A taqueria on South Escondido Avenue, wedged into the same block as a Little Caesars, has landed on the New York Times’ 2026 list of 50 favorite restaurants in the United States. Mesa Agrícola, owned by chef Juan González and farmer Megan Strom, is one of just three California restaurants to make the cut, and it did so barely a year after opening its doors as a counter-service shop at 707 S. Escondido Blvd.
A Bean Farm’s Legacy Meets a Counter-Service Kitchen
The recognition, reported by The San Diego Union-Tribune, places Mesa Agrícola alongside Yerord Mas Bakery and Deli in Glendale and Bar Panisse in Berkeley on the Times’ national roundup. Restaurant critic Eleanore Park reportedly visited the taqueria undercover several times months before the list was published, describing it as a spot with six tables inside and out serving no-frills burritos and tacos, per the Union-Tribune’s reporting. Strom told the paper that the Times reached out to the restaurant about a month before the honor was announced, and that the recognition validated the work behind their self-funded restaurant and farm businesses.
The land underpinning that farm has its own story. The five-acre Valley Center farm that supplies Mesa Agrícola’s kitchen was gifted to Strom and González by retiring heirloom bean farmer Mike Reeske, according to San Diego Magazine. Reeske, a heritage bean farmer, passed his agricultural legacy directly to Strom, the magazine reports. That farm sits roughly 12 miles from the restaurant, and its produce underlies the entire menu, per the Union-Tribune.
From Los Angeles Sous Chef to Baja-Rooted Kitchen
Strom and González’s partnership predates the restaurant by years. The two met in 2019 at a restaurant in Silver Lake, Los Angeles, where González was working as a sous chef, and they began dating during the COVID-19 pandemic before moving to Santa Barbara and eventually San Diego in 2022, according to the Union-Tribune. Strom, who has farmed for almost 20 years, had previously delivered specialty produce from a Coachella Valley farm in 2019. The couple now lives in Valley Center, where Strom was offered the chance to farm a quarter-acre at Rio del Rey heirloom beans farm before eventually taking over the larger Reeske property.
González was born and raised in Rosarito, Baja California, and worked in Los Angeles restaurants, San Diego Magazine reports. That cross-border background shows up directly in his technique: his cooking leans on open-fire methods and nixtamalization, the traditional process of using alkaline-infused water to break down corn’s outer layer for masa, per the Union-Tribune. Mesa Agrícola mills all of the corn used in its house-made tortillas in-house, and it also works with local supplier Somos Maíz to source nixtamalized corn masa, according to SDFoodies.
Guisados, Aguas Frescas, and a Long Road to a Storefront
The restaurant specializes in taqueria de guisados, preparing 10 to 12 rotating guisados each day alongside aguas frescas and Basque-style cheesecake, per the Union-Tribune. Guisados are regional Mexican stews and braises, and the format has built the restaurant a loyal following among industry workers and foodies since it opened. But the storefront was years in the making: before establishing its permanent Escondido location in August 2025, Mesa Agrícola built its brand through pop-up dining events and a kitchen residency on Monday and Tuesday evenings at Solana Beach’s Vino Carta, according to The Coast News. The team served rotating farm-driven menus two nights a week at Vino Carta during that stretch, the outlet reported.
Mesa Agrícola marked its first anniversary in August 2026, just weeks before the Times honor arrived, and it remains open Wednesday through Sunday. In the kitchen, González handles all cooking and daily management, while Strom helps at the counter when she is not farming, per the Union-Tribune. She is currently planting corn from a seedkeeper on a Hopi tribe reservation and plans to harvest her first hand-grown restaurant corn, an heirloom variety from central Mexico, in a few weeks.
Escondido's Broader Food-Tech Push
Strom’s connection to Escondido runs beyond her own restaurant. She earned second place in the City of Escondido’s AgX Hackathon and partners with regional agricultural organization Foodshed to join the food hub at Escondido’s AgX Innovation Hub, according to the Escondido Times-Advocate. The hub also includes a planned food hub. Strom’s farm supplies produce to her own kitchen, per San Diego Magazine.
Bigger Stage: A Jazz Festival Dinner and Possible Pop-Ups
Mesa Agrícola’s tiny footprint has pushed the pair to find room to grow off-site. The restaurant plans to host a dinner on October 3 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, as part of the San Diego Tijuana International Jazz Festival, catering a rancho-style farm-to-table dinner interlude at the Cantina on the Green as part of a $125 Friends of the Festival add-on, according to the California Center for the Arts. The festival spans four days across San Diego, Tijuana, and Escondido. Mesa Agrícola will also cook at Sage Hill Garden at the end of October, per the Union-Tribune.
Because its Escondido storefront cannot feasibly host dinners given its limited indoor space, Strom told the Union-Tribune that traveling cooking events and pop-up dinners at restaurants with similar food philosophies may become a bigger part of the business going forward. She said González’s diverse skills could support that kind of sustainable growth. The Times’ 2025 edition was compiled from 76 flights to eat over 200 meals across 33 states, according to Patch. San Diego County has landed on the list before — Patch also noted that the Times selected Lilo, a 22-seat tasting counter in Carlsbad, for its 2025 roster after the restaurant opened earlier that year and earned a Michelin star the same summer.
