Owner Beato Hernandez of Tortilleria Mixteca and Tortilleria Azteca (Photo by Ash Daniel)
There’s the age-old adage “Success doesn’t happen overnight.” Except, in the case of the perfect corn tortilla, it sort of does.
Cooking corn in food-grade lime and soaking it overnight is an integral part of the ancient process of nixtamalization. After, the corn is rinsed and milled — producing finely ground masa harina — which is then mixed with water, formed into rounds of masa dough and run through tortilla ovens.
The result? A seductively fragrant, nutty, slightly chewy tortilla. Once you taste the difference between the mass-produced varieties on most grocery store shelves and the lovingly made, handcrafted version, you’ll be hard-pressed not to become a convert.
The traditional dough-making technique is ubiquitous in Mexico, where it was developed by Mesoamericans more than 3,000 years ago, but not as common here in the states. It can be time-consuming; after the corn is soaked overnight, the rinsing, milling, grinding and cooking process takes about an hour and a half.
“When I moved here in 2000, I couldn’t find any tortilla shops,” Tortilleria Mixteca owner Beato Hernandez says. “The only tortillas you could buy had so many preservatives, they would last in the fridge for two or three months!”
Hernandez was 15 when he relocated to Richmond’s South Side from the Mexican state of Guerrero. He balanced work and school for a while, he says, but his entrepreneurial spirit eventually prevailed, and he devoted himself to making a living. “There is so much opportunity here, not only in Virginia but all over the United States.”
Hernandez opened his first store, Tortilleria Azteca, on Hull Street in 2014. “It was totally empty” at first, Hernandez says, laughing. “We started with one fridge.”
In nearly a decade, Hernandez has opened three more stores across the Richmond region, in addition to one in Fredericksburg, managed by his brother.
Like his other shops, Tortilleria Mixteca, which opened in August at 5172 Nine Mile Road in Henrico, operates as a hybrid store and restaurant. During a shopping trip you can find almost every flavor of Jarritos soda, charcoal-grilled chicken, a Corona Extra piggy bank and an array of Mexican pastries.
The Henrico location also serves as Hernandez’s flagship tortilla factory. Behind swinging doors, just past the hot food case to the right and fresh produce on the left, you’ll find the machines Hernandez hopes to capitalize on.
Imported from Mexico, the tortilla ovens are three levels deep — the largest machine can produce 12,000 an hour. Hernandez says he hopes to supply local restaurants and stores with his product, and “in the next one to two years we can move into a warehouse, something even bigger.”
Hernandez says they are making tortillas — just like the Aztecs before them — every day, typically in the mornings and afternoons, with four people running each machine.
“When we first started making tortillas, people kept coming back and coming back” to buy more, Hernandez says. “Five or six months later we had to get a bigger machine.”
Hernandez anticipates that the demand for high-quality, handcrafted tortillas will only grow as Richmond’s Hispanic community continues to expand. While most restaurants and home chefs use Maseca, a commercially available instant corn flour that is mixed with water, Hernandez says his stores will only ever rely on the thousands-of-years-old, tried-and-true method of nixtamalization.
“Maseca is OK,” he insists. “But corn is better. The flavor, it’s totally separate.”
A consummate community leader, Hernandez has made it his mission to share his business acumen with other immigrants. He says that when he goes back to his village in Guerrero, he always receives a warm homecoming, and villagers often approach him about his many ventures, asking, “How do I do this?”
One such neighbor successfully opened a tortilla shop in Alabama, while Hernandez’s cousin followed his lead and opened Tortilleria Guerrero in Manassas. “My cousin thinks soon he’ll open a second location,” Hernandez says.
While Hernandez says that although it sometimes feels like he’s a bit of a celebrity when he returns home to Mexico, he was not, like his corn tortillas, an overnight success. “I worked 14-hour days for three to four years, I never gave up,” he says.
Hernandez says his days aren’t as long anymore, thanks to devoted store managers. “We work hard — but we have fun, too,” he says with a laugh.
For celebrations such as Dia de los Muertos and Christmas, patrons can expect to see wildly festive decor at all of Hernandez’s shops and plenty of freshly made tamales, a holiday tradition.
“My workers and my family, we all gather for Thanksgiving and for Christmas — the food we eat on special occasions is always tamales, and carne asada and very spicy salsa,” Hernandez says.
Hernandez hopes to keep the celebrations going if the community keeps showing up for hot-off-the-press tortillas. “I would like to have a store in each corner of the country,” he says.
