At Miguel’s Jr., everyone knows about the Garbage Burrito. The unfortunately named dish is stuffed with almost everything on the menu and has been a staple for Riverside County and San Bernardino County customers for decades. The more-is-more construction is complex, but its origin story is simple. One day at work, co-founder Mike Vasquez spotted his daughter making a giant custom burrito for herself, using any (and seemingly every) ingredient at hand.
“She made a burrito with my dad, and he’s all, ‘You just put everything in the garbage can in a burrito,’ because it basically has everything on the menu,” Javier Vasquez, CEO of Miguel’s Jr. and son of Mike Vasquez, told SFGATE. “It looks like garbage. That’s why they called it the Garbage Burrito. My dad wasn’t a marketing guru. He just thought it’d be funny.”
The joke has never worn thin. Forty years after its surprise appearance inside a Miguel’s Jr. kitchen, the Garbage Burrito is just as famous as ever. Its humorous name has helped propel this small but growing regional Mexican chain to nearly two dozen locations across the Inland Empire. Up next: Los Angeles.
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Around 7 p.m. on a fall Friday night, the drive-thru line at the Redlands location of Miguel’s Jr. begins to overcrowd the strip mall. That’s partly because everything is made to order but also because the recipes are exemplary of tasty, fresh California-style Mexican cuisine, with the ease of the drive-thru on hand.
The Garbage Burrito has been on the Miguel’s Jr. menu since the 1980s.
Not everyone has come for the Garbage Burrito, but plenty do. The massive menu item is filled to the brim with refried beans, rice, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, creamy guacamole, sour cream and the customer’s choice of meat. It can be overwhelming for someone who’s used to more straightforward flavors.
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Vasquez says that the burrito isn’t the single most popular item on the menu, but it more than holds its own. The biggest fan favorites are simple California Mexican dishes that have been a staple in the Inland Empire for decades — tacos with a griddled, crispy tortilla and cheesy slow-cooked bean burritos you don’t have to get out of the car for.
“Our food has been the same recipes for 50 years and people enjoy that. We have customers that come and say, ‘I haven’t been in 10 years and it tastes the same,’” Vasquez said.
The story of Miguel’s Jr. begins more than 50 years ago, with the marriage of Javier’s parents, Mary and Mike, who lived in San Bernardino and immigrated to the United States........