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Bon Appétit spends a day on the line with chef Annisha Garcia of Son Del North in New York City. The viral NYC burrito shop serves up to 10,000 burritos a week, with its internet-famous bean-and-cheese burrito putting it on the map. Inspired by her childhood in Tijuana and Northern Mexican grilling traditions, see how a small West Village restaurant became one of New York City's most talked-about burrito spots.
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00:00Son del Norte can sell up to 10,000 burritos a week.
00:04We went viral for a carne asada,
00:06and then after that, it was our bean and cheese.
00:10Now, we're very lucky,
00:11and every day for lunch and dinner,
00:13we have a different broth.
00:14Dos carne asadas.
00:15Our characteristic is not to have rice.
00:18We fill them up with proteins,
00:20like chicken and steak and shrimp.
00:23I was raised in Tijuana when I was younger.
00:26My mom will pack a couple burritos for me
00:28and make them in the morning,
00:29and then I will go and sell them.
00:31A lot of the flavors here are based on my mom's cooking,
00:34and that's the way that my family show love,
00:37and it was through food.
00:38That means that I'm sharing love to everyone else
00:41in order to make this thousands of burritos
00:43that we make weekly.
00:53Hi, my name is Anisha.
00:55I'm the chef and co-owner of Son del Norte
00:58here in New York City,
00:59and we're gonna be here today making 1,000 burritos.
01:04So we are in Son del Norte, our West Village location.
01:08This is 900 square feet,
01:10so this is basically it.
01:11We use the right side to prep mostly,
01:14and then we use the left side
01:17as the entire line of production.
01:20So the first thing that we do in the morning is the beans.
01:23We go around 400 pounds of beans a week,
01:28and we're just gonna let it simmer.
01:29It's a Mayacoba bean or a canary bean.
01:31It grows the size a little bit bigger.
01:33It's not as waxy as a black bean.
01:36The bean cheese burrito is because I love beans,
01:38and that's my favorite burrito.
01:40My entire idea was like,
01:41why we don't make it like a grilled cheese?
01:43You know when you get the crust of the grilled cheese?
01:45I was like, instead of like only having cheese,
01:47let's make beans.
01:47So that's where this idea came from.
01:49It wasn't that popular until people start talking about it,
01:53and now it's like, she's the it girl of our burritos.
01:56So let's go over and make this salsa.
02:00All the prep has to happen in the morning
02:03because we have such a limited space.
02:06So we are very good at doing multiple things at the same time,
02:10like beans over here,
02:11and now we're gonna start with the Son del Norte sauce.
02:13That is another signature thing that we have over here.
02:15Everyone wants this.
02:16We have a one ounce in each burrito.
02:19People call it the Tik Tok sauce.
02:21People call it like the green sauce.
02:23It's random.
02:24I can believe that I'm like doing this secret right now.
02:27No, you're gonna go like millions,
02:29and people are just gonna start replicating this.
02:31And this is like my, this is how I'm living my best life.
02:35We use a sunflower seed oil.
02:37Serrano peppers and jalapeno peppers.
02:39A lot of people don't know, but peppers get spicier.
02:42In the summer because peppers get stressed with heat.
02:46So we do a modification in the summer
02:48because if we do the same ratios, it tends to be really spicy.
02:51We're just gonna let that get a little softer.
02:54Very easy what we do here.
02:56It's a confit basically.
02:58Confit is cooking anything in fat, low temperature, long period of time.
03:02This takes about like an hour.
03:04If you give it more color,
03:06you're gonna release a little bit of bitterness.
03:09We don't want that.
03:11This is halfway, and this is the way that we want it, okay?
03:14Now it's all watery and oil.
03:16So the confit is almost done.
03:18This one is still not, but it's a slow process.
03:21And then here, you just add the onion.
03:24It's not translucent yet, but it has oil and it's gonna reduce.
03:28It all goes in a blender.
