Meet Cesar Cortez of El Brewjo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cesar Cortez

Hi Cesar, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I am an OC native who was born a creative. I spent a lot of my adult life ignoring my call to create and it led me to a career that I altogether was unhappy with. When the pandemic hit, I had the realization that I was not answering my call in life and I left my career and took a risk and started El Brewjo which is a Smashburger & Tater Tot pop up, that has allowed me to delve into my creativity to provide well crafted burgers as well as brand for my community. Additionally, I have a mission, along with other business owners and allies to create a gayborhood in OC. Los Angeles has West Hollywood, San Francisco has Castro District, San Diego has Hillcrest and Orange County has nothing. Growing up in OC, I felt like I never quite fit and to this day, our county only has a total of about 3-4 gay bars/clubs. Representation is lacking and I have a calling to help establish this community in our county.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall I feel very fortunate to have my business pan out the way it has. I have had the wonderful support of family, friends and my colleagues in the food industry who have helped lead the way. Without the support of family and friends, my business and brand wouldn’t have had the exposure it got off the bat. Had it not been for my colleagues, I’d miss out on important information that led me to doing things in the proper way. I had no formal business background so I was going in completely blind. A lot of the path was self discovered but again we wouldn’t have the success we do now, without the fine folks who make up our support system.

The biggest challenge I face is how to properly grow the business’ presence both online and in person. We have been in business for about 4 years now, which is a success in itself, but I feel there is still potential to grow our brand and our name. I also am challenged with how I am going to go about uniting businesses, allies, city officials, the LGBTQ+ center etc. to help establish this gayborhood district in OC for our community that desperately needs it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about El Brewjo?
El Brewjo is a smashburger pop up serving Orange County since 2021. We specialize in offering various smashburger options with branding that incorporates our Mexican heritage while we pay homage to an American classic. I have dubbed our offerings as American Fare with a Mexican Flair.

We are known for our flavors, our branding and our burger names which include “La Basic Bitch” our standard smashburger with pickles and onions, “La Hot Mess” our jalapeno smashburger and “El Walk of Shame” our Breakfast smashburger.

We also offer a specials series we dubbed our “Daddy Series.” We pay homage to the burger giants aka DADDYS like In N Out, McDonalds & Carl’s Jr. We offer our versions of each of their famous offerings. Like our “El Cali Daddy” smashburger inspired by the In N Out Double Double, our “El Mac Daddy” which is our version of McDonalds McDouble, and our “El Lasso Daddy” which our version of Carl’s Jr’s Double Western Bacon Cheeseburger. Each of these offerings will have similarities to the nostalgia of each burger, with our own Brewjo flavors incorporated.

I am most proud of our 2nd place title in the LAist & Smorgasburg Tournament of Cheeseburgers in 2024. We were the only burger joint out of OC to make the top 4 and we are now proudly the second best burger in SoCal and the best burger in OC.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I absolutely welcome collaborative opportunities with other pop ups, restaurants, chefs, foodies, and organizations that share our common goal of sharing our culture, our story and our mission with our community. If anyone is interested in teaming up to spearhead our mission in helping create a gayborhood in OC for our community, please contact me.

Pricing:

• La Basic Bitch – $14
• La Hot Mess – $15
• El Walk of Shame – $16
• Tater Tots – $5
• Daddy Series Burgers – $15

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.elbrewjoburgers.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elbrewjo
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elbrewjo/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/el-brewjo-orange-2

Image Credits
James Dean of Clear Frame Creative