Growing up in Honduras, Luis Vasquez loved watching his mom in the kitchen, but he never actually did any cooking. That changed when he moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, and started making homemade tortillas for his roommates—an experience that helped him realize that his calling was in the restaurant business.
“I really enjoyed how people reacted to authentic, fresh food,” Vasquez says. “Everybody loves a fresh tortilla.” In 2019, he opened El Sur Street Food Co., a food truck serving tacos, pupusas, arepas, and baleadas, which the restaurant’s menu describes as “like a burrito but better.” The food truck was a hit, regularly attracting long lines and an enthusiastic following.
“I just wanted to do Honduran food,” which was lacking from restaurants in Little Rock, Vasquez says. “When we opened, most people called it a taco truck. We called it El Sur, ‘the South’ in Spanish, to have some Latin American food that people are familiar with, but then introduce them to Honduran food.”
After three years of running the food truck, Vasquez and his husband, Darren Strayhorn, opened a brick-and-mortar space in July 2022 in downtown Little Rock’s South Main Street neighborhood, near some of the food truck’s regular stops. They went from a cramped kitchen to a full-sized restaurant and added 16 employees.
El Sur also expanded its lineup of Honduran cuisine, adding dishes like pollo chuco (which Vasquez calls “fried chicken nachos”), almuerzo del dia (a dish of rice, beans, cheese, and chicken, beef, or other protein), and sopa de pollo, a traditional chicken soup that’s available during the winter. From the food truck to the restaurant, Vasquez says El Sur has emphasized quality, scratch-made food, and a dedication to customer service, and that’s what keeps bringing people back. “The community is really awesome in Little Rock,” he says. “They’re happy to get outside the box and try a little bit of different food.”
Can’t Miss At El Sur
House Margarita
This popular drink features classic ingredients, including triple sec made just down the street at Rock Town Distillery, and a Tajín rim.
Almuerzo Del Dia
One of El Sur’s top sellers, this traditional dish features beans, rice, Honduran cheese, cilantro, pico de gallo, avocado, and a choice of pollo asado, carnitas, birria, cauliflower chorizo, or nopales. It’s served with fresh corn tortillas.
Pollo Chuco
This dish is piled high with Honduran-style fried chicken, plantain chips, spicy pickled vegetables, red sauce, and aderezo, a creamy dressing resembling ranch.
Pupusas
El Sur’s crispy, golden cornmeal flatbreads come stuffed with cheese, chicharron, or both.
Get El Sur Street Food Co.’s Catrachas (Hoduran Bean Tostadas) Recipe
