Every year, the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington hosts the RAMMY Awards, a celebration of the best restaurants in the DMV. This year’s finalists for New Restaurant of the Year were a who’s who of popular new spots to dine.
On a list populated by expensive upscale restaurants, one stands out from the crowd: San Pancho, a humble burrito spot in downtown Takoma Park that’s been a big hit among locals and tourists alike.
San Pancho was opened in 2024 by married couple David Perez and Carolina McCandless, who actually first met while they were both working at a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco.
Perez grew up in Mexico City, but first cut his teeth in the restaurant industry with a job at a Mexican restaurant his brother owned in San Francisco. McCandless is from Chile but spent her formative years in Washington, D.C., before moving to California. With Perez in the kitchen and McCandless at the front of the house, they make a powerful duo.
The restaurant’s downtown Takoma Park location, which had been a Subway sandwich shop before the couple bought it, once housed their other restaurant, the more upscale-casual Cielo Rojo. But when Cielo Rojo moved to a larger location, Perez and McCandless had to figure out what they wanted to do with the previous building.
“We moved Cielo Rojo two blocks over, but we still had a lease here, so we had to do something with the space,” McCandless recalls. “We wanted to do something that wasn’t full-service and that was more pared-down. We thought of the idea for San Pancho because we both missed San Francisco-style burritos.”
While Takoma Park has many options for Mexican cuisine now, with McCandless noting that there’s been a boom in the past six years, she and Perez both felt that it was lacking when they first set up shop there. The area has a much smaller Mexican immigrant community compared to San Francisco.
“We always had a hard time finding anything we liked,” Perez says. “There weren’t too many options.”
The couple wanted to bring San Francisco-style Mexican food to Takoma Park, with authentic Mexican flavors and ingredients but the trendy atmosphere and abundance of vegetarian and vegan options that San Francisco restaurants are known for.
San Pancho’s meats and vegetables are sourced from local farmers, but its Sonoran flour tortillas are imported directly from Mexico and give the burritos and tacos a unique flavor and texture.
“I always like to say that it’s kind of a mix between a tortilla and roti,” McCandless says. “Sonoran tortillas are oily, moist and super-thin. They’re almost see-through when you cook them on the grill.”
While many of the dishes on San Pancho’s menu are similar to ones that can be found in taquerias across San Francisco, some of them are completely unique. Burritos can be filled with camarones a la diabla (shrimp with spicy sauce), which is a popular Mexican dish but an uncommon burrito filling. It’s proven to be a fan favorite among San Pancho regulars, though.
One of San Pancho’s most popular menu items was actually a contribution from an employee, who brought her own matcha powder to work and suggested combining it with the horchata that was already on the menu. The Matcha Horchata, which combines Japanese green tea with the rice and dairy drink, experienced a brief surge of viral fame on social media sites like Instagram and TikTok and brought a lot of business to the restaurant.
But Perez’s favorite item on the menu is the Chicken Mole Super Burrito, which was inspired by a similar dish from one of his favorite restaurants in San Francisco.
“We make our own chicken mole, and it really brings me back to those memories of the city,” he says.
Perez notes that burritos are a comfort food for him and that he wanted to share that feeling with other people.
“The restaurant has a very warm and welcoming vibe and it’s a fun place to be,” he notes. “We wanted to create something enjoyable and fun to pair with the burritos, which are already a comfort. When you’re hungry, you get a burrito and it just takes care of you. It’s always been a part of my culture and upbringing.”
The couple credits their success in part to Takoma Park’s welcoming community and thriving restaurant scene. They already had experience with Cielo Rojo, which has become a popular spot for weddings and events. McCandless recalls that none of the restaurants in downtown Takoma Park closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, a notably difficult time for the culinary industry, because of how the community came together to support local restaurants.
Looking towards the future, McCandless and Perez are exploring the possibility of opening another San Pancho location, though they have not decided where that would be yet.
“We’re trying to increase our delivery radius so people can get it more often,” McCandless says. “We get a lot of visitors from Virginia and D.C. on the weekends, and they tell us how they wish we were closer to them.”
