San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Local chef opening trio of cafes in Chula Vista
A second-generation chef and restaurateur is bringing a trio of businesses — a taco shop, coffee house and Mexican breakfast restaurant — to side-by-side spots on Third Avenue in Chula Vista.
Priscilla Curiel is the chef and owner of Mujer Divina, a grab-and-go burrito and coffee shop in National City, as well as Tuétano Taquería, which wowed customers with its birria and bone marrow tacos at two former locations in San Ysidro and Old Town.
In Chula Vista, she will open a new Tuétano Taquería next month, followed by a second Mujer Divina in the spring as well as a sit-down breakfast restaurant that’s still in progress. The three businesses will be located at 214, 216 and 218 Third Avenue.
Curiel said she’s extremely excited to be back in her hometown, close to her parents’ Mexican restaurant, Talavera Azul, where she grew up learning how to cook and selling her birria to breweries nearby.
“I feel very happy and excited because I started my career on that block,” Curiel said. “It is an honor to have my very own restaurant on the same block as Talavera Azul, where I spent a decade growing my career.”
Her Mujer Divina coffee shop offers breakfast burritos made with machaca (a Mexican dish with dried meat) that pair perfectly with cafe de olla.
The second Mujer Divina, designed by Armida Mendez from Accento Design Center, will offer more than 20 coffee drinks, along with “burritos de hielera.”
Next door, the Tuétano taco shop will offer Curiel’s classic tacos made with birria, rajas and other protein options and toppings.
Curiel’s hopes to make the third restaurant a Mexican sit-down place inspired by the breakfast foods she loves.
Follow @tuetanotaqueria, @mujerdivinacoffee and @mujerdivinachulavista on Instagram.