Casa California

This place is awesome! I lost my wallet in their store (very expensive wallet). A few days later I received a post card from the owner stating that they had my wallet and I could go pick it up (my address was on my license). VERY kind people with integrity :)

Can someone please tell their salespeople the difference between maroon and brown??? I went in looking for a maroon outfit for a Baby Jesus and the saleswoman kept trying to sell me the brown one! The store is overpriced and the staff is pushy and rude as heck. You’re better off going to the Callejones (aka Fashion District) for your religious stuff.

Was going to give it 5 stars… But I’m so disappointed about my gingerbread man. He looked perfect, I bought him and took him home. When I removed the tag… Paint was missing and now I am so sad. I will go back in the future and hope my experience will be better.

I’ve had a love affair with Casa California for about 10 years now, if not longer. It’s my favorite store on Olvera, followed closely by Casa Bernal. I always walk away with something deeply cool and original when I visit — this time it was a calavera winged mermaid wall sculpture, a green cross, another trippy cross, and a talavera dog. Last time it was bangles and a huge tin-​and-​glass cross. The time before that it was a jaguar mask. You get the picture. This place is about as big as they come on Olvera, reasonably prices, and chock-​full of Mexican goodness.

Casa California, which is housed in a building that was a machine shop before Christine Sterling transformed Olvera Street into a Mexican marketplace fantasy (becoming the Leo Carillo Theater after that), is one of the best shops in the alley. It’s certainly one of the biggest.
Their wide open, wooden doors erupt with color as all sorts of decorations and marionettes hang on and above them.
Glass displays are loaded with rosaries and jewelry with statues of Jesus, Mary, and countless saints and gorgeous crucifixes all over the walls, and near the back there’s just shelves and cases of Dia de los Muertos and Las Posadas art. There’s dioramas and figures of fancy-​dressed skeletons along with beautiful nativity scenes. They have a large amount of Aztec art, as well.
It’s a fascinating place to walk around and browse if that’s all you’re interested in doing.