Tacos El Cabezon, the once-buzzy local taqueria whose owner briefly went missing earlier this year, has gone dark again.
El Cabezon’s downtown storefront on Fulton Street, the restaurant’s only location in Fresno after their food truck on Shaw and Maroa was shut down, has been closed for weeks, possibly longer, according to neighbors in the area.
A photo shared by a Fresnoland reader, supposedly taken about two weeks ago, showed “A 60 Day Notice to Quit” order posted to Tacos El Cabezon’s store front at 1234 Fulton Street. The notice names Arias, cites a lease signed February 17, 2026, and says, in part, “You have NOT paid rents for August 2026 and September 2026 and the premise is NO longer open for business. We tried to contact you by phone and email many times.”
It goes on to say that the tenancy is terminated “upon 60 says following the posting date and service of this notice.”
The listed landlord declined to comment.
There was no sign on the door as of Monday afternoon, and no clues as to whether Tacos El Cabezon is still in business or when it might return. The brand’s last social media post is dated Aug. 9. The business has not responded to requests for comment, as of this writing.
Tacos El Cabezon made a big splash when it opened in late 2025. Owner Armando Arias Jr., the restaurant’s self-styled “big head” namesake and model for its cartoon logo, promised Estilo cachanilla (Mexicali style) tacos, with a side of religion.
“God and tacos” was how the Bell Gardens/LA native described his business plan to The Fresno Bee, a slogan that was also painted on his restaurant’s wall. A Bible verse still graces the restaurant’s door at the Fulton Street location – Psalms 119:30. (“I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I have set my heart on your laws.”)
Trouble followed soon after, when his Shaw and Maroa truck shut down in late February or March, when the county issued a cease and desist order over permitting and traffic issues. His McKinley and Fruit location was reportedly evicted for unpaid rent after four months without ever opening. He had other citations, including one in January for “cooking meat without a permit in an alley behind the [McKinley] location.”
A court judgment in the amount of $507,058.48, as first reported by The Bee, was also discovered in April, in connection to a case in Ohio over a trucking company Arias had once run. The judgment was reportedly over an unpaid loan.
Amidst the reports of turmoil in his restaurants and businesses in April, Arias went missing for a few days, before eventually being located by the police. Police declined to offer specifics at the time, though Arias announced in an Instagram post after resurfacing that he had been in the hospital.
“I was hospitalized at Fresno Community since last Wednesday, but by the grace of God I was released today. I’m sorry if anyone thought I was missing – I wasn’t. I just needed some time to recover,” Arias wrote online in April. “To those who spoke good about me and even those who spoke bad, I still send love to you all. God bless everyone.”
Around the same time, Arias posted a GoFundMe campaign on his social media, with The Bee reporting it had raised $2,400 before abruptly going dark.
In the wake of all the turmoil, Tacos El Cabezon seemed to be back to business as usual by May.
Now, his restaurant seems to be closed again. Neighbors couldn’t remember the last time it had been open.
“One month, maybe two?” said a stylist at the beauty salon next door. Another neighbor recalled it similarly.
Tacos El Cabezon had initially opened to long lines (at its Shaw and Maroa location) and rave reviews, with customers praising its USDA Prime meat, cooked Mexicali style, over mesquite wood charcoal and served on homemade corn and flour tortillas.
Whether those reviews were actually genuine or simply the result of a robust social media operation is harder to say. The earliest Fresno Bee profile, in October 2025, noted the truck’s long lines (can’t fake those) but also its “strong social media presence.”
Then more negative reviews began to pour in. The restaurant’s two Yelp pages are both unusually polarized, with five star and one star reviews tending to dominate. A lengthy GV Wire exposé about “alarming health hazards” followed, in December 2025.
“A closer look at that restaurant by Fresno County health inspectors exposed numerous health hazards, including meats and veggies stored overnight unrefrigerated, and ‘excessive’ flies. They also weren’t properly permitted or outfitted for the outdoor cooking,” said the article, quoting a health department report.
The Shaw and Maroa location had shut down by last spring, just when El Cabezon was opening its downtown location on Fulton Street. It seemed that the restaurant had gone from social media sensation – the City of Fresno had even promoted Tacos El Cabezon on social media from their official account – to a target of controversy, in the space of a few months.
The closure of Tacos El Cabezon’s downtown location would seem to be the capper on an unusually dramatic rise-and-fall story. Though at this stage, it remains to be seen what Arias Jr.’s plans are going forward.
Fresnoland Food attempted to reach Arias Jr. for this story, but have yet to hear back.
This story was edited after initial publication to include additional facts.
