually in a bakery and a butcher shop. He was eventually able to dedicate his time to his food business.

“I started selling just churros in a food tent and then worked myself up to sell all kinds of food with the help of my wife,” he says.

One of the newest food vendors at La Cocina is 35-year-old Maria Martinez, a King City resident originally from Cabañas, El Salvador, who joined on Feb. 25 and has a pupusa stand called Pupuseria Martinez. She sells pupusas, currently at $5 each, varying from beans and cheese to revueltas that include chicharrónes and loroco, a fragrant, edible green flower bud native to Central America mixed with cheese.

The truck caught on quickly. Martinez reports selling about 70 pupusas every market day.

Many of these vendors also set up in other places throughout South County, taking the rest of the week to reach more customers with the hope to continue growing.

The county’s food truck scene has been expanding, and La Cocina is one catalyst. But brick-and-mortar businesses also participate in La Cocina. These include Castro’s Surf n Turf and El Taquero Deli, both located in King City, and Lolita’s Ice Cream, which was on Front Street in Soledad before it closed in 2025.

In all, it combines to create a regular buzz of vendors and customers.

“Sometimes it’s 8pm and people are still coming and I just [tell the vendors], keep selling,” Lopez says.

LA COCINA is open year-round from 3-8pm on Wednesdays and Fridays and has special celebrations on Dia De Los Muertos and a Christmas tree vendor in December. 815 Broadway St., King City.