The savory aroma of coal-roasted pork wafts over a corner of Puerto Vallarta, permeating a line of tourists and locals clutching cans of beer from a nearby Oxxo convenience store. Nearby, a troop of breakdancers forms a bucket brigade, foraging tips from the 35-minute cue for Pancho’s Takos, one of the most popular spots for tacos al pastor in Jalisco.
Beside the spiraling mountain of thinly-sliced pork, a Mexican troubadour serenades the grab bag of locals and tourists hovering over tortilla chips and guacamole at wooden tables splayed out on the sidewalk. While adjacent souvenir tents selling “Juan Deere” t-shirts are closing down shop, the party at Pancho’s is just getting going.
In 2022, Puerto Vallarta International Airport set an all-time record with 6,208,700 passengers—the majority of them tourists from neighboring nations north of the border. In 2023, the city’s port welcomed 176 cruise ships carrying half a million more tourists. But despite the cue, most of Puerto Vallarta’s visitors never venture to Pancho’s.
“It took me about a day to find this place,” says Canadian transplant Elliot Kimelman. “Chicken tacos?” He laughs. “There’s no point in ordering anything but al pastor. Volcano style.”
The tacos are a miniature island of al pastor, cilantro, pineapples and cheese whose only shared ingredient with American chain restaurants at the airport—like Bubba Gump Shrimp—are sliced limes. They’re a gateway to a grittier Puerto Vallarta experience that feels more like travel and less like an all-inclusive vacation.
With light eyes and short, blonde hair, the soft-spoken Kimelman is easy to lose in the flock of sunburned American and Canadian tourists that migrate to this famous Pacific Coast outpost annually. But the Winnipeg transplant is not in Puerto Vallarta for vacation. Instead, he has planted roots in an effort to cash in on the tides of northern compatriots vacationing in this place. And Kimelman is doing so by trying to show them a side of city often hidden by all-inclusive resorts—the Zona Romantica.
The tables at Pancho’s form a landmark in the Zona Romantica, a trendy area where traditional Mexican street food like Pancho’s rubs elbows with funky fusion restaurants blending into the cityscape. At Raices Resto Bar, a herculean banyan tree splays roots beneath a glass floor and menus home to New York steak with habanero marmalade and squid stuffed with risotto and chichilo mole. At Mi Cafe and Coffee Shop, a backdrop of California vacation spots like Big Sur and the Alabama Hills overlooks a hand-hewn Mexican brunch menu harboring Serrano peppers, avocados and fresh blackberries.
To unlock those flavors for travelers, Kimelman has created a hospitality service that deftly leverages one
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