(gentle upbeat music) (keys jingling) - The type of atmosphere that I'm hoping to create at the restaurant is first, when you walk in, simply, I hope it's inviting.

It's meant to feel like a bit of escapism.

You're somewhere very green and warm and doing that through lighting and plants and people and music and all of that.

You feel welcome and you feel somewhere else.

(gentle upbeat music) My name is Megan Sanchez and I'm the chef and owner of Güero.

(food sizzling) At Güero, we serve home cooking, mainly tortas and other bright sides and fabulous cocktails.

(customers chattering) I say home style because it kind of, just to me, feels like if you're at your grandma's house and she made you a torta or something.

I think it's still a special thing to be able to have a meal that is inviting and affordable and makes you feel you're not wanting for anything and create a satisfying experience where someone just feels taken care of.

(customers chattering) (rhythmic music) What I love about tortas is it's everything you need on one plate between two pieces of bread and, hopefully, there's something exciting inside, just two simple pieces of bread.

(upbeat music) To kind of brighten this big thing that comes on this big roll, we have the tamarind tomato on there.

And then that's topped with onion, that's tossed with cilantro and lime, shredded cabbage and pickled onion.

(soft music) I think I'm seeking something deeply satisfying, paired with something bright, something acidic, something totally fresh.

Then that's the perfect torta.

(gentle upbeat music) (group chattering) - [Speaker] Alex?

We opened the food truck in 2013 and it felt like endless possibilities and I think that is reflective of the age I was when I did it.

You don't know where things are gonna take you and I certainly didn't.

That mine?

- Yeah.

- [Megan] We do this every day.

Felipe was selling to another food truck and we reached out to him and said, "Hey, can we get, like, "maybe a couple rolls a day?"

And his bread was really good and the more popular our tortas got, the more we were hitting up Felipe all the time.

- When they started, they only buy (speaking foreign language) two bags, three bags.

Now, they sell a lot of bread every week.

They sell 1,500 tortas.

Yeah, that's the busy place.

- [Megan] It's been over 11 years of us working together, but having that connection with him allowed for us to imagine a torta specific restaurant.

Maybe one more decade, we'll keep doing it.

- Maybe, yeah.

(Megan laughing) (customers chattering) - I was born in Southern California near my dad's side of the family.

Every family gathering was like 30-plus people, but the Sanchez side was, like, all volume.

When I think of being with them, I think of just masses of people and so much food.

Their ethos is just unconditional love.

Everybody's welcomed and that's the legacy I feel I carry from my dad's side of the family that I hope translates through the restaurant a bit.

(soft music) Moving to Washington, my mom's side of the family, it's a big Egyptian family.

Food is everything.

I got to grow up at my Grandma Emtisal's table.

She notoriously would feed everybody, piling food, you were begging her not to give you onto your plate 'cause once it was there you had to eat it.

And now I do that as well.

When you come to my restaurant, I will like pressure you to eat more than you're comfortable eating and I'm working on it.

I think a common theme with the restaurant is one that relates to me personally of feeling like mixed in every way.

Like the space reflects the people in it and there's 50 of us who I think there's like a genuine diversity in in terms of countries of origin, color, experience.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) I think all of that has turned into like a unique space that doesn't really feel like an easy to identify style of dining.

We have people come in for Valentine's Day sometimes and that's great and then you have like the construction crew down the street working on a project, coming in for a really fast lunch and I like that, I like that range, that makes me feel like we're doing something right.

When I look around the restaurant and it's full and people are having a good time and every table inside being full to every table outside being full, really truly to this day the feeling is still shock.

I'm like, "How did they hear about this place?

How did they know where this little torta restaurant is?"

(soft upbeat music) And then I just feel really grateful for the team that's helping us do something right and bringing those people back consistently.

I'm just happy to still be here.

I'm happy to be getting to do what I do and evolving in it every day.

(soft upbeat music) That's been like the big reward is just to still have somewhere to be, still have somewhere to work every day.

(customers chattering) (no audio)