Stock up on ingredients at Tienda Mexicana El Pastorcito

Every Thursday evening, Jose and Bernice Tecuanhuehue embark on a road trip to Maryland that lasts less than 24 hours.

“It’s fun. We get to spend time on the road and see people we know out there,” he says.

The purpose of the trip is to pick up sought-after specialty items — homemade chorizo, small batch Mexican oregano and locally prepared queso fresco — and a truck full of bulk ingredients for their latest venture, Tienda Mexicana El Pastorcito.

The bounty is at the heart of the Monroeville small grocery store the couple opened earlier this year. Over the past few months it’s grown into a destination for Mexican and Central American ingredients.

“We’re a little hidden away, but the business is going really well. When people come here, they always want to come back,” Tecuanhuehue says.

Customers will find small-batch corn tortillas made in Cleveland in the cold case, as well as sour creams, cheese and helpful recipe boosters such as mole concentrate. There’s a small selection of fresh produce that includes (at least for the next few weeks) several types of locally grown hot peppers and fresh herbs.

The fresh sections are typically better stocked on the weekends and begin to diminish a bit throughout the week as the Tecuanhuehues prepare for their next restock run to Maryland.

There are always plenty of dry and canned ingredients such as assorted beans, salsas and chiles in adobo on the shelves — plus a variety of snacks including an array of Mexican and Central American seasoned potato chips, spiced pumpkin seeds and cookies.

“Latino people come in here looking for treats from home that they might not be able to find in other places here,” he says.

Tecuanhuehue uses the products he’s stocking, too. His Maryland trips include wholesale purchase of a wide variety of dried chiles, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves and other herbs and spices that go into his recipes he’s serving on the family’s food truck parked outside the store, mobile food trailer and New Kensington restaurant.

“All I have to do is grab them from my stock and use them for whatever I need,” he says.

Tecuanhuehue, a native of Puebla, Mexico, worked in area restaurants such as Casa Reyna, Hyde Park and Braddock’s American Brasserie. After briefly working in construction, he and Bernice, born in Oaxaca, launched their Taqueria El Pastorcito food trailer in 2021; it’s still active at breweries and events around town. A year later, they opened the New Kensington restaurant.

Tecuanhuehue uses the food truck parked outside the store to offer dishes like those using handmade masa bases for quesadillas with huitlacoche and sopes topped with beans, nopales, al pastor pork and avocado alongside tacos and burritos.

“I feel good. I feel like I’m making a contribution to the community. It’s a nice feeling.”

3900 Monroeville Blvd, Monroeville; elpastorcitomonroeville.com