Working alongside his family, Cesar Cortez, founder and chef of pop-up El Brewjo, serves a pared-down menu of smashburgers and tater tots that are not only gorgeous in taste and appearance but also nod to his Mexican heritage.
For the uninitiated, smashburgers are a popular genre of hamburger wherein a bacon press or spatula is used to flatten a meat patty to achieve maximum contact with a searing grill. The result is nothing short of glorious — juicy, thin patties with crispy-to-caramelized edges.
El Brewjo offers three variations of the en vogue burger: La Basic Bitch, two patties with American cheese and topped with El Brewjo sauce (a spicy mayo mixture); La Hot Mess, two patties with pepper-jack cheese, jalapeno relish, grilled jalapenos; and Le Biter, a transparent tribute to In-N-Out’s Double-Double that comes with two patties, American Cheese, lettuce, tomato, and grilled onions (aptly named, as “biter” is slang for copying someone’s style). Gilding the smashburger lily are shatteringly crisp tater tots he serves alongside the burgers.
While working in the decidedly unglamorous world of property management, Cortez quit his job in 2021 to open his pop-up restaurant El Brewjo (the name is a riff off of “brujo,“ a witch doctor in Spanish). Although not classically trained as a chef, he owes his interest and education in the culinary arts to cooking shows, including repeated viewings of “Top Chef” and “Iron Chef.”
Cortez, raised in the city of Orange’s El Modena neighborhood (“It’s the barrio of Orange,” he says), had trouble fitting in as a gay kid. After moving to San Francisco to attend college for a few years, he moved back to his roots but missed the inclusivity of SF. “Seeing both communities, I noticed that there’s a real lack of LGBT community here in Orange County,” says Cortez. “I always kind of felt like I’ve never really belonged or felt represented here.” He says his pop-ups should be considered safe…
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