About Hidden Eats
Follow our staff writer Ike Allen as he scopes out under-the-radar mom-and-pop restaurants around the DMV, from Hyattsville to Herndon and beyond.
location_on9224 Warren St., Silver Spring
languageWebsite
Not many Central American lunch spots in Maryland have their own mascot. But at El Viejo Central American Kitchen, the door, walls, and menus are decorated with images of the eponymous Viejo: a mustachioed, cap-wearing skeleton who looks like something Mexican illustrator José Guadalupe Posada might draw if he were commissioned by a baseball team.
“El Viejo” (or “the old man”) is the work of Henry Blanco, who graduated from the University of Maryland with an art degree and grew up working in the Montgomery County restaurants run by his parents, Juan and Janeth. The family opened Silver Spring’s El Viejo in 2023.
Juan Blanco fled to the US from El Salvador during the civil war in 1983 and joined the many Salvadoran Americans who entered the Washington area’s restaurant industry. He worked in kitchens and, for a time, at DC’s Metropolitan Club. These days, he owns two Gaithersburg locations of the Salvi-Tex-Mex Ay Jalisco.
Henry, who was once a busboy and server at the family restaurants, went on to spend four years at the corporate office of Cava. And while the younger Blanco has brought his sense of design and corporate experience to El Viejo, it’s still one of the least pretentious and most affordable restaurants I’ve visited lately. It’s easy to get a filling meal here for less than $10.
For breakfast, there’s the plato tipico—a customizable plate of eggs scrambled with tomatoes and peppers, refried black beans, plantains, sharp white cheese, and corn tortillas. Pupusas are spot-on and not overly greasy. (The Blancos took part in a Guinness World Record event last year for the world’s largest pupusa—it was more than 20 feet wide.)
Tamales are a strong suit, particularly the bean-filled and Guatemalan-style chicken versions. One revelation was the deep-fried corn tamal—nearly as sweet as a Twinkie—served with crema. It tasted like what might result if there were a Salvadoran booth at the Minnesota State Fair.
The heartiest lunch is the fritanga Nicaragüense, a favorite of Janeth’s. Grilled chicken or steak comes with plantain chips, rice and beans, slaw, and the relish-like chilero, made with pickled onions.
Henry Blanco knows how to run a contemporary eatery in the 2020s. El Viejo’s social-media accounts are active. The place stages pop-ups and collabs—including with the bars Providencia and Alegría. And he recently earned a spot in chef Richard Sandoval’s business incubator.
But on a recent weekday, I was dining mainly with construction workers in uniform—a reminder that all the trappings didn’t make El Viejo feel any less humble. “I wanted to give a modern take,” the younger Blanco says, “but I still wanted to celebrate the culture and the tradition.”
This article appears in the November 2025 issue of Washingtonian.
Ike Allen covers politics, food, culture, and transportation in DC and writes the monthly Hidden Eats column for the magazine. He grew up in DC.