03:29We do 60 quarts of salsa every day.
03:33You see?
03:34That's what we want.
03:37These are the best chips.
03:39She's the chip master.
03:40So Son del Norte, everything happens at the same time.
03:43By 10 a.m., when the service starts,
03:46we wanna have the prep all move into that direction.
03:49Now they're grilling the meat.
03:51They start with, I think, 60 pounds.
03:54These are chicken.
03:55Norte Mexican food is about grilling.
03:57I love grilling.
03:58Tijuana, everything has a grill, and it's cold.
04:00So you get, like, super char flavors, big proteins.
04:04That's what we do every weekend.
04:06Like, you bring anything, and then you grill it.
04:08Part of being authentic was having a grill.
04:11Asado means grill.
04:12That's it.
04:13And asado is not a flat top.
04:15It's not in a pan.
04:16Asado has to be a grill.
04:18A thousand percent.
04:19Perfect grill and juicy.
04:25Okay, guacamole.
04:26We're gonna do the guacamole for the day.
04:28This is the first step.
04:29We pass it through the rack instead of having, like,
04:33all the halves in a bowl, and then mixing it by hand.
04:36We're basically, like, making a paste of avocado.
04:38I tell them not to mix it a lot once that is like this,
04:42because then it will get watery.
04:44Avocado is a fat, so we don't want it to be in a lot of movement
04:47because it gets watery.
04:49Yeah, I'm doing a couple hundreds, and I have a dishwasher.
04:51It gets annoying to do it at home like this.
04:53I don't do it at home.
04:54We are doing two cases today, which is 48 avocados per case.
05:01So this is serrano.
05:03Like, a little bit of lime juice,
05:05because if we blend the entire lime juice here
05:09with the friction of the blades,
05:11it's gonna oxidize the lime.
05:13And then we got, like, a paste.
05:15If you are making guacamole at home,
05:17chop your onions incredibly fine,
05:18and add salt in a bowl with it.
05:20And then let it sit for a while.
05:22And you will see the difference and how the flavor changes.
05:25And it's not that strong.
05:27Also, stop, for the name of God,
05:29putting, like, garlic to guacamole.
05:32Leave that idea alone.
05:34Or powders.
05:35Or like, oh, let's put it in garlic.
05:36No.
05:38No.
05:39Okay, so we're done with the guacamole.
05:41We're gonna do beans.
05:44We've been cooking the beans for three hours.
05:46They're super tender.
05:48Pinto beans has a thicker skin.
05:50The skin that the mayacoba or the canary beans has is way thinner,
05:55which allows them to fry easily.
05:57And then you don't find these pieces of, like, skin
05:59when you're refrying beans.
06:00We're doing two batches.
06:02It's a quarter of dyes.
06:03Jalapeno.
06:05I like to add it little by little,
06:07which mess them by hand.
06:08So you get, like,
06:10you see the pieces having this consistency.
06:12You see how creamy it's getting?
06:14So our beans are more like a spread.
06:16You can see here, they're not, like, whole.
06:19Since they're seasoned very well,
06:20they should have, like, a good flavor right now.
06:22It's very hot, okay?
06:24So good, right?
06:25Wow.
06:25This type of beans, you will not find them anywhere in the city.
06:29But I think food in general is generational.
06:31The more you follow those simple steps that you grew up with,
06:35and they make you feel happy.
06:37Life is about that, right?
06:38So we're just supposed to share all those things.
06:40My team is gonna finish the beans right now.
06:42We still have three times to do this.
06:45Let's do it.
06:49We're gonna go downstairs and make sure that portion of the prep
06:52is being executed.
06:54Every basement in New York City is on the sidewalk.
06:56We all have irrational fears of falling down on these stairs.
07:00Just watch your head, okay?
07:03Welcome to my basement.
07:05Our basement is incredibly tight.
07:07This is common here, common here.
07:10Tortillas, all portion steak.
