A popular West Coast-inspired burrito shop and cafe from D.C. is opening for business next week at Crystal City’s Water Park.
Monstera Burrito opens Monday at 1721 Crystal Drive, bringing its signature San Diego-style, French fry-packed burritos and an extended menu of burgers, bowls, sandwiches and other bites. It’s the restaurant’s second location, joining a residency inside Georgetown’s Grace Street Coffee Roasters that opened in 2024.
“It’s just all about good vibes and bold flavors,” chef and founder Alex McCoy told ARLnow. “A breakfast burrito is a beautiful thing. … It’s just one of those things that people crave, and finding a really good one is difficult, but when you find one, it’s something you want to eat every day.”
McCoy likes his burritos with creamy scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, fries and “just a ton of salsa verde,” which Monstera makes in-house. That’s in addition to a homemade chorizo with warmth from guajillo and pasilla chilies, as well as a Oaxacan-style beef barbacoa. It’s made by wrapping halal beef chuck, chilies, aromatics and spices in banana and avocado leaves, and then braising it for 10 hours.
“It takes about two days for us to do it, start to finish,” McCoy said. “But when it’s done, it’s just wonderfully supple and rich and spicy and fantastic.”
Other highlights include several new menu items for lunch and dinner, including fried seafood burritos with fresh, local fish, barbacoa cheesesteaks, and a hearty West Coast Italian grinder with pickled serrano chilies and herbed mayo.
McCoy, the founder of D.C.’s Lucky Buns, will also be offering a special, New Mexico-style green chile cheeseburger. Due to time and space constraints, it’ll only take about 25 orders per day.
“We put a lot of work into the meat and how we cook them, and everything like that,” McCoy said. “But we really love cooking them, and they’re really fantastic.”
McCoy is joined in the passion project by chef Justin Ahn. They’re the same duo behind the Thai restaurant Alfie’s, with family roots in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The restaurant began in 2024 as a weekends-only breakfast burrito pop-up from the sandwich counter at Sara’s Market in Georgetown. At first, it was a fun side gig for McCoy, who is friends with the market’s owners and lived two blocks away — but it quickly grew into something more, he said.
“We had, like, lines out the door,” McCoy recalled. “We had 200, 300 people waiting in line for hours to get burritos.”
Seeking more space, the restaurant began its residency at nearby Grace Street Coffee Roasters. McCoy said Water Park’s outdoor venue “felt like the perfect place” for the burrito shop’s next step.
“Being able to unwrap a breakfast burrito in the park, wrapped in aluminum foil, to me — that’s the ultimate way to eat a breakfast burrito,” McCoy said. “It doesn’t translate as well if you’re, like, sitting at a table inside a restaurant.”
The menu will “always be fluctuating and changing,” he said, and a forthcoming cocktail menu will feature drinks like ranch water, frozen margaritas and palomas.
At Water Park, Monstera joins the recently opened Spot of Tea cafe and forthcoming Pizzeria Paradiso Pronto, which plans to debut this spring. Monstera’s initial hours will be 8 a.m.-8 p.m., daily.
Photo 2 via Monstera Burrito/Instagram.
