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The Breakroom is a show hosted by the three cofounders of Conversion Factory, the marketing agency at the forefront of SaaS growth. Tune into the Factory Floor, our other show, to stay up to date with the changing landscape of the marketing world.
On the Break Room, we just like to chill out and tell stories. Whether you're on your way to work, just passing the time, or stuck somewhere with nothing but an internet connection, tune in. We're here for you, a couple of dudes hanging out.
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Nick Loudon (00:00)
okay, let's try it. Okay. Hello everyone, welcome to the break room. Okay, this is a podcast where we're discussing things that we wanna talk about and this time we're talking about Mexican food. Can I get a shout out for Mexican food? Round of applause everybody. Yeah, you know how we do. Yeah. Okay.
Corey Haines (00:20)
Hey, who can do it a grito?
Zach Stevens (00:23)
I could do it,
but Harper's asleep in the other room.
Nick Loudon (00:27)
So we're San Diego human beings. so that generally speaking means that we enjoy a bit of Mexican cuisine. So I want to know
some of our favorite spots. I'm not going to like give you categories like what's your favorite spot for this or what's your favorite spot for that. I'll let you give those categories because we might not all have answers in all of our categories if that makes sense. So maybe just like give me your number one like what do you want to say first you know in terms of Mexican cuisine. Zach can we start with you?
Zach Stevens (01:04)
Absolutely. My absolute go-to if I had to pick one Mexican food place that I could always go to, like if the world was gonna end, there was only gonna be one Mexican food place left standing afterward, I would pick this little hole in the wall in Clairemont called Maritza's, which has absolutely fantastic Mexican food. Their cheese enchiladas are to die for. They have
Fire shredded beef and shredded chicken tacos. Their quesadillas are the best quesadillas hands down. And it's the best spot cash only. And my, one of the best things about it is that whenever you're done calling in your order, the mother daughter owner will, I, both of them will give these random, random ass numbers like, okay, that that'll be in like ready in 23 minutes. What?
23 or that'll be ready in exactly it'll be ready in 17 minutes. Okay, ⁓ I'll be there soon.
Corey Haines (02:00)
You
Nick Loudon (02:08)
Strange.
That so weird.
Zach Stevens (02:12)
So that would be
my all-encompassing one. That being said, my favorite place to get a California burrito is ⁓ Nikko's in Ocean Beach. Fantastic, great choice. My favorite place to get tacos would be Tacos El Gordo in Chula Vista. ⁓ And tacos adobada everything. I'll get like one of each taco. That's the way that I...
Nick Loudon (02:24)
It's so good.
Zach Stevens (02:40)
the way that I roll. Whatever's on the menu, give me one of each and I will eat it all. Lengua, cabeza, tripe, carne asada, carnitas, it doesn't matter. Just give me one of everything. And if I was to pick where my favorite Mexican hot sauce is, I would have to go El Catejan, because they have their orange hot sauce on a lunch burrito. Baller, perfect combination.
Nick Loudon (02:52)
I like that.
thing dude people listening to this are gonna just have like a list of like 50 places to try out at the end. Corey do you want to go or do you want me to go because I already have a list in my head.
Corey Haines (03:21)
Sure. Yeah. I think my list is fairly short. Like best is obviously very subjective. It's my like favorite. So I'm to go off of my favorites because I feel like, well, okay, you guys would agree that it's the difficult part about having so many (mexican food) options in San Diego is that you do actually just want to go back to like your tried and true favorite spots. And so I don't think I've tried, you know, a ton of Mexican spots, to be honest. I've tried a bunch of local places that are like hole in the wall.
and or cash only or maybe even drive through. Cause it's like, ⁓ just craving like a dirty, greasy, disgusting burrito right now. Or it's like late at night or I'm like heading to the beach and I just want something. So I'm not looking for like the best, you know, but I tried a bunch of those, but like my favorites, if I'm really like picking out, like these are the places I go when I'm bringing like a friend from out of town or if I'm like, treat yourself, I'm really craving something. I'm to go to tacos, El Gordo.
for various obvious reasons, literally just get everything and anything there. And you're going to come out with like a whole platter for like $10. It's amazing. And then if I'm looking for a burrito specifically, I actually really love Lucha Libre. And I also really love, yeah, I love their, their salsas and they have this like, I think it's like a Chipotle salsa, but it's like a really creamy Chipotle salsa.
