What Is a Mission-Style Burrito? Maybe … a Myth

Read a transcript of this episode

If there is any meal that is universally loved, burritos would surely be a top contender. A combination of beans, rice and marinated, slowly cooked meat provide a hearty foundation. Add some toppings that run the gamut — from pico de gallo to salsa, from cheese to sour cream, and, of course, veggies — and a warm flour tortilla for a perfectly wrapped meal.

Because of the simple formula, burritos are ever-evolving and are perfectly positioned for a number of fusion innovations like the Sushirrito or the Afghan burrito.

Over the years, a slew of Bay Curious listeners have asked about burritos, usually some form of these two questions: “Were burritos invented in San Francisco?” and “What exactly is a ‘Mission-style’ burrito?”

Origins of a legend

Many Americans have been told that the burrito was created here in the United States, but others say that burritos are a Mexican creation through and through.

“A lot of people are claiming that it’s American and a lot of people do not know that Sonora [does] not have corn tortillas,” said Francisco Hernandez, founder of El Metate, a Mission District taqueria on Bryant and 22nd Street. “They only have flour tortillas, so the burrito originally was created in Sonora.”

One theory for how burritos came about is that the people of Sonora, a northern Mexican state that borders Arizona and New Mexico, used flour tortillas, because they traveled better on donkeys, called “burros” in Spanish. This might also be how the burrito, which literally translates to “little donkey,” got its name.

Some claim that the burrito dates back even further to the Mayan empire when people stuffed veggies, and sometimes meat, into corn tortillas. Though some Mayan cuisine has surely influenced burritos, like cochinita pibil, modern burritos are famously made with flour tortillas. Another popular theory is that the modern-day burrito got its start after Spanish colonization in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, another northern Mexican state.

“Any origin story when it comes to Mexican food, very few of them are indisputable,” said Gustavo Arellano, a Los Angeles Times columnist and author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.

Born in San Francisco, eaten everywhere

Some time after the burrito came to San Francisco, it grew in size and, subsequently, in popularity. These large, foil-wrapped burritos came to be marketed as “Mission-style” burritos at some restaurants.

As for who first created a “Mission-style” burrito, the origin is, unsurprisingly, disputed. La Cumbre and El Faro, two long-standing taquerias in San Francisco’s Mission District, are often brought up as the creators.

“When you think of a burrito, you think humongous, humongous [wrapped] in foil,” Arellano exclaimed. “And you get to customize it to your own taste, and you say, ‘Oh, I can’t eat it. It’s too much.’ And then you eat it. You’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so full,’ but you kind of don’t regret it. And then you do it again. What Americans now consider to be a burrito is the ‘Mission-style’ burrito.”

Arellano says the fast-casual food chain Chipotle spread this style of burrito around the U.S. in the mid-1990s. Chipotle’s founder modeled his business after the taquerias he used to frequent when he lived in San Francisco, bringing so-called “Mission-style” to the rest of the country.

Miguel Jara, founder of La Taqueria which celebrated 50 years in the Mission this year, remembers getting burritos in the 1960s from a woman named Micaela Duran, who founded La Cumbre alongside her husband, Raul Duran.

“Before me, there was a taco place out here, it’s called La Cumbre, and [it] had a meat market,” Jara said. “Miki was a real wonderful woman. She always called me ‘mijo’ (my son) and stuff like that when I saw her.”

Jara said Duran is credited with combining two flour tortillas to create an extra large burrito for hungry firemen who would come into the restaurant, and Hernandez, El Metate’s founder, echoed the same story.

“Whether that’s true or not, I have no idea,” Jara said.

The sturdy Mission burrito falls apart

But whether or not the Mission-style burrito truly started in San Francisco might be a moot point because the very people Bay Curious spoke to about its origin story find its existence a little dubious.

“[What] do you mean [by] a Mission-style burrito?” Hernandez heartily chuckled.

Still laughing, Hernandez explained that even though many customers and media outlets regard El Metate’s burritos as “Mission-style,” he’s against the moniker because he simply makes burritos in the way that he traditionally would in Guanajuato, Mexico.

The same is true for Jara, and even though La Taqueria’s burritos lack rice, the restaurant is still regarded as one of the pioneers for the Mission burrito.

Even so, Jara said, “I don’t know what’s a Mission-style burrito.”

