The news that Al Pastor Papi, the taco truck famous for its Mexico City style al pastor on a trompo, is opening a brick-and-mortar taqueria downtown this summer is a surprise even to Miguel Escobedo, its owner.
Escobedo, the former chef and co-owner of Mission burrito stalwart Papalote Mexican Grill, had closed Al Pastor Papi in January. He was exhausted. For seven years, he had hauled the bright pink trailer from Hunters Point to locations all over the Bay Area, six to seven days a week. His plans to transition to a brick-and-mortar restaurant had been stymied by the pandemic.
After the closure, Escobedo finally had some breathing room. He got some sleep, spent time with his kids, and found a part-time job at Costco, luxuriating in the ability to clock in and not having to worry about anything after clocking out.
Then, unexpectedly, opportunity called. Literally. In early March, Escobedo received a call from the team at Vacant to Vibrant, a program run by the nonprofit SF New Deal and the mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development. The program was looking for an established restaurant brand to open downtown, at 232 O’Farrell St., with financial support from the program. “It was almost too good to be true,” Escobedo said.
“The adrenaline kicks in,” he said. “Right now, I wake up eager and ready and excited. I haven’t felt that in a while.”
The space is not only ten times the size of the trailers he’s used to working out of, it also used to be home to a Chipotle, making it almost “ready to go,” in terms of converting it to al pastor production. Escobedo will only need to do a little bit of painting and add a few pieces of equipment. He aims to open as early as June.
The arrangement with Vacant to Vibrant will last 18 months. Afterward, it will be up to Escobedo and the landlord to negotiate a new lease. The location is not necessarily where Escobedo imagined opening, but the deal was too good to pass up.
Escobedo plans to focus on lunch at first. The location is surrounded by hotels and offices, so he anticipates the location’s “bread and butter” will be quick grab-and-go meals, food delivery and catering to local offices.
What excites Escobedo the most, however, are his plans for weekend brunch. He’s thinking micheladas and mimosas, traditional egg dishes and chilaquiles. Escobedo, who has DJed on and off for over 30 years, will make sure brunch features all vinyl DJs. “The customer is going to get hit all over the place,” said Escobedo. “The mouth and the ears.”
Escobedo moved to the Bay Area from Mexico when he was 9. He has worked in restaurants since he was a teenager, helping out at Celia’s, a place that his uncle owned — busing tables, washing dishes, cooking food, and ultimately managing the business. “I was exposed to all,” he said. “That’s when I knew I’m a lifer.”
Escobedo and his brother Victor opened Papalote in 1999. After almost 20 years, he left to start Al Pastor Papi on his own. He was frustrated that he couldn’t get the Mexican style al pastor, the marinated pork slow-cooked on a vertical, rotating broiler, anywhere in the city.
For nearly seven years, his trailer was a success. And today, one can walk down Mission Street late at night, and find taco trucks selling al pastor on a trompo.
“If Al Pastor Papi was to have never come back in any way, I would still feel some kind of victory,” Escobedo said. “Because now, there are more places giving you the authentic thing.”
The food-truck business sometimes requires putting “eye-catching, visually crazy stuff” on social media, Escobedo said. He was a part of that game, too, with more than 36,000 followers on Instagram.
That social media influence and success gave him a voice, which he used to amplify others’. He collected donations for the protesters at Standing Rock and gathered sleeping bags and blankets for farmworkers in Northern California when they evacuated from wildfires in 2021.
Getting back into the restaurant business is an opportunity to rekindle those relationships with community programs.
“Farm workers have always been under-represented and unappreciated, and a silent voice that needs to be heard, because they’re feeding all of us,” he said. “This is the time when we need to come together as a community now more than ever, and resist, inform and help.”
That said, he’s done with the social media hustle. “Now that I have a place where people can come and just enjoy consistent good food, I don’t want to do any of that,” he said. “I don’t want to make the country’s biggest burrito. I just keep it traditional, delicious and fresh.”
Good for you Miguel. Congrats and good luck. Glad to have you back on the grill.
I like your concept, your Al Pastor has to be juicy, like the carne asada, or you will be wasting the 18 months. Don’t overcook, then heat it up on the flat top. It was too much hype, let the food do the talking or not. Good luck. From an East Los stand patron.
It sounds great. I will check it out when they open.