About Us — History

 

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

1996 | Coyoacan- Mexico City, Mexico. 

When Scott Porter was working as an intern in Mexico City one of his friends, Endy, took him to a place called Coyoacán. The churro capital of the world. The streets were lined with churro stands where the fresh, hot churros were filled with all sorts of amazing things like dulce de leche, Nutella, sweetened condensed milk, and dozens of options. Absolutely incredible! 

Scott wondered why we had such mediocre churros in the USA and how he could change that someday. It would be irresponsible not to bring churros this good back home. 

This trip to Mexico, one of the dozens embarked on by Scott Porter, was the spark for San Diablo.

2016 | Salt Lake City, UT.

Fast forward twenty years (and several careers) later, Scott’s dreams of real, authentic, artisan churros became a reality. 

Scott met a brilliant chef and fast friend, Sam, at his fantastic Mexican eatery. They gushed about their love for Mexico City (where he was from), ate his delicious tacos, and then he surprised Scott with fresh churros from his Oaxacan grandmother’s recipe.

 “I’ve always dreamed of starting a gourmet churro business,” Scott told him. 

“You should use this recipe!” he offered. 

And so the churro adventure began. San Diablo Artisan Churros launched with his family’s pâte à choux recipe as the foundation. With Sam's recipe in hand, and the help of his long-time friend and award-winning chef, Mindy Booth, “San Diablo Artisan Churros”  was made!

 

Taking advantage of the entrepreneurial culture of Utah and its affinity for dessert, Scott and his team launched their first gig at The Cornbelly’s corn maze and pumpkin festival- a local fall tradition for Utahns. It was an immediate hit. 

From Cornbelly’s, San Diablo Artisan Churros has grown exponentially. In 2018 They bought their first food truck and joined “The Food Truck League” of Utah. In 2019, they became regular at “League Nights” and participated in the “Food Truck Face Off”: a gathering of food trucks at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City to benefit local non-profits. 

Catering operations began to expand as well taking their services outside of Utah, to the metro areas of San Francisco, Boise, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles. 

2020 was when things started to change- for everyone! In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, San Diablo focused on innovating its product to be able to send fresh-filled churros locally through UberEats, Grub Hub, Door Dash, Postmates, and Chef Panzee. They partnered with local businesses, Sobe Eats and Thirst Drinks, to create Quarantine Survival Kits, to provide their customers with restaurant-level food without having to leave the house.

San Diablo also began a great partnership with Utah Taste-Off, where participants voted on the best gourmet churro-filling flavors. Monthly seasonal flavors such as pina colada, oreo cream, pumpkin cheesecake, red berries, and peppermint creme became all the rage and a staple for the company.

In 2021, San Diablo decided to scale globally by creating the first-ever at-home churro-making kit. This kit allows customers to make churros in minutes in their own homes with a customizable churro maker, our secret recipes, and a shelf-stable, dry churro dough mix packet! It has been featured on Goop as one of the best holiday gifts of the season!

San Diablo began selling these kits online to national and international customers to become the churro authority of the world!

Since 2021 San Diablo has been traveling all over to showcase what they have to offer, deep-fried happiness! Traveling throughout the country- to Dallas, Texas, Phoenix, Arizona, and Salt Lake City, Utah for the Pinners Conferences, San Diablo had crowds lined up for  fresh-filled churros and at-home churro-making kits.

San Diablo has also begun plans to bring things back to where they began- Mexico! 

“We have been exploring the Mexican market for quite some time looking for expansion opportunities in both retail and churro catering operations.” Scott says, “It's always been my dream to create a flagship churro retail location in Mexico.”

Scott and his team have their sights set on opening up San Diablo operations in San Miguel de Allende, Condé Nast Traveler’s “best little city in the world!” 

Follow San Diablo’s journey by signing up for their newsletter and following @sandiablochurros on Instagram!