Fresh Tortillas at North Park Produce El Cajon (Pancho Villa follow up)
So I checked out North Park Produce's fresh tortillas this morning. There have been a lot of rumors circulating about Pancho Villa closing down and NPP taking over their tortilla operation (equipment and workers), and I want to address some of those rumors and include some notes from my visit this morning. Sorry, I didn't take any pictures inside of NPP; the store was empty and I thought the staff might find it a little weird.
- NPP isn't using the same equipment / setup as PV had been using. NPP is using an cylindrical automatic type machine that the tortillas run through before popping out the bottom fully cooked. Their is no rotating tortilla griddle, and the tortillas aren't being cooked or floured by hand. While I was there, the worker was simply bagging the tortillas by hand after they popped out of the automatic machine.
- The worker bagging tortillas while I was there did not appear to be one of the old workers from PV. I don't know whether NPP produce hired PV's workers as had been rumored, but I feel confident he wasn't one of them.
- NPP has hot and fresh tortillas during my visit ($3.99/dozen), but in my opinion they weren't as good as the old PV tortillas. They were a bit less salty and just seemed more generic. They weren't really special besides being warm. I was really optimistic they were going to replicate the old PV tortillas. I don't see myself going out of my way for NPP tortillas in the future (at least in their current state).
- On the bright side, I hadn't been to NPP in years, and it was a lot cleaner and nicer than I remembered.