Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Restaurants A visit to Bell Street Burritos in West Midtown
Posted by Cliff Bostock @cliffbostock on Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 12:44 PM
The restaurant's story is already in danger of morphing into an urban legend. Owner Matt Hinton is a former theology professor who was addicted to the so-called San Francisco-style burritos at Tortillas, an appealingly shabby Midtown joint beloved by students, alternative types, rock musicians and foodies. It opened in the mid-'80s and was, according to Wikipedia, one of the first San Francisco-style burrito joints on the East Coast. It closed in 2003, in the shadow of obnoxious competitors like Moe's and Willy's.
Hinton, trying to supplement his income at Spelman College, decided to bring back Tortillas as West End Burritos in 2009. He made 50 burritos a week for delivery to customers. Then, with demand growing, he opened a stall at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market. The problem there is that the market's hours limit business to lunchtime.
At this new location — the original is not closing — Hinton has expanded the menu and added dinner hours. The burritos really are like something transported from Tortillas by time machine. My favorite will always be the shrimp burrito with roasted green chiles added to the plump red beans and rice, along with a generous squirt of green sauce. It's pure comfort food.
Don't be alarmed if you're a person who likes to stuff his burrito with 30 ingredients. There are plenty of extras to add, but you don't want to crowd the flavor of the slow-cooked beans.
Despite the obvious inspiration, Hinton told me that he's expunged all Tortillas references from his business materials to avoid confusion. And he certainly hasn't limited himself to Tortillas' menu. For example, I ordered a taco made with double corn tortillas, melted cheese, grilled onions, chipotle salsa and green chiles. It tasted far more like a taco from a Buford Highway taqueria than from the San Francisco-style Tortillas. I loved it.
Hinton's redo of the brightly lit place is charming, with "crazy objects" on the walls. Most striking is the largest fan you have ever seen looming overhead. Hinton used to sell architectural antiques, and the fan is an apparent remnant of those days. It looks like it belongs in a 1940s newsreel about the triumph of technology over still air.
I asked Hinton, who has been working 18 hours a day to get the restaurant open, if he is happy about the way things are going. He told me a story about someone recently congratulating him on achieving his "dream."
"This was not my dream," he said, laughing. "I'm glad to have this, but it was never my plan to open a restaurant." It gives him pleasure, but he misses teaching.
That's understandable, but for those of us selfishly steeped in nostalgia, Bell Street Burritos is indeed a dream come true.
(The restaurant is located in the building formerly occupied by Social House at 1663 Howell Mill Rd.; 404-835-2018).
Comments (13)
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So, are you quoting the "crazy objects" part from somewhere, being sarcastic, or just using scare quotes for, um, funsies or something?
@Hack McWriter - It seems to me "crazy objects" could be a direct quote from someone who described the objects on the wall as crazy (perhaps by Mr. Hinton or someone else, yet unattributed), or they are used to denote "crazy objects" as an apologetic title or phrase, for the "crazy objects" on the walls. I'm curious as to why you felt it "important" to call attention to it. Does it offend you or confuse you? Do you, for what ever "reason," have a compelling need to show everyone else just how "smart" you are? Or is it just that the use of quotation marks "interests" you?
No more Grazing + personal attacks on writer + more time for Cliff to respond to comments = incredibly entertaining. I still don't understand why people call out the writer when they dislike what they write about. Commenting on the content and making your point will go a lot farther than cheep shots.
BSB beans are insanly good! They MAKE the burrito. Had the shrimp and they were not so good (i.e. not fresh and awefully fishy). But the chicken, steak, and GREEN CHILE are great choices. Chips ae not bad either. I'm glad Matt found a home.
@go to helvetica - I asked because people constantly use quotations marks incorrectly/haphazardly, and I was hoping there was some explanation to this. Grammar is important. Words, punctuation, these things matter—especially when you're getting paid to use them.
@Nom Nom Nom - I was commenting on the content. The content is his writing, which is what I was making a point about. It wasn't a personal attack any more than the thing I was asking about was written by a person.
@Hack: Silly me. I thought the context -- a conversation with Matt Hinton -- and the presence of his name in the same sentence, made attribution kinda obvious. But, yeah, it could have been clearer -- at least as clear as the tone of your post and the intent of your screen name du jour.
Nom Nom Nom says that I have more time to reply to content. Not exactly. I long ago stopped reading comments for the most part. Between commenters' ineptly hidden agendas and Multiple Screen Name Personality Disorder, the typical conversation is like battling the clones of General Dru-Zod.
My actual reason for reading comments lately is that I'm likely teaching a graduate class in cyber psychology in the spring. As part of developing a syllabus, I thought it might be useful to return here to Planet Bizarro for a while. (I really do think cyberspace has become the domain of the repressed and the compensatory.)
Anyway, Grazing is not going away. It is going monthly for the present. I'll continue posting here but it would obviously make little sense to comment frequently when I'm paid piecemeal for blog posts themselves and nothing for subjecting myself to reading and responding to fuckery. That's typically less fun than eating ground glass.
And, finally, I'd like to say that I am always happy to engage in email exchanges with readers, as long as they identify themselves and don't try to bury me in an avalanche of the personal shit spread around here like a young pate barely infused with bittersweet notes of lost adolescence and glimmering slightly with flecks of dead brain cells as faintly salty as tears shed in the heart's "sehnsucht" at 4 in the morning. But, yes, I've swapped email for years with readers, especially when I was writing my other column, "Headcase."
Bell Street is about as good as it gets in Atlanta for burritos and they deserve accolades. But it is borderline heresy to put them in the same company as actual Mission burritos. Perhaps Matt Hinton should take a research trip out to SF (it's a write off!) Get a Super Al Pastor from El Farolito and see what's what. Or take a small step down and grab a carne asada from Taqueria Cancun. The least he could do is give his salsa verde some kick and add pureed avocado to it. Overall, good work. But work on it.
BSB is crazy good. Finally got there today and it tops all burrito and taco joints. Beans are really good - and the pork green chili burrito was excellent. It's worth a visit.
@HM:
Speaking of unclear: "It wasn't a personal attack any more than the thing I was asking about was written by a person."
Glass houses, right?
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