About the family
Rosa's recipes, cooked by her kids
Casa Retama opened in 1994 with nine tables and a borrowed griddle. The Villarreal family has run it every day since.
Since 1994
900 a day- Flour tortillas, rolled by hand
- Run by Marisol and Adrián Villarreal
- Same corner of Paloma Street
A neighborhood place that stayed one
Rosa cooked and Beto ran the register. The retama tree out front, the one with the yellow flowers every spring, gave the place its name because they couldn't agree on anything else.
Their daughter Marisol runs the front of the house and the catering now, and their son Adrián runs the kitchen. Rosa is still at the tortilla station most mornings, retired in name only.
"If the tortilla isn't right, nothing you put in it will save the taco."
Rosa Villarreal, to every new cook
Along the way
- 1994Nine tables, one griddle, breakfast and lunch only
- 2003The patio goes in under the retama tree
- 2011Family packs, after a neighbor asked for enchiladas for forty
- 2019Marisol and Adrián take over from their parents
- 2026Still rolling every tortilla by hand
Rolled by hand before the doors open
At five every morning somebody is mixing flour, shortening, salt, baking powder and warm water. The dough rests, gets pinched into balls, and is rolled out one tortilla at a time and cooked on the comal until it blisters.
That's about nine hundred flour tortillas on a weekday and closer to fifteen hundred on a Saturday. The corn masa is pressed separately for the puffy tacos and enchiladas.
Tortillas by the dozen$6.50at the counter
The people behind the counter
Most of our cooks have been here longer than our newest regulars have lived in the neighborhood. Say hello; they'll remember your order.
Marisol Villarreal
Front of house and catering
She answers the phone more than anyone.
Adrián Villarreal
Kitchen
Grew up doing homework in the back booth, now writes the menu.
Rosa Villarreal
The recipes
The mole, and the tortilla station from 5am.
Lupe Treviño
Tortillas since 1996
Rolls them faster than anyone we've ever hired.