Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolina McCandless.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My husband and I moved back to the DMV area from San Francisco, CA after our daughter was born. We opened Cielo Rojo restaurant in 2018 in the current location of San Pancho. After a year- we realized our full-service restaurant would do better in a larger location and it took 2 years for us to build our larger location down the street. We opened Cielo Rojo in our new location in January 2024. We took our time to open this large location with 178 seats and then we launched San Pancho in our smaller original location in July of 2024 as we felt it was a better fit for the 980 SF space to do a fast casual concept with a smaller menu. We wanted to bring San Francisco style burritos to the DMV because we missed this style of burrito from living in SF for so many years. My husband, David Perez, and I met at a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco in 2013. Chef David was working as the kitchen manager and I was working as FOH Manager & bartender/server at the time. We had both worked in the hospitality industry for many years. Carolina starting as a server at age 18 & David starting as a dishwasher at age 17 when he moved to San Francisco from Mexico City.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
There have been many ups and downs in our growth. We have learned a lot through the years and continue to learn. Covid happened 1 year into opening and it was the biggest challenge we faced. The stress, emotional toll, and responsibility we felt for our staffs financial stability & health definitely gave us a lot of grey hairs and lack of sleep. I will say it also taught us that we were capable of pivoting fast and adjusting/tweaking things often. This has been a constant for us. We are always looking for ways to improve and be better every day.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
San Pancho specializes in San Francisco style burritos made with Sonoran-style tortillas imported from Mexico. We use local meats and high quality ingredients such as our rotating margarita slushies made with fresh squeezed juices and pulp. We have a variety of unique Mexican-inspired cafe drinks that are available all-day, such as our organic matcha or Vigilante cold brew with house-made horchata. Our breakfast burritos are also very popular!
How do you define success?
Success to us is doing what you love and being able to share it with others while having a positive impact on your community and the people you love.
Pricing:
- Burritos $9-$18
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sanpanchoburritos.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sanpanchoburritos
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sanpanchoburritos
