I’d never been to Las Cuatros Milpas when there wasn’t a line snaking out into street. But I’d never been there for breakfast.
Now I have, and I can report that if you get there at 8:30 a.m., when the doors open, not only can you waltz right in, but you may even be able to snag a parking space in front of the door, where the smells of old-fashioned Mexican home cooking will reach out and engulf you like a hug from an old friend.
Mind you, they’re not exactly breakfast smells, if you’re thinking coffee and bacon. The menu stays the same throughout the day, offerings that many locals proclaim to the be best Mexican food in San Diego. Quantify that at bit — call it best Mexican hole-in-the-wall joint that makes you feel like you’re in Mexico — and it’s hard to think of many other contenders. And none are more venerable. Petra and Natividad Estudillo opened Las Cuatro Milpas on this same spot (1875 Logan Avenue, in Barrio Logan) in 1933, and their crew has been dishing up these standards ever since.
Over the course of those 76 years, it doesn’t look to have inched one whit upscale. The walls are a grubby, if bright, blue. Picnic benches are covered with checkered vinyl cloth. There’s no coffee, and the only water comes from an industrial-style faucet set up against a wall in one of the loosely connected dining rooms. Don’t even think of proffering a credit card.
The food hasn’t been healthified either. Lard reigns. But the tortillas, hand-made daily, command legions of passionate devotees, and the beans are as tender and flavorful as they come. The staff is friendly. Everything’s cheap. On my recent foray, my friend and I got two delicious tacos, rice, beans, a dozen tortillas and a bottle of Dr. Pepper for $7.50, and we couldn’t finish it all.
