A restaurant in Washington D.C. co-owned by a McAllen resident is bringing Michelin-grade Tex-Mex food to the nation’s capital.
La Tejana is a small restaurant that offers authentic breakfast tacos that have gained considerable popularity in DC. Despite its small size, the restaurant won a prestigious Michelin Bib Gourmand award for its affordable yet high-quality food.
The restaurant is co-owned by Ana-Maria Jaramillo, who grew up in Monterrey, Mexico as daughter of Colombian immigrants but who eventually moved to McAllen, Texas, where Jaramillo was introduced to the breakfast taco.
“(It’s) the birthplace of the breakfast taco. It’s like the Mecca of Tex-Mex,” she said in an interview with WTOP.
She recalls that she once took her now-husband from Maryland, Gus May, to McAllen to one of her favorite breakfast taco joints.
“He takes a bite, and he’s like, ‘Oh my god. What is this? I have never had a tortilla like this. I have never had eggs like this,’” Jaramillo told WTOP. “He was like, ‘We don’t have anything like this in D.C. If you and I stay together … and you end up moving to D.C., we have to open up a breakfast taco shop.’”
Back in D.C., they began selling tortillas. Jaramillo recalls selling as much as 700 tortillas in one day. After their success, they took the next step and opened La Tejana as a brick-and mortar joint in 2022.
In 2023, they were awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand award.
“There isn’t a morning that can’t be made or a long night that can’t be undone thanks to Ana-Maria Jaramillo and Gus May,” the Michelin Guide wrote about La Tejana. “Quick and efficient, this simple counter serves just coffee and a handful of tacos mined from a time living in Texas. Their breakfast tacos offer a singular kind of satisfaction, each one made with a superb flour tortilla kept warm in tightly wrapped foil.”
The restaurant also has vegan and vegetarian options for its customers and offers five different types of sauces.
WTOP als reports that Jaramillo has a successful professional life outside the restaurant. She works full time as a pediatric speech pathologist and part-time as an adjunct professor at George Washington University in the college’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences. She works with bilingual children that have mental and physical deficiencies, focusing on the local immigrant community.