The Food You Know, The Story You Don't
You've been there, sick at home with the flu. You want to eat nothing and do nothing. You lie on the couch and marathon six seasons of "Parks and Rec." You have no hope, but then - wait. Your mother comes through the door with the Holy Grail, everything you need: a bowl of Jorge's spicy chicken soup with an order of warm flour tortillas. You have a reason to live again.
Sure, we can all agree that this soup has saved many of our lives on multiple occasions. However, we would be willing to bet that none of you know the history and passion behind the culinary cure of all of Encinitas. Fear not, for this is it.
We spoke to work-shirt and apron-clad Jorge Guerrero outside his Santa Fe restaurant on a cloudy afternoon, after enjoying some of his burritos. We had been warned by his nephew, Angel, who works the counter at Jorge's, that he might be a little bit grumpy due to his stressful daily routine. However, when speaking to him, nothing could have been further from the truth. He was all smiles, although in his eyes and voice you could sense how deeply he cares about his business.
It's somewhat hard to imagine, but when Jorge Guerrero opened his first restaurant, Norte, in 1977, you couldn't find a burrito shop on every Encinitas corner. Jorge's restaurant, he told us, was one of the first modern Mexican restaurants to open in North County.
He bought the space, which had been a Vietnamese restaurant in a past life, with a partner, and began to serve burritos, tacos, menudo, along with his now-famous chicken soup.
However, that chicken soup didn't come from just anywhere. It is Jorge's recreation of the soup that his mother used to serve him in Mexico City. In recreating the soup he relied on his memories of flavor from Mexico to recreate the broth rather than a recipe. The memory of his mother's warm soup rejuvenating him on a sick day was strong enough for him to be able to recall that taste and bring it to his restaurant in San Diego.
Guerrero's passion for his food doesn't end with the extraordinary story of his soup either. He is driven by an intense work ethic which manifests itself in his daily routine, one far more rigorous than the standard 9-5 cash register shift many restaurant owners have to endure.
Jorge lives by the motto of "quality and freshness," never skimping on quality to save time or money. He wakes up at 6 a.m. each day, and then proceeds to drive all over town to load up on ingredients.
As soon as he returns he begins to cook, and come lunchtime the process repeats itself.
One question that is often asked of Jorge is simple; "What's next?" The fact of the matter is that Jorge is 72, not exactly the young buck he was when he first opened the restaurant. Many expect him to retire. As things stand, his answer to the former is a resounding
"No." The reason is simple: "I can't let go." If he were to hand off the restaurant to another person, it wouldn't be Jorge's anymore; it would likely lose the "quality and freshness" that has driven the
of Encinitas culture.
restaurant for so long and made his restaurant a quintessential part
When Jorge started his culinary journey almost 40 years ago, it was only him doing what he does best: making high quality Mexican food. Now today, straight out of a Trumpian's nightmare, there are taco and burrito shops on almost every corner, selling the standards set by Jorge all those years ago. While the list of high quality Mexican restaurants continues to grow nearly exponentially, Jorge's still outshines them all, preserving the freshness and quality of Guerrereo’s mother’s cooking to create a flavor of Mexican cuisine unattainable at any other restaurant.
-THE MUSTANG