These two taqueria titans don’t stand alone in this sentiment. Cecilia Peña-Govea, more commonly known as the artist La Doña, moonlights as the chief burrito reviewer for SF Gate.

“Does the Mission-style burrito exist? I mean, maybe,” she said. “As somebody who grew up enduring a lot of the violences of displacement and gentrification, I see the way in which cultural assets are packaged and commoditized.”

Peña-Govea remarks that “Mission-style” seems to be more of a term for outsiders, rather than for the people who make or grew up eating the food.

“I think you just gotta keep an eye on who is marketing something as authentic or inauthentic,” she said.

The problem definitely isn’t the food, but the term. If “Mission style” was a tortilla itself, it might deteriorate, collapse under the sauciness of an idea that in one instance is too simple and too amorphous to contain.

Whatever the case, burritos — and maybe especially those that are falling apart — taste good, they can make you feel good, and like Arellano said, you’re always going to keep going back for more.

Episode Transcript

This is a computer-generated transcript. While our team has reviewed it, there may be errors.

Olivia Allen-Price: Hey everyone. I’m Olivia Allen-Price. This is the Bay Curious podcast where we answer listener questions about the San Francisco Bay Area. I want to start off this week’s episode with an ice breaker.

[music] 

Olivia: If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?  

Sarah: Okay, I’m just going to say the first thought. Best thought. And that would be nachos.  

Josh: It would be really, really good bread and butter. That’s like, there’s no better food than that.  

Eric: I would love to eat potstickers for the rest of my life because you get the carbs which is on the outside, and then you get your veggies and meat or whatever you want in the filling so you can be creative.  

Oscar: Fried chicken.  

Olivia: And why? Fried chicken. What is it about it?  

Oscar: Oh, I [beep] love fried chicken. [laugh] So good!

Nik: Pasta because I’m Italian and it’s in my blood. My blood is marinara and mozzarella.  

Alex: This is probably one of the hardest questions I’ve ever been asked in my life. [laughs then pauses] I’m going to go with burritos. I’ve never found myself, like, opposed to eating a burrito. Or if anybody asked me to go out and get any of them. So yeah.  

Olivia: Yeah. You’re never like, not in the mood for a burrito, right? 

Alex: Yeah.  

Olivia Allen-Price: Those are the voices of some of my colleagues at KQED. As for me, it’s a burrito. Obviously! I’m actually sort of shocked more people didn’t give that answer. Burritos have that perfect combination of carbs, protein and veggies, all wrapped up in a portable package… oohh yeah! Delicious.

Now I know a lot of YOU love burritos too because over the years you’ve sent in a lot of questions about them. Most often, questions asking about the history of the burrito. Like: Was the burrito invented in San Francisco? And what exactly is a Mission-style burrito?

To start in on some answers, we went to an expert…

Gustavo Arellano: My name is Gustavo Arellano. I’m a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and also author of the book, Taco U.S.A. How Mexican Food Conquered America.

Olivia Allen-Price: Arellano is also a burrito historian, a job that I really wish I had known was an option when I was choosing a career…

Gustavo Arellano: Any origin story when it comes to Mexican food, very few of them [laugh] are indisputable. 

Olivia Allen-Price: It’s tough to nail down exactly where burritos truly come from. … but what we do know is that the most popular style of burrito in America has roots that run through San Francisco.

Gustavo Arellano: When you think of a burrito, you think humongous, humongous in a foil. And you get to customize it to your own tastes and you say, “Oh I can’t eat it. It’s too much.” And then you eat it. “You’re like, Oh, my God, I’m so full,” but you kind of don’t regret it. And then you do it again. 

So, what took over what Americans now consider to be a burrito is the “Mission-style” burrito. And that’s all because of Chipotle spreading around in the mid-1990s. 

Olivia Allen-Price: I’ll be honest, it feels like blasphemy to even utter the name “Chipotle” in a Bay Curious episode about burritos, but it’s true — the chain played a part in popularizing the style of burritos that have taken over the U.S.

The founder of Chipotle used to live in San Francisco and when he decided to open a burrito chain in Colorado, he modeled his business off the taquerias he knew and loved here.

[Music]

Gustavo Arellano: So he got that exact same, what I call the stations of the burrito, the different stations really to customize your burrito. He replicated that, spread it around the country because, a big Mission-style burrito — it’s perfect college late night food. 

Olivia Allen-Price: But — here’s a hot take — what if we told you that the Mission-style burrito, America’s most popular burrito, doesn’t really exist?

