Trompo tacos are now spinning at 314 Broadway E, where El Pastorcito Taqueria has set up shop in a space that has seen restaurant after restaurant come and go over the past decade. Owner Fabian Munoz says he wants customers to feel like they have stepped into Mexico the moment they walk in, and he is not stopping at the menu to make that happen.
According to CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News, El Pastorcito Taqueria serves Tijuana-style food centered on trompo tacos and tortas, with its masa and meat prepared in-house. Owner Fabian Munoz told the outlet that a custom tortilla machine ordered from Mexico is expected in two or three months. The machine is intended to increase production beyond what the restaurant can manage by hand, according to Munoz.
Munoz also told CHS that he is working with the meat distributor on a higher-grade product for the trompo and that customers have been returning. The restaurant is co-owned by Pedro Barragan Bautista, who also operates the original El Pastorcito in Kent, along with Mr. Cammaron Bar & Grill and the El Pollo Rey food truck, according to the same report.
A Remodel Aimed at Making the Space Feel Whole
Beyond the kitchen, El Pastorcito is planning a dining room remodel, with plans to paint the walls, install TVs, and remodel the back area of the restaurant. Munoz said he wants the dining room and front area to feel like the same restaurant, unified rather than patched together, per the CHS report.
Part of that atmosphere already comes from an unusual detail: the tables and chairs inside are Coca-Cola branded furniture, the kind of promotional seating that beverage distributors in Mexico provide free to restaurants there. Munoz described the pastor tacos and the overall vibe as central to what he is building, and he has invited people to come try the restaurant for themselves, the outlet reported.
A Building With a Long, Complicated History
The address has a substantial restaurant history of its own. The space operated for 22 years as The Grill on Broadway, a noted LGBTQ community gathering place, before closing in April 2013, as CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News reported at the time. The building then remained vacant for more than six years, a period the outlet attributed to high rent and needed infrastructure work.
The space reopened in December 2019 as Olmstead, a New American restaurant and bar from Witness owner Gregg Holcomb and chef Jesse Elliott. Later, it became Paradise, a Mexican diner serving all-day Mexican-American comfort food before turning over to El Pastorcito.
Late Nights and a Crowded Taco Corridor
El Pastorcito is leaning into the same late-night rhythm, with hours running until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights aimed squarely at Capitol Hill's weekend crowds, according to the CHS report. That approach mirrors Barragan Bautista's Kent operations, where both El Pastorcito's original location and Mr. Cammaron Bar & Grill function as late-night venues with live DJs and dancing.
What the Address’s Past Means for Late-Night Dining
Independent reporting places the building’s restaurant turnover in a longer timeline: The Stranger reported that The Grill on Broadway closed at 314 Broadway E on April 28, 2013, ending a 22-year run. Eater Seattle later reported that the former Broadway Grill space had been inactive for six years before the planned Olmstead project. Those were prior tenants and a prior vacancy, separate from El Pastorcito’s current operation. El Pastorcito’s advertised late hours also fall into a different category from Seattle’s after-hours-lounge rules. The Seattle City Council said in 2025 that regulations for establishments open between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. do not apply to restaurants, distinguishing late-night food service such as El Pastorcito’s from the regulated venue category.
The new taqueria also joins what has become a dense taco community along the 300 block of Broadway East and beyond. The restaurant group behind the former Paradise diner still operates Birrieria Jalisco #1 and the Antojitos Jalisco food truck nearby, while brother chefs Rey and Osiel Gastelum opened a brick-and-mortar Tacos Cometa storefront near the Pike/Pine end of Broadway in March 2026, specializing in Sinaloan-style charcoal-grilled carne asada tacos after building a following near Cal Anderson Park, according to The Stranger.
Longer-running names anchor the corridor too. Tacos Chukis debuted above Broadway Alley in 2011, popularizing Tijuana-style adobada tacos in the neighborhood before expanding citywide, per the South Seattle Emerald. Carmelo's Tacos, which started as a counter inside Hillcrest Market, expanded onto Broadway in 2025, and La Cocina has served the neighborhood for more than 45 years as its longest-standing Mexican dining anchor.
For Munoz, the goal is straightforward even amid all that company: better food, a better space, and a room that feels like a genuine slice of Mexico on Broadway.
