Price of one of S.F.’s best burritos nearly doubles
Popular item is $22, necessary because costs of ingredients, labor have soared, owner says
Ricardo Lopez was long reluctant to raise the prices at his Mission District restaurant La Vaca Birria, where he serves succulent beef braised in a red broth packed into burritos and tacos. But as of late, he simply has no other choice to remain afloat.
“I wish there was something else that I could do,” he said.
Just like seemingly every other restaurant in the Bay Area, prices have been increasing at La Vaca Birria, and customers aren’t always accepting of the change. So in a recent Instagram post, Lopez addressed a customer complaint about high prices and broke down the reasons his popular grilled cheese birria burrito has gone from $11 a couple of years ago to its current price of $22.
Simply put, the cost of ingredients and labor has gone up. The trend isn’t new: In the past few years, increasing costs have pushed the price of popular foods from pizza to fried chicken sandwiches ever higher, and burritos aren’t the exception.
Key ingredients for Lopez’s beef birria, like USDA Choice grade chuck, have gone up. When he began the business as a food truck about three years ago, it was $4 per pound; two years ago it was $4.50, and now it’s $6. Because the restaurant uses about 2,500 pounds of beef per month, the $2 increase costs $5,000 per month. Other ingredients he uses like onions have jumped in price from around $11 to $80 for a 50-pound sack. Soybean oil has climbed from $20 to $50 per container. Even mesquite charcoal, a key component for his smoky grilled meats, is more expensive.
“Nothing that I can think of has returned to pre-COVID pricing,” Lopez said.
Labor has consistently been
the restaurant’s largest expense. The S.F. minimum wage ordinance has pushed the rate up to $18.07 per hour. Lopez said some of his longtime staffers make above minimum wage, and he tries to keep raises generous. Items at La Vaca Birria are fairly labor intensive, Lopez said: Staff cook the birria in the oven a day before it’s served, chill it overnight to remove fat from the broth, then braise it until it’s rich and tender.
The work has paid off. Chronicle associate restaurant critic Cesar Hernandez rated La Vaca Birria’s burrito the Mission’s best, over several longtime favorites, praising the “punchy adobo that brought intense spice to anything it touched.”
The customer complaint Lopez responded to appeared to blame this press coverage for the change in price. “Two years ago it was $11 . ... Today it is $22,” a customer wrote on Google. “The Chronicle wrote an article about the burrito in November. Coincidence?”
In a long and candid response, Lopez agreed that there was no coincidence. When Hernandez wrote about the restaurant, La Vaca Birria was nearly broke. The endorsement, Lopez wrote, “gave us the confidence in ourselves that we can charge what we need to keep our doors open and maintain our vision without lowering our quality.”
Ultimately, Lopez also has to fight the long and widely held belief that Mexican food should be inexpensive. He tries to inform customers of the highquality ingredients he uses and the work that goes into making his birria, but he can’t always get through.
“I hope every damn Mexican restaurant in the Bay Area raises their prices,” he said.