07:13Salsitas, that is the son del nor sauce.
07:15And then cheese.
07:17This should be empty by a certain point today,
07:20before all those orders arrive.
07:22And the shrimp is on the bottom.
07:23Mmm, 250 pounds daily, probably.
07:26She's doing the pico de gallo.
07:28This preparation, it was very important for me.
07:31This is for our shrimp burrito.
07:32Because I'm not a huge fan of the tomato being like in big chunks.
07:38So we dice it with the dicer.
07:40And then she's gonna do a mix with the onion and the jalapeno.
07:44So it's gonna do like a paste.
07:46That is gonna go to the pico de gallo and then lime juice.
07:48So we cut the shrimp small and we throw it on the planchas.
07:53We had questions of like, oh, how many shrimp is in the burrito?
07:56I don't know, 12?
07:5720?
07:58Because we cut it really small.
07:59My burrito is the best in the city.
08:01I don't know how there borrows, but here, I know.
08:04This is a steak.
08:05Ah, this is the son del norte steak.
08:07It isn't a specific cut that they send us.
08:09So the texture a lot is like the skirt steak.
08:11Because we work with one of the highest like meat purveyors in New York City.
08:14We work with golden meat, and he is like top.
08:17He does for like Peter Lugers.
08:19He does for like every top steakhouse in the city.
08:22Because we cut our meat so small, we can play a little bit with what type of cut we're using.
08:27So what Marco's doing behind here is taking all the fat out.
08:31He put oil already, but you see the difference.
08:33So we have a nice piece of fat still, nice grain.
08:37The carne asada burritos inspire on this taco spot in Tijuana called El Poblano.
08:42My mom's been going there since she's like 14 years old.
08:46That's more than 50 years.
08:48So I was aiming for that flavor of the steak.
08:51So we're going to wrap up the prep.
08:52I think they have probably chicken still to do.
08:55So we should go.
08:59So it's a little bit after 12.
09:01People start coming at lunch hour.
09:03We actually about to start getting busy.
09:06So I'm going to help in the line a little bit.
09:08We're going to go through some tickets.
09:09And I'm going to show you guys all our burritos.
09:12The way that we make the burritos is basically an assembly line.
09:15So we have our backups of steak and meat right here.
09:20Chicken, steak, and then we have beans as well.
09:22Then over here, we have our tortilla warmer, which is actually a crepe maker.
09:28And we usually will be someone here calling the tickets.
09:33Someone there chopping the meat or grilling meat.
09:36And then we're going to have a builder.
09:38And then we're going to have someone that's going to be in the grill.
09:41Flipping burritos, even grill or griddle.
09:46The thing that I like is like starting here.
09:48And then he will put cheese and then he will finish it.
09:51How I make a thousand burritos, I mean, I say I is a mistake.
09:55We have an amazing team, honestly.
09:56They're very good at what they do.
09:58I don't think that it has to do a lot with if I show them how to do something or
10:03not.
10:03And then we have a breakfast with extra steak, no pico.
10:07And also, I'm very specific about the way that the line is set up.
10:11It's kind of like everything has to be like a dance when you're cooking.
10:15The idea was that people can get out of here in less than 10 minutes with a well-done burrito.
10:22Generally, in an hour that is lunch hour, we have two big rushes that it will be the lunch hour.
10:28This starts at 11.30 to 2 o'clock, we'll say.
10:32And then we have another one that starts from like 5.30 to 7.
10:36About 130 burritos, 200 burritos for those two hours.
10:41So carne asada, this one especially.
10:44I got inspired by my favorite taco spot in Tijuana, El Poblano.
10:49So I tried to take a version.
10:51So we did beans and then we go with cheese.
10:55And in this case, we put grilled onions, almost caramelized.
10:58I like the sweetness of it.
11:00And then we have the acidity of the salsa.
11:02This is a salsa roja.
