EL CHAPO’S
The Rugged and Soulful Filipino-Mexican Food Cartel
DON’T WORRY, ESé. IT’S LEGAL.
The El Chapo’s original food shack design aimed to maximize the limited space provided and give an eye-catching aesthetic to draw customers into an obscure spot along the street of Esteban Abada, a strip made up of a mix of a restaurants, student dormitories, houses, and other commercial establishments. Certain elements were used to make sure ventilation is optimized in a space where cooking is a main activity. The modest structure itself must be versatile and easily installed with little to no use of non-reusable materials.
Major brand elements of the El Chapo’s series of stalls and restaurants are the Philippine Flag’s sun rays as a halo to the image of a luchadores mask, the mural-caricature of El Chapo himself, and, of course, the blended color scheme of the hues Teal, Sunset Orange, and a Royal Purple, reminiscent of the vibrant urban fabric of Mexico City.
The client has since cultivated a culture of also introducing murals and adding posters made by local artists, avid customers, and even the staff themselves, ever enriching the spaces the food brand inhabits.
LOCATION Quezon City, Metro Manila PH
AREA 5.06 sqm (Shack), 52.00 sqm (Restaurant)
TYPE Commercial
YEAR 2017 (Shack), 2018 (Restaurant)
STATUS Design - Construction (Completed)
TEAM Fifi Gomez and Ishka Mejia
CLIENT Jim Mejia / El Chapo’s
What had to be fully managed was the tightness of space, budget, and time as both the shack and restaurant had a design and construction timeline of less than 2 months each, albeit in 2 different years. In hindsight, to have made it work felt impossible, yet today the shack and the brand continues to grow, known now as the community’s favorite taco spot with several expansions underway; there is now a El Chapo’s Horchata and El Chapo’s Panaderia.
a caricature of the shack by a regular customer, Rhane Lociano
El Chapo’s Shack Schematic Drawings
THE NEIGHBORHOOD TACO SHACK
Open from afternoon until midnight, the El Chapo’s shack along Esteban Abada Street has brought together strangers, friends, families, and just plain food lovers, becoming a ruggedly charming landmark in the Katipunan area.
EL CHAPO’S MAGINHAWA
One of the major expansions of the brand a year after the shack was constructed is El Chapo’s Maginhawa, located in a street more known as a melting pot of restaurants, cafes, and local pubs. The restaurant was literally transformed in a single month from a debilitated and abandoned 2-storey commercial space into a place where local musicians would come to play every week and where people would come to celebrate everything from birthdays to heartbreaks.
