As a tortilla scout, driving from Coachella to San Diego and beyond in the quest for Southern California tortillas, there are two things that can throw off a day's adventuring.
One is if places in the tournament are closed by the time I get there or don't happen to sell their tortillas on the day I visit. For instance, when I stopped at Old Town Mexican Cafe in San Diego for their delicious flour tortillas, I was told that they only sell them to the public on weekdays. I had come on a Saturday.
That's an inconvenience but easily solved. Just go when the place sells the tortillas, right?
But how about if a restaurant that makes their own tortillas won't sell you any no matter what?
This happened to me in 2021, when Gustavo told me to pick up tortillas from Casablanca Restaurant in Venice and I had to buy a full dinner just to get two — and they wouldn't sell me any extras. It happened again in 2022 at Mitla Cafe, where only a text from Gustavo convinced them to sell me some.
This year, it happened at a corner store in the Inland Empire famous for delicious burritos wrapped in handmade flour tortillas. It was a somewhat busy morning for them, with workers coming in to get their burritos before heading off to work when I strolled in.
"Can I get half a dozen tortillas, please," I asked.
"We don't sell tortillas," the lady behind the counter responded.
"I really only need three. Could I get three?"
"No, we don't sell. Sorry."
I texted Gustavo about this potential first-time contestant. He told me to return and offer $5 for one flour tortilla.
Nope.
Any time a restaurant that makes tortillas doesn't want to sell me tortillas, it reminds me of the car rental scene from Seinfeld:
You have the tortillas, I just can't buy the tortillas.
But, why? They're right there. Just wrap them up and then that's that. Right?
If only it were that easy.
Many times it boils down to time, money, and the employees available to make the tortillas. Golden Tortilla winner HomeState used to not sell their delicious flour tortillas, but now do. Another former Golden Tortilla winner, Sonoratown, sets aside workers and space to make tortillas all day long, both for their tacos and to sell to the public.
But unless you produce tortillas on a mass scale — thousands, as opposed to dozens — selling tortillas to the public is a money-losing endeavor.
"What it costs to make tortillas doesn't add up to what you sell them for," says Daniel Castillo of Heritage BBQ & Brews in Oceanside, a first-time #TortillaTournament entrant this year in the flour category. "If I'm paying someone $20 an hour, let's say it takes someone 8 hours to make 200 tortillas, selling them at $1 each. That's $200 on 200 tortillas at $160 labor cost. Most of the time is spent mixing, kneading, and proofing the dough. Pressing is an all day thing."
Their original Heritage BBQ location in San Juan Capistrano offers tortillas but not their own. Instead, Castillo uses tortillas from former Golden Tortilla winner Burritos La Palma, which can confuse customers.
"If we sold them in packages, we couldn't keep up," says Castillo.
Which explains Old Town Mexican Cafe's situation.
Old Town Mexican Cafe in San Diego is famous for its flour tortillas — but if you want to buy some to take home, you can only do it on weekdays. Photo credit: Shutterstock
Their reputation for tortillas is such that there's a viewing area where you can watch the women who make them. But the restaurant only sells during the week and not on weekends. (After paying for parking in Old Town San Diego on a Saturday evening and popping in for one item, that really isn't the news you want to hear.)
But tourist traps are busy on weekends, and dedicating someone to make and package tortillas alongside staffing the usual lunch and dinner rushes takes time away from other necessities.
"Whatever we have available in the back, that's what we use on weekends," an Old Town Mexican Cafe employee who didn't wish to be identified tells me over the phone. "It's very difficult to accommodate on the weekends so we just don't offer it."
Life is about compromise, folks.
Two years ago when I first wrote about my tortilla travels and my problem with Casablanca, I was annoyed. Now, I'm wiser. A handmade tortilla is a work of art. Like any artform, it should be appreciated however we can get it. Art takes time. That's why we don't expect an artist who hand-drawn pieces to churn out mass amounts of them in 30 minutes at 20 cents on the dollar. Quality tortillas are no different.
There are worse things in the world than being able to only get a quality handmade flour tortilla with a delicious chile verde guiso inside of it on certain days of the week.
Like having it be a Guerrero tortilla.