11:04All our sauces, except for the sundial north sauce, they're raw.
11:08For me, it keeps freshness.
11:09So a big scoop of guacamole and we're gonna fold it.
11:12Folding technique, hug, just mash it a little bit, make a rectangle, bring it all the way up.
11:20And then you wrap it.
11:22I like to tuck their corners so they're safe and sound.
11:26When you think about Mexican food, people put one and one together, having beans and rice.
11:32But I would rather, in my food in general, have a good amount of beans and not rice.
11:38And then whatever is like the guisado.
11:40You're getting more value in general.
11:42I will definitely would love to have more of a burrito full of meat than rice.
11:47What type of question is that?
11:49We grill our burritos because there was actually an afterthought.
11:52I love grilling stuff just in general.
11:54We were closing the burrito the way that you guys saw it, but the tortilla will come open.
11:59So now it's completely closed.
12:00Now it's like beans and cheese.
12:02That's the thing that has to touch the grill first so the cheese actually melts.
12:06Then we realized like it was the way of like us keeping the burrito warm.
12:10And then now it has this smoky flavor and it just become our staple.
12:16So we got an order for the pollo asado.
12:18The pollo asado is inspired by the pollo con salsa verde.
12:22Rajas.
12:23Rajas.
12:24This is an anahein pepper.
12:26We fry it first, take the skin off and then peel it.
12:29And then we have pollo asado.
12:31We're gonna do salsa verde.
12:33This is my favorite burrito actually.
12:35I love the fact that the pollo asado is so juicy and I love rajas.
12:41I think people have it underrated.
12:43We're gonna make a bean and cheese.
12:45Bean and cheese is my baby.
12:48Incredibly simple.
12:49I like to do what we call like a little nest.
12:52And then we're gonna do our beans.
12:54So we're gonna put a scoop.
12:56So you see, it's the easiest one to make.
12:59If the beans are too wet, it will break.
13:01So the fact that it has the cheese on it and it goes to the pancha, it melts perfectly.
13:06It's just gooey and it's delicious.
13:08It's very comfort.
13:09It's my favorite thing to eat if I've had a couple of drinks.
13:12We're about to end with the lunch rush and the only thing that we have left is we have
13:16a catering order that our team is gonna start getting ready for it.
13:24This one is very simple.
13:25So we're just doing like 15 carne asada, 15 pollo, 5 frijol con queso and 5 cauliflower.
13:31Usually the orders get days in advance and the team will prep accordingly.
13:35There are only 40 pieces so they're gonna go directly to the box and then they're gonna pick them up.
13:38I really don't know how other people work, but this is how I work.
13:41If you're working with two people, you start right to left.
13:44Start with the chicken and then she's gonna go with the sauce.
13:47She's gonna start with the green sauce so I can start rolling.
13:51I think we're gonna be ready in less than 30 minutes.
13:54Also for catering, we do a different size.
13:56We do nine inches.
13:58People eat it at their desk a lot and then we want to give customers a chance to try two
14:03burritos while
14:03they're in their office.
14:05Fortunato wraps them here.
14:06He's on the grill and he will wrap them and Ana Paula will pack them.
14:11I mean, I think it's very important for a restaurant to everyone know whether it's their job.
14:15To run it in the way that we're doing it, yes.
14:18They probably know at this point how to execute it in a faster way than I can.
14:23I know that for a lot of people doesn't seem like very interesting to be like doing burritos every day,
14:29but we put a lot of intention in everything that we do.
14:32So it is important to have staff that also have intention of being here.
14:37And then this is the last pollo.
14:39Our boxes get in line with our paper.
14:42We have a sticker here.
14:43We have another sticker here.
14:45We bought this recently.
14:46This is the things that make life better.
14:49So this goes here.
14:54Okay, we're about to be done with a lunch service
14:58and we have to get ready for dinner.
15:00So it's time to leave now.
15:02Very happy that you guys were here.
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