With Lines out the Door, El Pelon Fills BC’s Burrito Needs

Show a Boston College student the iconic picture of a mustachioed bald man with a bird on his shoulder, and they’ll almost surely identify the logo of beloved hotspot El Pelón Taqueria. The logo depicts Jim Hoben, the owner of the Commonwealth Ave. restaurant, his wife’s bird, Murray, and a distinguished piece of facial hair.

El Pelón Taqueria: bringing tasty and affordable Mexican food to Boston

El Pelón Taqueria: bringing tasty and affordable Mexican food to Boston

A Red Sox game was in full bloom when I ventured over to El Pelón Taqueria in Fenway, one of many restaurants surrounding the ballpark. Its brightly colored umbrellas and wooden picnic tables stood out on the bright sunny day. Despite being past peak lunch hours, the taqueria was swarming with customers.

The Last Finalist For America’s Best Burrito Is Delicious

This week we journey from Boston to Alabama and from San Francisco to El Paso to determine the fourth entrant in the Burrito Bracket’s final round. If my Round 1 opinions hold, it will be a close match between El Paso’s Delicious Mexican Eatery and San Francisco’s Taqueria Cancún. California already has two restaurants in the finals; does it rate a third?

Your Seven-Point Taco Crawl Game Plan

El Pelón Taqueria owner Jim Hoben might be best recognized for his swooping handlebar mustache and a burrito that is now being lauded as one of the country’s best by David Chang and FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver. But Hoben has some other equally enticing offerings at his two taquerias, including some of the city’s best guacamole, mouth-watering carnitas enchiladas with verde sauce, and an alluring array of tacos.

We Have Now Identified 12 of the 16 Best Burritos in America

We now know the best four burritos in what we define as the Northeast in our Burrito Bracket. Correspondent Anna Maria Barry-Jester traveled from Iowa to Maine as part of our search for America’s best burrito and found some gems along the way — including a burrito with a freshly handmade corn tortilla.

 

‘The Handsome Man’ Burrito And Its Plantains Win by a No

I promised myself I wouldn’t eat the whole burrito at El Pelón Taqueria. It was my second burrito of the day, and late that night I was flying to California to begin the last region of the Burrito Bracket. But who was I to leave behind even a single piece of the sweet, fried plantain embedded throughout the bundle?