Not getting hepatitis is one of the main things I look for in a restaurant

We've been eating from Chipotle every Monday for the past few years. I feel a little embarrassed, living thirty miles from Mexico and preferring burritos from an American chain, headquartered in Colorado, which was, for several years, majority-owned by McDonald's. But it was the closest thing we could find in the area to San Francisco-style burritos, and so we liked it.

Then, last week, we learned about an outbreak of hepatitis-A that was tied to the Chipotle we eat at. So far, 18 people have been infected.

We actually gave thought to continuing our Chipotle tradition. After all, we figured, we didn't get sick. And Chipotle will now be on its best behavior. And surely the Health Department wouldn't allow the restaurant to stay open if there was a risk? Surely the situation was under control.

But this is the George W. Bush American century, motto: "Competence? We've Heard Of It!" Also, we live in San Diego, motto: "Just As Corrupt As New Jersey, But The Weather's Nicer!" I no longer have faith that the Health Department would shut the place down if there was a question of health problems.

So I cruised around on Yelp and discovered El Azteca. Seventeen reviews, only one bad, none of them mentioning diseases that come from pooping on your hands before preparing food. So I figured we're already one step ahead of Chipotle.

The place is a hole-in-the-wall in a strip mall across from a gas station, near the highway, and across from a 7-Eleven. To me, this is a plus; I love a dive restaurant with the promise of great food.

Here it is in Google Street View:

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There's a head shop next to El Azteca. While I was waiting for the food to be prepared, I got the occasional whiff of patchouli incense. In front of the head shop, several well-groomed gentlemen were discussing philosophical issues.

The reviewers on Yelp stress how enormous the burritos are. Compared with San Francisco burritos, not so much. My burrito was not "the size of your thigh" (as one reviewer writes), unless you're about six months old.

I had a chicken asada burrito, Julie had the chicken enchilada platter. We found the food pretty good, but we weren't knocked out by it. The refried beans were slightly nasty. I don't know about Julie, but I'll give the place another try, order something different next time.

Comments

[Joe]

Hey Mitch,

I am a Chipotle employee myself, so if you can excuse that, I thought I'd reply to your blog.

We certainly wish to apologize for any anxiety we have caused you. We want you to know that the safety and well-being of our customers is our highest priority, and we are cooperating completely with your local health department in San Diego. Perhaps media reports haven’t mentioned this, but 100% of our crew and managers at our La Mesa restaurant were tested by the health department and 100% of them are clean. All of them have been cleared by the health department to return to work.

Additionally, this restaurant has been inspected by the health department five times in the last five months, including two inspections in the last week, and received A grades (or excellent) in each inspection, and is open for normal business.

Therefore, we do definitely feel it is safe to eat at Chipotle – the health department has said so publicly (and we hope you still have some faith in them), and we wouldn’t be open for business if they didn’t believe it was safe.

And while the health department has not yet reached a conclusion to the source of the hepatitis A cases, we’ll continue to work with them and help them with whatever they ask of us. We do hope you will consider this information then and give us another chance.

Sincerely,

Joe Stupp
Chipotle

[dpw]

Hey Mitch, next time you're up North County way, let me introduce you to Beach City Burrito in Cardiff. Might not be EXACTLY your SF burrito, but the size matches (the girl and I dine contentedly on one split in two), it's authentically run by Mexican and Slovakian immigrants, and they've got cold cervesa. Anyway, can't beat the location, right off the 101--sea breezes, etc. Perfect for those post surf munchies.

[Mitch Wagner]

DPW - We don't get up to North County much. However: ROAD TRIP!!!!!

[Taco Rubio]

Head south and eat authentic, or enjoy a San Diego burrito (con fries) since you're in San Diego.

The best place to find a Mission burrito (whish is what people who can't use google call a S.F. burrito) is, surprisingly, in the Mission District of San Francisco, and not to be had at Chipotle.

Also, please stop equivalating your personal "discoveries" (SL, burritos, that you have 10 toes) with 'newsworthy", it insults us who were building things while you were discoveing Diablo everquest two years ago.

Thanks and a true fan!

[Mitch Wagner]

Taco Rubio: This is my personal blog, written for my own enjoyment, the enjoyment of my friends and family, and anybody else who cares to stop by. It gets about 30 visitors a day, plus about 35 subscribers to the RSS feed. That's insignificant compared to many sites on the Web. And it'll probably never get more traffic than it has now. That's OK, I like doing it.

It's not a news site, and it's not written for your enjoyment or approval. I don't know why you and your little buddy "Mitch Rules" decided to come in here every couple of weeks and leave your self-panikcing little comments, but please stop.

Your comment about the "Mission Burrito" actually hints that you might have had something interesting to contribute to this discussion. I actually did Google burritos, and the only reference I found to "Mission Burrito" was apparently a chain restaurant -- I haven't seen it used as a synonym for what I call "San Franicsco burritos." Likewise, your use of the word "equivolating," which I did not realize was a real word until I Googled, shows you have some command of English.

I run into guys like you quite a bit in the tech industry, science fiction fandom, and online forums: So desperate to prove that you're the smartest guy in the room, and cool, that you alienate anybody around you who does not share the same fundamental insecurity that you do. There's something particularly mean and small and sad about a person who gets off on anonymous Internet bullying.

So now you have three choices: (1) Uncloak, use your real name or a reasonable nickname, and participate in the discussion. (2) Continue acting like Beavis & Butt-Head or (3) Go away and do whatever it is you usually do in your spare time, which you seem to have a lot of: Argue about whether Darth Vader could beat up Sauron, steal Power Rangers toys from eight-year-olds, scratch your armpits and sniff your fingers, whatever.