Francisco Hernandez: What do you mean about “Mission style?” [laughs] 

Olivia Allen-Price: Today on the show, we’re visiting some of the most legendary taquerias in San Francisco to learn about the history of burritos in this town from the people who have dedicated their lives to making them. We’ll get to it right after this…

[BREAK] 

Olivia Allen-Price: KQED podcasts engagement producer César Saldaña went to explore the neighborhood where the legend of this popular food is centered… 

César Saldaña: Mission-style burritos are kind of this amorphous thing that no one really knows how to describe except to say that they’re big and wrapped in foil. And of course, you can find them in San Francisco’s Mission District. 

So, I start out at one of the oldest taqueria’s in the Mission, aptly named La Taqueria, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. It’s also one of the most well known taqueria’s in the neighborhood and has even won a James Beard award. 

[AMBI: Sounds of the busy restaurant outside] 

César Saldaña: The façade of the building is modeled to look kind of like an old Mission: white stucco with two large archways and brickwork instead of sidewalk. When I visited around lunchtime on a recent Friday, the restaurant was packed and the line of people waiting to order extended down the block. La Taqueria is still owned and run by its original founder, 82-year-old Miguel Jara. When I got there, he was taking orders and handing roses to his customers, so I asked him what that was about. 

Miguel Jara: Many years ago. This girl brought me a dozen of flowers. And I can’t take them home because my wife is going to get pissed off. Right? So I started giving them to people. 

César Saldaña: Miguel has a big smile and a bigger personality, and when he’s in the restaurant he spends a lot of time interacting with his customers. He’s originally from Tijuana, the Mexican city that borders San Diego, and he has a unique charm that … if you’re familiar with Tijuana … you know can only come from there. 

Miguel Jara: Y en Tijuana, tienen unos tacos bien ricos. En todos lados! Cualquier comida que comes en Tijuana está sabrosa. So you understand all that? 

César Saldaña: Miguel says that the tacos in Tijuana are delicious, and the city he grew up in shaped how he thinks about food, and how he cooks. 

And you can taste it in La Taqueria’s menu.

And it’s not just the food that he’s put his heart into. Miguel has decided and shaped the feel of the entire restaurant. There are lots of personal touches. The bottles of green salsa that sit on every table in the restaurant are his mother’s recipe which hasn’t changed since La Taqueria opened. But over 50 years, some things have changed, including the prices…

César Saldaña: How much was a burrito back then when you first opened?  

Miguel Jara: $0.90. The taco was $0.60. Quesadillas $0.25, sodas were $0.25. 

César Saldaña: Alright so inflation, [both laugh] after 50 years!

César Saldaña: But that’s not all, he says that the menu has adapted, depending on what his customers have asked for. 

Miguel Jara: Then somebody comes over and says, “What’s that?” Oh, that’s a quesadilla. He says, “Can you put meat on it?” Well I don’t see why not. And then somebody else comes over and says, “Hey, could you make that a little crispy?” Well, let’s try it! So they made their little menu, you know. 

César Saldaña: The food is obviously good. But don’t just take my word for it. A couple of his customers who happened to be grabbing lunch came up to us to say goodbye to Miguel. 

A mother and daughter duo, they excitedly told me that they’d been eating at La Taqueria for 47 years.

[background conversation in Spanish]

César Saldaña: Maria Delia Melgar is 96. I asked her if she remembers when she first started coming to La Taqueria

Maria Delia Melgar: Oooh desde que nació.

César Saldaña: She says she’s been coming since the place first opened.

César Saldaña: ¿Que comida le gusta aquí en el restaurante?  

Maria Delia Melgar: Toda la comida. Carne asada. 

Daughter: Ella predicaba y se traía a toda la gente aquí a comer.  

César Saldaña: Maria Delia’s daughter says her mom loves dining with friends and family at La Taqueria. 

And she says that she used to go to a place like this in El Salvador, where she grew up.

Maria Delia: Yo tuve uno alla en El Salvador, este mismo negocio aprendía ser yo a tanta clientes.  

César Saldaña: And even though she may be Salvadoran, she says she loves Mexican food.

Maria Delia: Después de la salvadoreña, la mexicana. Si.

César Saldaña: Its loyal customer base is one of the main reasons La Taqueria has been able to stay open for half a century. 

