Veteran: Julie King — From Lawyer to Burrito Master

Editor's Note: This interview with Julie King, the owner of Villa México Café, a Mexican restaurant in Boston, is part of el Restaurante's Who's Who series. Click here to go to the beginning of the series.

            I was a lawyer in Mexico City when my husband, an American Navy officer from Texas, passed away in 1997. I had promised him that when our daughter, Bessie, was about to start high school, we would move to the States so she could go to college there. When she finished middle school 20 years ago, she and I moved to Boston.

            I thought that I was going to be able to work as a lawyer, but found out I had to go back

to school to get my license. I couldn’t do that because I had to support my daughter. Plus, I was missing my food terribly. One day we were walking in Woburn, the town where we moved to, and I passed a place that was for rent. I looked in the window and saw that it had tables and a kitchen so I asked the guy in the dry cleaner shop next door if he knew anything about it, and it turned out he was the landlord. God put that place in my hands! I had no restaurant experience, but I wanted to show people what real Mexican food was, so I rented the spot for $500 a month and that’s how we started.

            I grew up in Mexico City, but every vacation I was in Puebla with my grandmother because my family is from there. When she cooked she talked and told everyone the recipes and the little secrets of how you have to move the spoon like this, or put on the condiments like that. I learned a lot from her, she taught me to like cooking. Later, when I was the legal director for a hotel chain in Mexico City, I took some classes with the chef of the hotel. Then I took a course on how to be a chef, but that was all just for me, so I could learn how to cook better at home. It turns out that I put all of that education to use in my restaurant.

            My salsa, which is black, is a recipe from my grandma. Everyone asks if it has black

beans or eggplant in it, but it’s just garlic, jalapenos, and tomatoes. It’s black because we roast the peppers. That’s what gives it the flavor. The salsa is so popular that Williams-Sonoma gives us the opportunity to sell it in their marketplaces. Almost every Saturday my daughter and I are at one of the stores selling it; now we’re known as the salsa ladies!

            Another family recipe is the chorizo. We don’t always follow the recipes strictly – it just goes by my taste. Sometimes I put a little more thyme in it, or a little more cumin or cloves or sweet pepper. The best ingredients to use are your love and your own taste. If you are very happy cooking, the food will be awesome. My daughter is learning from me now, so that she can learn to cook like my grandmother taught me.

            Our most popular dish is the mole poblano burrito. We are the only ones that sell mole in a burrito in Boston. I make the mole poblano from scratch, and I’m very picky about how I make it. I started seeing my grandmother make it when I was five – I know the taste. It takes two days to make a batch.

            We didn’t always serve burritos. When they are made the way Americans expect, with lettuce and tomato, they’re not authentic, and my rule was that I was not going to serve anything that is not authentic. But when we moved into our second location – the first one burned down two years after we started – the previous owner had wraps on his menu so I kept them. On Fridays, my specials day, I started making burritos instead of wraps, and people started asking for them every day.

            Real Northern Mexican burritos – actually they are called “burritas” in Mexico – are a piece of steak with beans and salsa wrapped in a flour tortilla. I make mine as similar to that as possible, but I add rice and cheese because customers here expect it. My beans are boiled fresh daily, and then fried in extremely hot oil. That gives them the best taste. Besides that, we grill the tortilla, we don’t steam it. If you steam it, it will be gooey and soggy. We cook it in the right way to give it the best taste – that’s how ours became the Best Burritos in Boston. If we had served burritos from the beginning, I would have been famous long ago!

            We have been in four locations. The third location was incredible – it was an old gas station in Beacon Hill. That’s where we became popular. It was close to City Hall, and two universities, and exactly across the street from Mass General Hospital. In that place I met doctors, nurses, patients, families, everyone was coming to try my food. We were there six years, and then the landlord tore it down to make an office building. Thankfully we had a lot of help relocating since Mayor Menino knew my daughter and I were “the ladies of the gas station,” and he really helped us. Our new place is not too far, about a few minutes drive from Mass General.

            I have a lot of dreams for the future, but I’m not that young like when I started. Still, I’m happy for it all. I have a beautiful restaurant, and my daughter is wonderful, and now she is taking over. When I finish my time here, God willing, I want to grow the salsa business.

Next: Up-and-Comer: Hugo Orozco – Putting His Own Spin on Comfort Food