OUR STORY

You may have heard of our restaurant, Mexicali . If you haven't, READ ON…

The idea is simple: Recreate an authentic San Francisco-style taqueria in Manila for Filipinos to find out about a California staple and for ex-Californians who miss this type of food to have a place to go. At Mexicali the emphasis is on the burritos, San Francisco style. We've never been to Mexico so we don't know what authentic Mex is. We do know that the Bay Area burritos are terrific, and are particularly intrigued by the way San Francisco restaurants reflect the incredible demographic changes that our favorite “city by the bay” is going through.

Sorry, New York . But in 1993 San Francisco was the greatest ethnic dining city on earth. Period. You want Palestinian stuffed lamb's spleen? They've got it. Chinese boned duck webs? No problem. Bolivian-Peruvian peanut sauce potatoes? Si, señor. If you've got the stomach for it, you can eat pig's head on Stockton St. , Lamb's head on Green St. , and Calf's head in tacos on 24 th Street .

Here's another bit of trivia. San Francisco today is only 45 percent white, then 45 percent Asian and 10 percent others (Hispanic, Black etc.). The point is if you're planning to open an ethnic restaurant, it better be excellent or you can forget the whole enchilada . San Franciscans are a spoiled lot, restaurant-wise.

With this in mind, we set out to find the best taquerias in San Francisco in order to study them and try to replicate the concept in Manila .We had already determined that there was nothing like this in the Philippines . The question for us then was whether or not the Filipinos were ready for it.

So, two years and several trips later and throwing caution to the wind, we went ahead and sat down to develop the menu. The menu we came up with, aside from a few modifications, is very close to a typical S.F. taqueria menu board. This includes: several different types of burritos (grilled steak, barbecue chicken, barbecue pork, carnitas (roast pork), ground beef, grilled shrimp, and chimichangas); enchiladas ( chicken , beef or cheese); tacos (beef, barbecue chicken or grilled vegetables ); chili con carne; totopos (tortilla chips) with guacamole, jalapeno cheese sauce, refried beans and so on. Three months later, to cater to a healthier Filipino, we started offering vegetarian meals (such as grilled vegetable burritos) without losing the California Mexican flavor. Surprisingly, even meat lovers enjoyed this tasty variation.

We researched the recipes for many of these items in San Francisco, often conferring with Hispanic cooks. One of the things we found out is that you cannot put up a restaurant based on recipes from cookbooks. Understanding the cuisine, as well as the culture from which a particular cuisine is derived is essential.

After recipe development, we put our team together. The next step was to find a place. This proved to be easy since Ayala Center had space available.

We did a lot of taste testing at the house, inviting all our friends and listening to their criticism. Unfortunately, the accompanying tequila didn't exactly do wonders for their objectivity.

So it was with a general lack of confidence that we entered the Ayala offices for our final taste test. Strangely enough, it went pretty well, and we got the space. Glorietta Mall became home of our first branch! From then on, it was all academic. We hired the staff, worked on the construction bought the kitchen equipment and so on. Our store design is casual, friendly, and unpretentious that evokes non-traditional San Francisco images, especially the South of Market scene and the funkiness of the Mission District. We broke all the usual design rules and went by gut feel instead; which turned out to be good. When people ask us about the décor, we just say, “ Northern California hole-in-the-wall”.

We finally opened our doors in March, 1993 not expecting much business since eve body else (the other fastfood outlets) had yet to open. Plus we had zero publicity. Imagine our surprise when we found out that Manila liked burritos after all! Now we get people from all walks of life, which we think is great. People run into old friends and meet new ones. They use Mexicali as a meeting place. We've even had several birthday celebrations there. A favorite comment is when someone says, “ I didn't even know I liked Mexican food."

In the end, we have what we've always wanted - a friendly, non-threatening place where the price is right, the food is good and in large portions, the music hip and the people warm – just like in San Francisco.

To a certain extent, as Mexicali has turned out, we've got it… we think.