New Burrito/Taco Stand At Graze Offers Taste Of SoCal
The latest kitchen to open at Graze Food Hall by Travail is Berto’s, offering a distinct style of burritos and tacos that you usually won’t find outside of southern California or the Baja region.
For example, there’s a California beef burrito packed with crispy French fries instead of rice.
Mike Brown at Berto’s
“When you bite into it, you actually get a little bit of a crunch,” said owner Mike Brown. “Completely different flavor profile with that beef and potato mixed together. It has become a very big favorite of not only the Mexican culture down there, but also, the gringos! And it’s something that a lot of people will make a point to eat weekly.”
Berto’s is a passion project for Brown, who is one of the owners of Travail Collective, the company that’s been operating Graze since the fall of 2024. His mother’s family owned restaurants with this style of cooking as he was growing up.
“This is a cuisine that I grew up eating,” he said. “It’s an homage to the flavors of, like, Tijuana and Rosarita, kind of mixing the flavors of the Baja.”
Berto’s replaces Tixtli by Nixta. Another yet-to-be-announced kitchen concept from Travail is also coming soon, as the company slowly starts to fill the food hall with its own entities.
“The restaurant and food hall landscape has been changing, right,” said director of operations Molly Herrmann, “and so we are changing with it and doing what we feel the neighborhood wants. We’ve been getting lots of calls for Mexican and there’s some other calls for pasta and sushi that might be down the line.”
In the meantime, Graze is filling its calendar with winter events, including a Graze Aprés Ski Party on January 31st, featuring DJs outside from 7-9pm, and then inside from 9pm on. You can find those events here.
By Mike Binkley, North Loop volunteer