Ancient Mayan recipes highlight this San Francisco restaurant’s menu

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Las Mestizas, a traditional Mayan cuisine on the outskirts of Bernal Heights, is moving to a new location in the heart of the Marina. Owner Fausto May said he plans to reopen in mid-February at Chestnut and Scott Streets.

He told The Standard that the move was driven by a desire to work in a larger space in an area where Yucatan food is rarer.

The star of the Las Mestizas menu is cochinita pibil, an ancient recipe for slow-roasted pork marinated in Mayan spices and wrapped in a banana leaf. May said the cochinita pibil, which he learned from his grandparents, is very labor-intensive, taking five hours to roast the day before serving.

“Our restaurant will be the home of the Cochinita pibil in the city,” May said.

Las Mestizas, which means people of mixed indigenous and European ancestry, also serves panuchos, a tostada-like dish made from handmade deep-fried flatbread filled with black bean puree and topped with lettuce, shredded chicken, avocado, tomato, marinated red onion. and cabbage.

May opened his restaurant on Mission and Cortland streets two years ago, and he said he can’t wait to see his food catch on in the Marina. For him, most of the Mexican restaurants in Marina are more Americanized, with his recipes coming directly from his home region in the Yucatán Peninsula.

“I’m excited, but at the same time nervous,” he said. “For me, this is a completely new project in an area that I do not know. But I’m ready for the challenge.”

Las Mestisas

st. 2280 Chestnut, San Francisco

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