Nick Loudon (04:38)
took one of mine.
Corey Haines (04:49)
that I feel like is very unique that I will literally drown my burrito in and just drink straight out of the cup. we were actually though, speaking of salsa, the place we were just at Sayulitas they're like dark roasted Chipotle salsa was actually really next level. And I like, I love that type of salsa too. So yeah.
Nick Loudon (05:09)
You're welcome.
Zach Stevens (05:12)
It was the most surprising burrito I've had in a long time. Sayulitas was very close to making my list. I just haven't explored the extent of their menu enough to know that it was gonna make mine.
Corey Haines (05:18)
Yeah.
Nick Loudon (05:19)
you
Explore their body. Yeah, you know
every crevice
That's a great list. like that. Yeah, I had Lucha Libre on my list too, but I will pull an audible for that section just for you. Okay. So the first, in place of Lucha Libre, which fits into my, my like American or like modernized taco shops. Like you have this group of taco shops that are like, this is truly just like a hole in the wall. Someone moved from Mexico.
Corey Haines (05:33)
it's so good.
Nick Loudon (05:58)
and got a space for rent and just started making food. Like that's the whole, you know, arc. And then you have like kind of branded or cool, like trendy kind of Americanized ones. And so Lucha Libre is a really good one. The next one that I actually liked, which is technically now a chain, cause they have multiple locations is the taco stand. Have any of you been to the taco stand? It's like red and white. Yeah.
Corey Haines (06:18)
Yeah. I love the taco stand.
Zach Stevens (06:19)
have. Taker stands
Corey Haines (06:21)
They're
Zach Stevens (06:21)
great.
Corey Haines (06:21)
Al Pastor tacos. my gosh.
Nick Loudon (06:24)
It's super good. Yeah, I'm not really a taco guy, but they have really great burritos too, honestly.
Zach Stevens (06:24)
Yeah, you know.
Their, their most surprising thing actually is their Nepalese tacos. Have you had those cactus? It's a cactus taco and it's super cool because they also have really good fish tacos. think they're, are they the ones that put strawberry on their fish taco or is that city tacos? I think that's city tacos.
Nick Loudon (06:35)
What is that?
I have not had it.
Corey Haines (06:38)
⁓ crazy.
Nick Loudon (06:49)
Yeah,
don't. Yeah, I think it is city tacos, which I'm not a giant fan of.
Zach Stevens (06:53)
I
either way, both of them have, both of them have good fish tacos and you could get all of their, they're like meat, all their meat tacos from the taco stand and then have a Nepalese taco in there somewhere just to kind of make a cut for your palate. Divine.
Nick Loudon (07:10)
⁓ So the taco stand is a fantastic it's like my pick for My I have someone who's coming into town that is not familiar with this world of like dirty hole-in-the-wall taco shops And I think that they would prefer something different but still really good and pretty close to like hole in the wall and so I would take them there But if I have someone who's like take me to like the real deal ⁓ I might go to ⁓
a place called El Patron, which is in Miramesa, where I lived in San Diego for a good period of time.
Granted, I haven't been there in like several years. I used to live over there, so I'd go there all the time. And they have a California burrito and like a California surf and turf burrito that I'm not kidding is like bigger than your arm. It's massive. It is like a gigantic burrito. ⁓ It's really good. Yeah. And they, they were just really great. So that's my like hole in the wall place that I would go if I, like, if I could pick one place that just like survived the Holocaust of Mexican taco shops, it would be that place.
Corey Haines (08:05)
Awesome.
Nick Loudon (08:19)
I really like that one. ⁓ I also want to give an honorable mention, okay, just to my history and our history as ⁓ Corey and I grew up together somewhat that when we were in high school, we would probably at least two, three times a week, me and Corey and a myriad of other high school friends go to a very special place called Juan Bertos that is gone.
Corey Haines (08:47)
It is gone. RIP.
Nick Loudon (08:48)
it is gone. And
it was if it was still around, I would just delete the whole list and just say just go to Juan Berto's And it's that good. ⁓
Zach Stevens (08:55)
You
Corey Haines (08:55)
Yeah. Machos
too. Machos still around, but there was something special about Juanberto's with their salsa and just getting like, not even like a real Mexican burrito, but just getting like a ⁓ bacon breakfast burrito for some reason, just like hit like no other.
