Mission burrito

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Mission burrito

A Mission burrito (also known as a San Francisco burrito or a Mission-style burrito) is a type of burrito that first became popular during the 1960s in the Mission District of San Francisco, California. It is distinguished from other burritos by its large size and inclusion of extra rice and other ingredients.[1] A key method to the burritos' construction is to steam the wheat flour tortilla to increase its flexibility prior to adding the other ingredients,[2] although that is not a requirement and burritos may be grilled instead. It has been referred to as one of three major styles of burritos in the United States, following the earlier, simple burrito consisting of beans, rice, and meat. It precedes the California burrito, which developed in the 1980s and contains cheese and potatoes.[3]

Many taquerías in the Mission and greater San Francisco Bay Area specialize in Mission burritos. It is typically a large flour tortilla that is wrapped and folded around a variety of ingredients, served in a piece of aluminum foil. A food critic for the San Francisco Chronicle counted hundreds of taquerias in the Bay Area, and noted that the question of which taqueria makes the best burrito can "encourage fierce loyalty and ferocious debate".[4][5] New York-based writer Calvin Trillin said that the burrito in San Francisco "has been refined and embellished in much the same way that the pizza has been refined and embellished in Chicago."[1] Since its commercial availability began in the 1960s, the style has spread widely throughout the United States and Canada.


La Cumbre is credited as the first to sell the San Francisco style burrito in 1972.[6]

Long-time residents of the Mission District trace the origins of the Mission burrito back to the 1960s. The owners of "La Cumbre" Taqueria near Valencia and 16th have been credited as the first taqueria to sell this style of burrito.[7] The creation of the style is credited to Raul and Michaela Duran who sold burritos from their meat market, which, in 1972, they converted into the La Cumbre Taqueria. They date the birth of the San Francisco burrito to September 29, 1969.[8]


However, like most such claims, this is debated by others who claim to remember similar burritos from earlier in the decade. If the claims of the owner of "El Faro" are true, the first San Francisco burrito was sold September 26, 1961 to a group of San Francisco firefighters, using two 6-inch tortillas in place of what later became the large single tortilla.[9] The fact that he did not have—and had not previously considered the need for—larger tortillas suggests that the birth of the Mission burrito as we now know it did not come earlier than that time. Yet the Mission burrito does have historical forebears in burritos made elsewhere. Some assert that the original San Francisco burritos were directly inspired by burritos brought by California Central Valley farmworkers into the fields, then reproduced in the city. One restaurant consultant remembered his teen years in the fields this way:


— Peter Garin, quoted in SF Weekly, 1993[9]

Other burrito researchers trace the burrito's ancestry even further back to miners of the 19th century.[8] The first printed references to burritos came in the 1930s; in the 1950s and 1960s, versions of the burrito spread through the American Southwest and beyond.[11]


Culture and politics[edit]


During the dot-com boom, the Mission District saw rapid gentrification, with lower paid workers forced out of the area by increasing rents. One anti-gentrification activist denounced the way that chain restaurants like Green Burrito were taking over the area, selling more expensive, "Anglo" versions of the burrito.[12]


Spread and influence[edit]

Though an authentic mission burrito is made in San Francisco's Mission District at family owned Mexican restaurants called "taquerias", Chipotle Mexican Grill, Qdoba Mexican Grill, Panchero's Mexican Grill, Freebirds World Burrito, Barberitos, and Taco del Mar are large national chains in North America that arguably offer versions of a San Francisco style burrito.[citation needed] Chipotle was started by a chef who directly acknowledges the inspiration of Mission taquerias.[13][14] The New York City–based restaurant chain BurritoVille, which existed from 1992 to 2008, specialized in San Francisco–style burritos. Atlanta was home to one of the first San Francisco–style burrito restaurants on the East Coast, called Tortillas, from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s.


John Krich, "San Francisco's Real Mission".[15]


Burritos made in the San Francisco style can be found in other cities across the United States.[14]

A small chain of establishments have been appearing in the UK under the name "Mission Burrito" selling Mission-style burritos in Oxford, Reading, and Bristol.[18] M4 Burritos, with two Montreal locations, also claims to serve Mission-inspired fare.


Plate with foil-wrapped burrito, chips and salsa
Mission burrito as served wrapped in foil, with chips and salsa


Eating style[edit]



  2. ^ Parrish, Marlene (18 May 2007). "The making of a burrito". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 22 January 2016. 
  5. ^ Starkey, Joe (August 20, 2014). "The 12 Best Mission Burritos, as Chosen by People on Fixies", Thrillist. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  7. ^ "SFGate Fun Food Facts". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2011-10-14. Raul and Michaela Duran are credited with the creation of the Mission-style burrito in the late 1960s. In 1972, they changed their meat market to a taqueria, which was rare at the time, and La Cumbre was born. They began serving assembly-line burritos, allowing diners to choose each element individually, a practice that is ubiquitous in the neighborhood today. 
  9. ^ a b c d Roemer, John (1993). "Cylindrical God". SF Weekly, reprinted at Burritophile. Archived from the original on 2006-11-11. Retrieved 2007-04-27. 
  15. ^ Krich, John (1989-10-01). "San Francisco's Real Mission". Travel. The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-18. 
  16. ^ Wolfson, John (2005-02-01). "The Burrito War". Boston Magazine. Retrieved 2015-07-15. 
  18. ^ "Mission Burrito". missionburrito.co.uk. Retrieved 8 November 2015. 
  19. ^ Pilcher, J. M. (2012). Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican Food. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199740062. p. 46.

Further reading[edit]