Veteran restaurateurs open fast-casual Tortilla Shack in Santa Cruz

Last week, Tortilla Shack, a new fast-casual restaurant from the owners of Santa Cruz’s Izakaya West End and Capitola’s East End Gastropub, opened on Commercial Way in Santa Cruz, across the street from Dominican Hospital. 

The menu centers around a quick service burrito bar, with options for custom burrito bowls, salads, quesadillas, tacos and nachos. For each item, guests select their meat or vegetarian filling – chili-rubbed sirloin ($15.25), citrus herb chicken ($13.25), pastor pork shoulder ($13.50), Baja-style fried fish ($15.50) or sautéed squash tossed in spicy salsa macha ($12.25) – as well as black or pinto beans and white or brown rice. 

Once they have the basics down, each order can be customized with 24 different toppings, such as roasted corn salsa or grilled peppers and onions, and numerous salsas and sauces, like aji verde, a creamy Peruvian salsa with jalapeños and cilantro. With the exception of guacamole ($3) and queso blanco ($2), all of the toppings are included in the price of the item. 

The ordering process might be a fast-food model, but the quality of ingredients and chef-crafted recipes set Tortilla Shack apart from other quick eats – as does the large tortilla press and griddle at the start of the line.

Every tortilla is pressed and griddled to order, a flourish that is as entertaining as it is appetizing. Customers choose among a plain white flour tortilla, a green-tinged spinach and garlic tortilla or a red tortilla made with chipotle peppers and smoked cheddar. The corresponding ball of fresh dough is pressed into a huge disk, and, in less than a minute, cooked over a piping-hot stove until bubbly and aromatic. 

Hargrave compares the freshly made tortillas to homemade bread. “There’s something intangible about freshness. You’re picking up on the smell of something cooking, visually it’s more striking, and it all adds up to a great product,” he said. 

The green Baja burrito ($15.50), a Tortilla Shack special, was crunchy and herbaceous. Within an aromatic green tortilla still warm from the press were strips of panko-fried cod, cabbage and vibrant aji verde and creamy Baja sauce. 

It’s easy to get carried away while choosing toppings for a burrito bowl, but maximalists are welcome here. By the end of the line, my zucchini salsa macha bowl ($12.25) with brown rice and black beans was finished with an appetizing mess of corn salsa, mole-like chipotle sauce, grilled peppers and onions, more salsa macha – a chili crisp-like salsa made with sesame seeds, pepitas and cashews – guacamole and cilantro. 

All of the ingredients are made on site daily by Tortilla Shack’s kitchen staff, led by chef Adam Becerra, a co-owner of Tortilla Shack and the former head chef at West End. (After opening in 2013, that restaurant rebranded as Izakaya West End in June.)

The fast-casual, takeout and delivery-friendly format at Tortilla Shack is a deviation for the restaurant group. Hargrave and business partner Quinn Cormier founded East End and West End as dine-in, gastropub-style restaurants in the mid-2010s. Capitola’s East End offers dinner five nights a week, and brunch on the weekends, while Izakaya serves lunch and dinner seven days a week on Santa Cruz’s Westside. 

Tortilla Shack’s location near Dominican Hospital and other medical offices and its proximity to Highway 1 inspired Hargrave, Cormier and Becerra to create a dining option that would appeal to those workers. 

“Full-service restaurants are tough,” Hargrave said. Inflated costs of everything from labor to materials make managing a large restaurant difficult, and he has noticed that more diners prefer takeout and delivery options since the pandemic. “This style of restaurant seems to be more of the future of dining.”

1505 Commercial Way, Santa Cruz; 831-515-7014; tortillashack1.com. 

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FOR THE RECORD: This story has been updated to remove a comparison of Tortilla Shack to a fast-food chain.

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