burritos

This week, I was going to talk about traditional Mexican clothing, but I feel that I should talk about burritos instead! This upcoming Wednesday our first special project is due – I was going to cover a burrito tour: Tucson style.

Just about on every street corner there is some sort of fast food Mexican restaurant: Nico’s, Los Betos, Viva Burritos are some of the most popular fast food Mexican restaurants in Tucson.

I wanted to find out what made the burritos so unique, who are their main competitors: are they the other local fast food chains or are they the big national chains (On the Border, Macayos, Rubio’s, and Chipotle). But the some of the local (fast food) restaurants would not return my phone calls or if I went to the establishment looking for the manager/owner they were either busy to talk or would have disappeared and I would constantly hear “they will return later”.

I left countless messages and only after I changed my special project topic of my special project and only two phone calls were returned.

I was lucky enough to meet with Mike Hultquist, the owner of Lerua’s Fine Mexican Food. Lerua’s has been a Tucson favorite since 1922. They have been in the same location since 1941, at 2005 E. Broadway Blvd. Lerua’s is very well known for their green corn tamales.

Lerua’s does not sell burritos but they do sell burros. All burros are made with a 16” tortilla and once completed the burro weighs
close to ½ pound (8 ounces) depending on the filler.

There are 14 different burros on the menu. They range from the kid favorite Bean and Cheese burro to the Carne Asada burro. It can take anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes to make a burro depending on the filler. For example, the chorizo that is used for the Chorizo and Egg burro is frozen until the order is placed. The Chorizo and Egg burro costs $5.75. Although, Lerua’s does not sell the college student favorite: breakfast burrito. But they do have a substitute for the breakfast burrito and that is the Chorizo and Egg burro.


Lerua’s is open approximately 300 days a year, but Hultquist does not know how many burros are sold in a year. But on October 2nd, Lerua’s sold 33 burros. The clientele at Lerua’s is varied from long time patrons to University of Arizona students. One thing that stands out about Lerua’s is the service. The employees at Lerua's are very welcoming, nice and will even take orders out to the car for some patrons.

Before I left Lerua’s, I made sure that I purchased one dozen green corn tamales and a bean burro. The burro was amazing and so were the tamales!

But watch this video on how to make a bean burro!