El Quetzal

For the last 13 years, El Quetzal has been serving fresh, vibrant, street-style Mexican food out of their colorful eatery on Beacon Hill. Owner Juan Montiel got his start as a chef in Mexico City, where he grew up learning his mother’s recipes at home and seeing his father dish up food in the local tianguis (open-air market).

After attending cooking school and working for an overnight catering business in Mexico, Juan moved to Washington, where he worked his way up from being a dishwasher to cooking for Thirteen Coins. He was inspired to create El Quetzal with his wife because it felt like both an opportunity for their family’s future and an opportunity for Seattle to experience the type of food he grew up eating. “This type of food is so popular in Mexico City — huaraches, quesadillas, tortas,” he says, “and it’s not like the food you find in restaurants here at all.”

Juan is excited to bring new visitors to Beacon Hill through Plate of Nations, saying he wants people from across the city to experience the neighborhood’s “friendly, supportive atmosphere where everyone comes together — it’s a mix of cultures and people, and everybody is happy.”