Rochester restaurant group ready to roll out underground burrito bar concept

A new burrito concept will begin to take shape next week in Rochester’s downtown.

Boxcar Hippie, the newest venture from Rochester-based Championship Dining, will start serving “east-LA style” griddled burritos out of the basement of the Porch Fried Chicken building — 20 Fourth Street SE — at noon on Tuesday, February 2.

Justin Schoville, co-owner and chef for Championship Dining, says the idea came to him in the summer of 2020 after moving the vegan side of Hot Chip Burger Bar out of the basement of Porch. The space needed a refresh, he adds, and building a burrito bar was the winning idea.

“It went to a vote, and I told the [Championship Dining] group, ‘I really want to do some killer burritos, and just strictly burritos,’” said Schoville. “No tacos, nothing else, don’t venture off too much from the original idea — just quality food, that we know will be quality 100 percent of the time.”

Schoville says the goal is source as many products locally as possible, with Chatfield’s Kappers Big Red Barn providing the dairy, Elgin’s Hidden Stream Farms supplying the chorizo, and Minneapolis’s Herbivorous Butcher handling vegan fare. (Boxcar Hippie will offer four different plant-based protein options to go with the traditional steak, chicken and chorizo options.)

While the first burritos will be made February 2, the space’s true opening won’t come until the snow is (hopefully) gone for good. For at least the first six weeks of its life, Boxcar Hippie will operate under a “ghost kitchen” model, only offering to-go and curbside options as the dining space is finished.

Schoville says his team attempted to set up the space for indoor dining, but space limitations put it out of the realm of feasibility for the time being. Until Covid-19 dining restrictions are relaxed, the 40-person dining area will remain empty, but the hope is to open the space by the spring.

“We ended up saying ‘you know, we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but we just want to make some damn good burritos,’” said Schoville. “We can safely control things with just a couple people down there right now. I hope this sets us up to take off in the future… we just have to give it a little time.”

Boxcar Hippie will be the third establishment to take root in the Porch basement; before vegan Hot Chip, the basement was occupied by Cellar, a cocktail bar.

Schoville said the Porch & Cellar model wasn’t working well, and while vegan Hot Chip was a huge success in its place, the pandemic forced his team to consolidate. Keeping all things Hot Chip under one roof made the most sense in the long-term.

With a Porch re-branding successfully finished over the summer, Schoville says the energy in the building is strong. Adding another food option down below — filled with 70s & 80s memorabilia and “a Cheech & Chong vibe,” he adds — will give the two establishments a feeling all their own, even if they’re under the same roof.

“For once, Porch is what it was meant to be,” said Schoville. “It’s fun, it’s cool, there’s younger people there, and it’s ready to go to the next level once Covid ends. I feel Boxcar Hippie can really connect and appeal to the clientele we already have in-house. We can make something of quality that connects to them, and we don’t need to explain too much.”

Isaac Jahns is a Rochester native and a 2019 graduate of the Missouri School of Journalism. He reports on politics, business and music for Med City Beat.