If you like your burgers with a colorful and flavorful Mexican twist, you’ll love The Food Box in Pacific Beach.
Promoted as “so much more than just a burger,” the eatery, in business since last November, offers delectable gourmet hamburguesas with a novel mix of ingredients at reasonable prices.
The food concept has been imported all the way from Monterrey, Mexico, where The Food Box began in 2013.
“Juan Angel Martinez, our founder, had a dream of making the best and most unique and delicious burgers in town,” states the company’s website at The Food Box, so much more than just a burger. “He accomplished that dream and a lot has happened since then. We have launched a burger into space, been in Formula One, and even on Shark Tank Mexico. Now we have more than 10 branches in Mexico, and we just opened our first branch out of Mexico in Pacific Beach in San Diego.”
Jorge de la Vega, the restaurant’s owner-manager, said The Food Box started out in Monterrey, Mexico as a dark kitchen, a fully equipped commercial kitchen specializing in producing food exclusively for delivery, without dining areas or customer seating.
Producing the company’s signature takeout box from which the restaurant derives its name, de la Vega talked about the changes they made when they moved into their PB retail space.“We painted a mural, we made some changes in the kitchen,” he said discussing the menu. “My business partner (Martinez) is a chef and he made all the recipes. What we do is a perfect mix of meat and both spicy and sweet ingredients.”
The Food Box offers six classic burgers – Lewis, Calvin, Spurgeon (spicy), King James (mild), Spurgeon Infit (spicy), and Billy Cheese – on its menu along with a churro bowl dessert, a chipotle dressing and sides including a couple of different varieties of fries, onion rings, and a salad. Also on the menu are three chicken sandwiches – Macarthur, Whitefield, and Graham – as well as chicken tenders.
Cuisine at The Food Box was described by de la Vega as a hybrid of Mexican and American. “Our burgers have the most unique and delicious flavors combined, with a perfect mix of sweet and sour which is what makes The Food Box experience so incredible,” states the company’s website.
“We are very inspired by Mexican ingredients and you will see that most in the Spurgeon (burger), which is like a Mexican carne asada,” noted de la Vega adding, “You will see chili on most of our burgers. We also have a traditional cheeseburger (Billy cheese).”
Speaking of dessert, de la Vega noted: “We have marzipan, a Mexican peanut candy, with bacon in a shake and it’s really popular. Our other dessert is our churro bowl with ice cream on top and nuts.”
“The other thing that is very special for us is that we always do everything from scratch,” concluded de la Vega adding, “We marinate all our meats. We do all our dressings from scratch. We don’t buy anything frozen. We buy everything fresh, so the quality of our ingredients is very high.”
THE FOOD BOX
Where: 978 Garnet Ave.
Hours: Mondays-Wednesdays. 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Thursdays-Saturdays 11 a.m.-11 p.m., closed Sundays
Información: tfbburgers.com, 858-352-6095.
