What to expect at a new Durham restaurant moving from pop-up to brick-and-mortar
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Hatch Burritos shifts from pop-ups to a permanent Durham site, offering New Mexico dishes
- Owner Talitha Benjamin centers menu on Hatch green chile, breakfast burritos and stew
- Restaurant runs a limited menu now and will add dishes ahead of January opening
A new local restaurant is bringing a taste of New Mexico to Durham.
After years of opening as a pop-up, Hatch Burritos has found a permanent home to serve its classic breakfast burritos and other authentic New Mexican cuisine.
Local foodies may remember owner Talitha Benjamin’s breakfast burritos packed with potatoes, eggs and green chile from the Accordion Club dive bar in Durham in 2017. That’s where she began to bring a piece of home in New Mexico to a new venture in the Triangle.
“I really missed green chile and so I figured out how to bring the green chile to me. You couldn’t find this particular kind of breakfast burrito here ... and I started making them on Sundays and then over the years, it became a little event for us,” she told The News & Observer.
Fast-forward a few years (and a few pop-up events at various local businesses), she’s now in her own restaurant with recipes and a name as a nod to New Mexico — specifically the spicy green chile grown in the Hatch Valley.
“That’s where they have these chiles and have been growing these specific kinds of chilies for hundreds of years, and there’s something just really special about them,” said Benjamin, who moved from New Mexico to the Triangle in 2007.
“So Hatch is in reference to eggs, breakfast and morning and then also certainly Hatch, New Mexico.”
During this time, Hatch Burritos is open with a limited menu with more options to be added ahead of its official grand opening in January.
Aside from her spicy and savory breakfast, you can also get a taste of lunch burritos and green chile stew too. Burrito prices range from $8-$12 and the stew starts at $12 while chips, salsas and sweets range from $4-6.
“One thing I’m very aware of is keeping it New Mexican because it is a very unique and small area. Relatively speaking, it’s a very small cuisine whereas Mexico has a dynamic, diverse world class cuisine,” Benjamin explained.
“We are very, like, New Mexico grandma’s kitchen. We’ll always be very simple, kind of feel good foods so I’m always trying to be really aware to not diverge into Mexican cuisine ... As much as I love Mexican food, I really want to be respectful of Mexican cuisine and then also represent this really small, kind of homey cuisine.”