Comida hecha como en casa.

In 2008, María and Refugio Herrera opened a small counter on West Commerce Street with one comal, a family recipe for barbacoa, and a stack of hand-pressed tortillas. The neighborhood came. Then the line went around the block. Then the line never really left.

Sixteen years later, the comal is the same — only bigger. The salsas are still ground in a volcanic stone molcajete. The masa is still pressed by hand each morning. The barbacoa still cooks overnight, wrapped in maguey leaves, exactly the way María's grandmother did it in Guanajuato.

Some things, you don't change. You just keep showing up at 5 a.m. and doing them again.