It might also help that in article after article, it’s named as one of the best places to get a quote-unquote “Mission-style” burrito. Although notably, unlike most other Mission taquerias, their burritos don’t include rice. 

But what does Miguel himself think about Mission-style burritos?

Miguel Jara: I don’t know what’s a Mission-style burrito. 

César Saldaña: Miguel thinks a burrito is just a burrito, whatever you put in it. But there is a sort of legend about the origins of the Mission-style burrito…

Miguel Jara:  Before me there was a taco place out here, it’s called La Cumbre. Raul was the owner. And he had a meat market. Miki was a real wonderful woman. She always called me “mijo” and stuff like that when I saw her. 

César Saldaña: Miguel says Miki cooked great food, and the story goes that the firefighters from the nearby station would come in extra hungry. So she put two flour  tortillas together, filled them with rice, beans, and meat, and that’s where the Mission burrito started.

Miguel Jara: Whether that’s true or not. I have no idea. 

César Saldaña: As for the often repeated story that burritos were originally invented in the States, and not Mexico… 

Miguel Jara: in Mexico, they did burritos a long time ago. I can tell you it was 1957, ’58 — Boliches Corona. It was on the main street and they used to have burritos there.

César Saldaña: I heard a similar thing from another Mission District restaurateur. 

Francisco Hernandez:  A lot of people are claiming that it’s American and it’s not. Because a lot of people do not know that Sonora do not have corn tortillas. They only have flour tortillas. So the burrito originally was created and done in Sonora.

César Saldaña: Francisco Hernandez owns El Metate, another longtime Mission taqueria on Bryant and 22nd Street. He also mentioned La Cumbre and the meat market and that same woman, Miki, who originally joined two flour tortillas together to make huge burritos … before La Taqueria and El Metate even opened. 

So, if the Mission-style burrito exists, we’ve got two taqueria founders claiming the same story. And it definitely wasn’t Chipotle that created them. But when I asked about Mission-style burritos Francisco just sort of chuckled. 

Francisco Hernandez: Yes. What you mean Mission-style? [laughs]

César Saldaña:  So, if El Metate doesn’t make “Mission-style burritos,” what do they make?

Francisco Hernandez: I’m very picky because I know what I want and I know what I want to present to my people. My customers. My only goal is fresh Mexican cuisine, fresh rice, fresh beans, fresh meat. 

César Saldaña: Francisco credits his success to the quality of his food, not any sort of moniker.

At the end of the day, burritos are an ever-evolving cuisine, especially here in the Bay. and at El Metate, one of their most popular burritos is even made with mole…  

A traditional Mexican sauce that’s a meal on its own, made with a laundry list of ingredients including chilis, nuts, chocolate, veggies, and spices. It’s a labor of love that everyone does a bit differently … and it’s one of my favorite comfort foods.

Although I’ve never seen it incorporated into a burrito before!

The day that I visited the restaurant, I had lunch with Cecilia Peña-Govea, aka the singer La Doña, aka chief burrito reviewer for SF Gate. 

Cecilia Peña-Govea: I grew up coming here. I came here when it first opened because our friend Duffy, who lives right here, she started coming here as soon as the place opened.

César Saldaña: We decided to try the popular mole burrito and we even went back into the kitchen to learn how to make it. 

[Sounds of a Kitchen/cooking Ambi]

César Saldaña: So we meet Rosendo, who’s been cooking for El Metate for 20 years.

Rosendo: Este es el pollo asado.

Cecilia Peña-Govea: Y el mole — ¿Que tiene el mole? 

Rosendo: El Mole tiene el tres chiles: el chile de california, tiene chile negro, tiene chile ancho. 

César Saldaña: Rosendo adds chicken, beans, and rice into the burrito and adds some toppings before drenching the whole thing in mole and wrapping it up in foil. 

[sounds of scooping then wrapping in foil]

César Saldaña: And when Cecilia asks if this burrito is made in a Mission-style way…

Cecilia Peña-Govea: Y este es de estilo San Francisiense o…?

Rosendo: Mm … nosotros somos del estado Guanajuato. 

Cecilia Peña-Govea: Asi lo hacen alli? 

Rosendo: Si, tradicionalmente allá. 

César Saldaña: He’s making it the same way Francisco would back in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

And finally, Rosendo gave us the burrito, and Cecilia and I sat down in El Metate’s brightly colored dining room and dug in.

[foil noises, eating] 

César Saldaña: Ok it’s good. It’s really really good. 