Nick Loudon (09:00)
Is it the same?
Zach Stevens (09:09)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Nick Loudon (09:12)
and they give you the bottles of hot sauce instead of the cups and you're just like, shh.
Zach Stevens (09:13)
I think, yeah, mm-hmm. That's,
Corey Haines (09:15)
Yeah, you just.
Zach Stevens (09:19)
those are legit. I think that there needs to be a, there should be kind of like how Google has their graveyard of projects. There should be a graveyard of taco shops. It's like one day during Dia de los Muertos, these will all resurrect and come back for a night.
Corey Haines (09:28)
Hmm.
Nick Loudon (09:38)
Was it
COVID that did it to em? Do you know, Corey?
Corey Haines (09:41)
think
so, yeah.
Nick Loudon (09:44)
guys.
Zach Stevens (09:44)
That is
jacked up beyond belief. That's a casualty that should not have been.
Nick Loudon (09:47)
Yeah, I did.
Where's my tax dollars
even going if they can't keep my favorite taco shop open during COVID? Like screw the roads, don't fix the roads. I need that greasy breakfast burrito at 1 a.m. Yeah. ⁓
Zach Stevens (10:02)
Hehehe
Corey Haines (10:03)
is an essential business to the community.
Zach Stevens (10:05)
Yeah, I'm down for a
taco tax. I would happily support that and I hate taxes. It says a lot.
Nick Loudon (10:10)
You do you do hate taxes
Corey Haines (10:14)
Yeah, we should subsidize taco shops.
Nick Loudon (10:14)
I hate taxes
Zach Stevens (10:17)
I mean, taxes, tacos, they're two letters away from being the same thing. So, you know, why can't they work together more effectively?
Nick Loudon (10:25)
Yeah, I feel that. Okay, great list. I'm gonna have to like go back and listen to this and figure out, because I don't think I've ever been to Tacos El Gordo.
Corey Haines (10:35)
Dude, we gotta go. We gotta go. There's one in Chula, there's one in downtown. I think there's another one that just opened up more in like North County, if I'm not mistaken.
Zach Stevens (10:36)
What?
Nick Loudon (10:37)
Where is it?
Zach Stevens (10:46)
And there's one in Vegas.
Nick Loudon (10:47)
There's a bunch it looks like.
Corey Haines (10:48)
And
Vegas. What the?
Nick Loudon (10:52)
I have never heard of this place. Is this the place under the bridge? What's the place under the bridge?
Corey Haines (10:54)
Dude, maybe we'll go that Saturday.
Zach Stevens (10:56)
I was going to suggest Saturday.
We're going. We're going. I'm in. I don't care if we have to drive to Chula and then wherever Shane Gillis is performing, that's where we're going.
Corey Haines (11:07)
It's not that far actually.
Nick Loudon (11:09)
⁓ that's what it's called. Las cuatro milpas.
Zach Stevens (11:13)
Millpass is great, but that's also in the graveyard now.
Nick Loudon (11:16)
Is it gone?
Zach Stevens (11:18)
They had a slight problem with tiny furry animals.
Nick Loudon (11:22)
Rodents. Dude, the
Corey Haines (11:24)
You
Nick Loudon (11:26)
food there was so good. I did not know they were gone.
Corey Haines (11:30)
What is it about like the dirtiest, nastiest places serving the most delicious food?
Zach Stevens (11:31)
That's.
Nick Loudon (11:34)
It's the meat. It's the rat meat.
Zach Stevens (11:35)
And how little I cared. How and how little I cared
man. Because man they they're so loving that the love pours out into their food, but then it also gets extended to vermin. There's nothing you can do about it. Exactly. They probably made a little they made little mini tacos for the rats. I bet they're just so so happy to give their food out.
Corey Haines (11:45)
Yeah.
Nick Loudon (11:50)
Yeah.
Okay, well we could stay here forever so
Corey Haines (11:52)
so generous.
Nick Loudon (12:00)
Yeah, they're just kind.
Great job. Love the lists. ⁓ And ⁓ we'll see you on the next episode.