In San Francisco, corner stores are one of the lifelines of a neighborhood. They provide dry goods, snacks, medicine and much more. Some of the best in the city, your Freddie’s in North Beach or McBaker Market near Divisadero Street, double as delis. It’s not far-fetched to say that the best sandwiches in the city likely come from a local liquor store.
But out in the Excelsior, an often-overlooked neighborhood, one corner store doubles as a taqueria — and it’s known for killer crispy carnitas that rival the city’s best.
Don Chuy’s Mexi-Mercado, at 544 Excelsior Ave., is one of the few corner stores in San Francisco that serves as a bastion of Mexican food, not turkey on Dutch crunch. To the people of the Excelsior, Don Chuy’s is well known — it’s not uncommon to see a line of cars double-parked out front while someone goes in to order a carne asada burrito, carnitas torta or garlic shrimp quesadilla. For the uninitiated, it’s worth getting in your car or hopping on Muni to take a trip to the southern part of San Francisco to see what all the fuss is about…