Cecilia Peña-Gova: Mm hmm, ok. This is a nice round and salty mole. In this case, they have you can tell that they obviously have gotten a good fry on the spices before they integrate all the ingredients. But yeah, it’s bomb.  

César Saldaña: And it should come as no surprise that it’s so good …because Francisco’s mother is behind the recipe.

Francisco Hernandez: Well, my mom’s Mole was never sweet. She said that the pepper had to be flavorful, but not sweet. My version of the mole It has a little bit of chocolate. It has the spices that she would use. It has garlic and onions. It’s something that is so popular that if we don’t have it, People ask for it. And it’s not on the menu. It’s a special.

César Saldaña: You heard it here first. The mole burrito is a secret menu item for those in the know … and now, you’re in the know. Francisco’s chicken mole burrito was definitely a first for me. 

These sorts of innovations attract new customers and keep people coming back. And like Miguel mentioned, his customers have even come up with some new inventions for La Taqueria. 

So, at this point in the story, we’ve got two titans of burritos in the Mission who don’t know what a “Mission-style burrito” is … the idea of its existence breaks down even further when we consider culture. 

So, after finishing our mole burritos, Cecilia and I headed over to KQED studios to dive even deeper.  

Cecilia Peña-Govea: Does the Mission-style burrito exist? Mm. I mean, maybe. But I think it looks different for everybody. You know? 

César Saldaña: What do you mean by that?

Cecilia Peña-Govea: It’s not like my brain is confused and I’m like, “What is it?” It’s more of that, like, as somebody who grew up enduring a lot of the violences of displacement and gentrification, I see the way in which cultural assets are packaged and commoditized. I don’t know, I don’t like it. 

César Saldaña: Does it make you feel like Mission-style burritos are a creation that maybe comes from the neighborhood and culture but isn’t for the neighborhood and culture?

Cecilia Peña-Govea: I think that anything that’s going to be like, this is the Mission style, blah, blah, blah, I automatically roll my eyes. I think that like a lot of us just become very kind of sketched out when there is kind of that vibe of like asking us to kind of identify and package any cultural asset or facet of cultural production. 

César Saldaña: Like you’re being observed? 

Cecilia Peña-Govea: Yeah. It’s just so like, I don’t know, like, I don’t know, what am I going to tell you? 

César Saldaña: And it kind of sounds like you’re picking up on the authenticity — and I know that’s a loaded word — but, like, the authenticity of the term itself and not the food. Like, maybe it doesn’t fit because it’s made to market something that has sort of always existed and always been here.

Cecilia Peña-Govea: I think authenticity is kind of like a marketing tool. So I think you just gotta keep an eye on who is marketing something as authentic or inauthentic. So like, why are we calling it authentic and what does this serve? 

[music]

César Saldaña: I realize that no one really has a problem with Mission-style burritos. It’s the term itself that people take issue with because it feels like branding for something that has always existed and is constantly evolving. It seems like the term is trying to be bigger than the type of burrito it’s used to identify, something too broad with its defining feature being its size. And if you’re from the Mission, or from the Bay in general, you may have never even used the term “Mission-style burrito” because … it’s just a burrito.

And whether or not they originated with taquerias in the city, what we know for sure is that the burritos that people associate with the Mission are big, tightly wrapped in foil, and arguably one of the best comfort foods you can get. 

As Gustavo Arellano said earlier, they taste good, they can make you feel good, and you’re always going to keep going back for more.

Olivia Allen-Price: Today’s episode was reported by César Saldana and produced by Amanda Font. Kelly O’Mara provided the interview tape with Gustavo Arellano. The voices of my KQED colleagues you heard at the top of the episode belong to…

Sarah: Sarah Augusta

Josh:  Josh Cassidy

Eric: Eric Dahn

Oscar: Oscar Palma

Nik: Nik Altenburg

Alex: Alex Tran

Olivia Allen-Price: Kelly O’Mara first got the ball rolling on this story in our monthly Bay Curious newsletter a few months back. That’s a place where we answer even more listener questions, share our monthly voting round, keep you posted about upcoming events and more. Head to BayCurious.org/newsletter to subscribe! 

Bay Curious is made in San Francisco at member-supported KQED. The team behind it includes Amanda Font, Christopher Beale, and me, Olivia-Allen Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Cesar Saldana, Maha Sanad, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

Thanks so much for listening!  I’ll see you next week!