Oak Cliff Burrito Company is serving up classic and smothered burritos in its eponymous neighborhood, and they’re doing it out of a beloved taqueria.
The restaurant is operating inside Trompo on Jefferson Boulevard, which will host the trial run for the burrito shop before it moves to a more permanent location a few blocks north, says owner Joe Ramirez. Trompo reopened in September in Oak Cliff’s Jefferson Tower.
Oak Cliff Burrito Company has a limited menu that consists of three types of burritos and a few bowls. The classic burrito is a flour tortilla packed with your choice of meat or veggies, rice, refried beans, pico de gallo, shredded cheese, and salsa. The smothered burrito is a classic burrito drenched in queso, avocado salsa, sour cream, and pico de gallo.
Then there’s El Toro—a monster of a dish— which is a burrito topped with queso and nachos. The El Toro is named after one of Ramirez’s childhood friends, Matt Bull, who came in with a craving for a burrito with nachos on top. (Toro meals “bull” in Spanish.)
In addition to burritos, Oak Cliff Burrito Company also offers nachos, burrito bowls, and a frijole bowl with refried beans and cheese. Burritos come with containers of avocado salsa and brown spicy salsa. Orders must be placed online with pick up at Trompo, or through delivery via Doordash and Uber Eats.
Ramirez grew up in Oak Cliff and says for most of his childhood, he ate burritos more frequently than tacos. If Ramirez wanted tacos, he would eat them at home or at Taco Bell, he says.
“The whole street taco thing that we see now, they just weren’t around,” Ramirez says. “That really started to pop up in the ’90s.”
Oak Cliff Burrito Company initially started out with brisket. Ramirez and his brother started smoking meat in 2016 or 2017, he says, and when they started competing, they became quite serious about it. The rub on the brisket, concocted by Ramirez’s brother and Trompo owner Luis Olvera, is a special, smoky, secret blend of spices and chiles.
At first, the brothers were going to open up a barbecue joint, but Ramirez says barbecue is finite—once all the meat is sold for the day, that’s it. So they tried the brisket in tacos (Trompo used the brisket in some pop-ups). The brisket was a hit, and Ramirez decided to stuff burritos with the meat.
Sometime in the next few months, Ramirez intends to move Oak Cliff Burrito Company into a spot on Davis Street near Encina and Taqueria El Si Hay. For now, Oak Cliff Burrito Company is selling out of Trompo from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ramirez and Olvera are good friends, and the Trompo staff has been making and fulfilling orders on the burrito company’s behalf.
“We’re going to add hours to it, but just right now, as we work out all the kinks, my main focus is like delivering the best product we can,” Ramirez says.
Oak Cliff Burrito Company is operating Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 337 Jefferson Blvd.
This post has been updated with the correct name of the owner.
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