Tortillas: Three Bucks on Ponce

Lyrics

[Intro]
Eleven thirty on a Tuesday.
That smell… cumin and exhaust fumes.
You know the one.

[Verse 1]
The fluorescent lights hum just a little too loud.
A line to the counter, a happy, hungry crowd.
The menu on the wall, with letters peeling off.
After the show, after the last tired cough
of the engine in the parking lot.
This was the spot.
736 Ponce.

[Chorus]
Oh, Tortillas! Give me the foil-wrapped heat.
Three dollars fifty for a miracle on the street.
Carne asada, black beans, and rice.
On Ponce, on Ponce, everything was nice.

[Verse 2]
The sizzle from the open grill, a constant song.
A plastic fork, a foam container where it belongs.
Then to the little steel bar, a crucial stop.
A scoop of the verde, a pico de gallo drop.
I remember how they folded it, that origami trick,
so nothing ever fell out, so careful and quick.

[Chorus]
Oh, Tortillas! Give me the foil-wrapped heat.
Three dollars fifty for a miracle on the street.
Carne asada, black beans, and rice.
On Ponce, on Ponce, everything was nice.

[Bridge]
It wasn't fancy. It wasn't ever clean.
Just the best damn burrito I have ever seen.
It fed the artists, fed the students, fed the night.
Underneath that buzzing, humming light.
Now it's just a silence, a different storefront there.
But sometimes I can still smell the chili in the air.

[Outro]
On Ponce!
On Ponce!
That taste… on Ponce.