5 Fun Facts About Chaia Tacos In Georgetown

GEORGETOWN, DC — It's no secret: there's plenty of amazing restaurants and cafes in Georgetown. Many of them are on the bustling high streets of this historic neighborhood. But some are tucked away on quieter side streets.

On Grace Street NW, you'll find a small vegetarian taqueria called Chaia Tacos.

Founded by Bettina Stern and Suzanne Simon, Chaia Tacos started out as a pop-up stand at local farmers' markets. But in 2015, the pair took the plunge and opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Georgetown (3207 Grace St. NW). Chaia Tacos has since opened a second location in downtown D.C.

Here's the thing about this eatery: it takes everything you know about traditional tacos and throws it out the window.

The female-led business partners with local farms to provide customers with seasonal, plant-based tacos.

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"Chaia means life. And taco means taco. At Chaia we live for tacos. Which is why that's pretty much all you'll see on the menu," according to the restaurant's website. "We've kept our menu small and simple for a reason. Because honestly, we all have enough choices to make in life already AND we want to do one thing really well. So, we offer just 5 vegetable taco creations at a time, a few outrageously delicious sides, a soup for when it's cold, and drinks on tap — from kombucha to beer, tea to rosé."

I wanted to learn more about Chaia Tacos, so I chatted with one of the co-founders, Bettina Stern.

Here are five fun facts about Chaia Tacos:

1. How Chaia Tacos came to be

The idea behind Chaia Tacos came after Bettina and Suzanne taught a home cooking series about sourcing and cooking from the farmers market. While Bettina got her start in food with Ina Garten (a.k.a. the Barefoot Contessa), the particular class that inspired our restaurant idea came after Suzanne learned how easy it was to make handmade corn tortillas while on vacation in the Yucatán. We thought, "what better thing to fill them with than delicious, local, seasonal vegetables cooked to perfection?" What does roasted spicy eggplant, charred green beans, sautéed kale, homemade salsas, and tangy, creamy, flavorful cheeses have in common? There's hardly anything at the farmer's market that can't be prepared in a taco.

2. Friends who cook well together stay together

Suzanne and Bettina learned to cook better together through a six-person cookbook club that we founded in the early 2000s that was featured in a six-page spread in Oprah: The Magazine.

3. A focus on fitness and wellness

Fitness/Wellness collaborations have become a big focus for us. We now have a number of Run Clubs starting and finishing from each of our shops. We love sharing the magic of a like-minded interest and then sitting down for a beer and a bite together. It strengthens our community.

4. Why Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

We love food and our menu is farm-forward and plant-powered. And much of our produce comes from Lancaster County, PA, the most productive non-irrigated farming county in the United States. The agricultural programs teams there are committed to the conservation of their county's soil and water resources. Our commitment will always be to source locally, prioritizing producers from the region to strengthen our local food shed.

5. Don't be a jerk

We believe in doing well by doing good. The animating spirit of business has always been an ambition to do big things — to build something valuable, to solve a problem, to provide a useful service, and to explore the frontier of possibility to create significant change. We want to help save the planet while feeding people great food by serving up Chaia's tacos. So, don't be a jerk: eat less meat, eat more vegetables. The outcome of these behavioral changes will be high impact.

Editor's note: These five facts were written by Bettina Stern and edited by Patch (for style).