High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! El Pollo Loco is a fast-food restaurant chain and Mexican grilled chicken franchise headquartered in Costa Mesa, California. "El Pollo Loco" is Spanish for "The Crazy Chicken". Juan Francisco Ochoa started the restaurant in Guasave, Mexico, in 1975. By 1979, the chain had expanded over northern Mexico. In 1980, the first U.S. restaurant opened in Los Angeles, California. In 1983, the American restaurants in the chain were acquired by Denny's, with an agreement where the Ochoa family could operate the restaurants in Mexico. There are some holes in the history presented at the El Pollo Loco website, however. The USPTO reports that El Pollo Loco's trademark was assigned from a Humberto Galvez to the El Pollo Loco corporation in 1981. El Pollo Loco joined the former Trans World Corporation with the rest of Denny's in 1987, but was sold as the holding company got rid of all its operations other than Denny's.