Neighborhood Watch - Highland Park's York Boulevard

It used to be that dining on York Boulevard in Highland Park was exclusively about eating tacos. Times are changing, though, and many varied cafés, restaurants and bars now dot the street, covering you from morning to night. 

Morning: There's no better place in Highland Park to sit and linger over a cup of coffee (or cascara) than the nearly four-year-old Café de Leche. Next door, at the newly opened Highland Café, you can eat something more substantial, including Mexican-influenced breakfast dishes like chilaquiles, the fried tortillas doused in a smoldering chile sauce.

Noon: Taco tables line York Boulevard at night, but during the daytime the destination for Mexican food is a permanent restaurant, Huarache Azteca Restaurante. The fried lengths of masa from which the restaurant takes its name are the star; the iteration scattered with carne asada ($2.50) is our favorite.

Night: Fusion Burgers brought the Umami Burger aesthetic to York in April. The pork burger, in deference to the neighborhood, is spiced like the trompo of al pastor you might find on the street, and topped with a round of grilled pineapple. And for dessert? Some brown-bread ice cream from Scoops, which debuted its Eastern outpost last month.