California Smothered Burritos began in 2013 with founder Jim Masiella, a love of green chile and the memory of his son Jimmy. More than a decade later, Elaine Essary is keeping the truck rolling with smothered burritos, fresh ingredients and a business that has become part of Chattanooga’s food truck community.

By Sara Turney

If Elaine Essary gets to choose your first order at California Smothered Burritos, there is really no debate.

Get the smothered burrito.

It is the signature for a reason, topped with queso, green chile, sour cream, guacamole, black olives and jalapeños. It is also the dish that best explains what California Smothered Burritos set out to bring to Chattanooga when the truck began in 2013: West Coast inspired food shaped by founder Jim Masiella’s years around restaurants and his particular love for green chile.

Today, the menu stretches beyond the namesake burrito into ultimate nachos, enchilada burritos, quesadillas, fresh guacamole and chips, Malibu wraps, tacos and walking tacos. Produce is prepped and chopped fresh, and Elaine says the crew is paid a living wage because how the business operates matters alongside what comes through the window.

The food truck has accumulated plenty of miles and years since its beginning, enough that Elaine describes the future without grand promises.

“We just hope to keep rolling along next to the new trucks,” she says. “We have put on lots of years.”

There is something fitting about that goal because California Smothered Burritos has already done something many small businesses never get the chance to do.

It has lasted.

The story started with Jim and Jimmy

California Smothered Burritos did not begin during an easy period in Jim Masiella’s life.

According to Elaine’s account, Jim’s 27 year old son, Jimmy, was killed by gun violence. When the trial was scheduled in Colorado Springs, Jim was working as a manager with Buffalo Valley, overseeing a home for homeless veterans. Elaine says he could not get the necessary time away from work, so he quit and went to the trial.

What came afterward changed the direction of his life.

Jim had food service experience dating back to college and had later owned restaurants, including a restaurant in Colorado. After the trial, he decided to return to food and buy a food truck, carrying ideas from his previous restaurant experience into the new business.

Jimmy was very much on his mind when he did it.

California Smothered Burritos was born.

Elaine remembers that Chattanooga’s food truck scene was still small when they began in 2013. Starting a mobile food business meant creating something from scratch and figuring out how to keep it alive.

They did.

“We feel that Jimmy would be proud of the business started because of his spirit with us,” Elaine says.

Eventually, as Jim’s health declined, he turned the business over to Elaine, his partner in life.

She has kept it moving.

*California Burritos Team Member at the Strawberry Festival*

A little West Coast flavor in Chattanooga

The California in the name is not there simply because it sounds good beside “smothered burrito.”

The business was built around bringing a West Coast influence to Chattanooga, drawing in part from Jim’s previous restaurant experience and the flavors he loved.

Green chile is one of them.

It is also one of the ingredients that catches customers off guard.

People sometimes see green chile and assume the experience is going to be aggressively hot. Elaine says customers are often surprised when they taste it and discover that it is not necessarily the fiery ingredient they expected.

The smothered burrito puts that green chile directly into the center of the California Smothered Burritos experience, alongside queso, sour cream and guacamole.

Customers have also made the enchilada burrito a favorite, giving the truck more than one order with a loyal following.

The menu is generous in the way food truck menus often need to be. Someone wants the full smothered burrito experience, while somebody else in the group wants nachos. Another person wants a quesadilla or tacos. Fresh guacamole and chips can make their way into the middle for everyone.

The point is not to reinvent what a burrito is.

It is to make the food well, serve it fresh and give people something they want to come back for.

That has been the mission from the beginning.

The green chile comes back with the weather

California Smothered Burritos also has a seasonal rhythm.

Elaine says green chile typically returns during the fall and winter, which gives regular customers something to watch for as the weather changes.

It is one of the pleasures of following mobile food businesses rather than encountering them once and moving on. You begin to learn what comes back at certain times of year, which events they usually attend and which menu item you will be disappointed to miss if you wait too long.

For California Smothered Burritos, those returning customers are the reason to keep rolling out.

“Our customers keep us motivated,” Elaine says. “At the end of the day it’s why we roll out.”

That relationship works both ways.

Elaine says what she enjoys most about the business is making customers smile. Being asked to cater a wedding feels particularly meaningful because of what the invitation represents.

“That’s an enormous pat on the back to us,” she says.

Someone is trusting California Smothered Burritos with a day they intend to remember.

After more than a decade in business, that still matters.

There is a lot behind a food truck window

Elaine does not romanticize the practical side of mobile food service.

Generators die. Trucks need repairs. COVID created another level of difficulty entirely, and California Smothered Burritos had to find a way through it.

Her advice to someone dreaming about starting a food truck is appropriately practical.

“Do some research, save some money, know you will work sometime 24/7.”

The fun part is what customers see at an event. There is the hustle Elaine enjoys, the new people, the food moving through the window and the satisfaction of a busy service.

The other part happens when something breaks.

Longevity in the food truck business means surviving both.

One of the moments Elaine remembers with particular pride came when California Smothered Burritos served the Kane Brown concert at Finley Stadium. The scale of the service was intense enough that simply making it through successfully, with product still left, became one of those moments when the team could look at what they had accomplished and feel good about it.

For a business that started when food trucks were still finding their place in Chattanooga, getting to that kind of event meant something.

The bus carries its own piece of art

There is another part of California Smothered Burritos worth noticing before you even order.

The artwork on the bus was painted by Jerry Allen, an artist Elaine says has gone on to find considerable success since painting the truck.

That detail feels particularly suited to a business that has been on the road this long. Food trucks change mechanically, menus evolve and ownership responsibilities shift, but certain pieces of the early business travel forward.

The artwork is one of them.

So is the reason the business began.

A truck where everyone is welcome

Elaine is also clear about the kind of business California Smothered Burritos intends to be.

“We are very accepting of everyone including the LGBTQ community,” she says. “We believe we are all equal in this life.”

The truck is family oriented, too, and customers may occasionally find younger members of the family helping out front. Away from work, Elaine enjoys pets, reading and sketching.

It all gives California Smothered Burritos the feeling of a business that has grown into a life rather than remaining simply a job.

There have been concerts and private events, Riverfront Nights and festivals. There have been weddings important enough that customers wanted this particular truck feeding their guests. There have been generator problems and repair bills and COVID and all the ordinary complications that rarely make it into the polished version of a small business story.

And still, the truck rolls out.

More than a decade later, order the burrito

California Smothered Burritos is not the newest food truck entering Chattanooga’s festival scene, and Elaine does not seem particularly interested in pretending that it is.

The years are part of the story.

This business began in 2013 with Jim Masiella, restaurant experience, green chile and a desire to create something while carrying the memory of his son with him. Later, Elaine took responsibility for keeping that business alive.

She has.

The result is a food truck with history behind the window and a menu that still knows exactly what should be ordered first.

Get the smothered burrito.

Let them cover it with queso, green chile, sour cream and guacamole. Add the black olives and jalapeños. If you are with a group, there is no reason fresh guacamole and chips should not find their way onto the table too.

Then take a look at the bus itself.

There are newer trucks on the road now. There will be newer ones next year.

California Smothered Burritos intends to keep rolling beside them.

After everything it took to get this far, there is something pretty wonderful about that.

Meet California Smothered Burritos: A Food Truck Built to Keep Rolling