F.C. Chef David Peña Featured Tonight on WETA TV’s ‘Signature Dish’
Don’t forget to tune in to WETA’s ‘Signature Dish’ tonight at 9:00 p.m. featuring Chef David Peña of Falls Church’s La Tingeria. Chef Peña will be preparing his “signature” tostada tinga chicken for Emmy Award-winning show host Seth Tillman.
Founded in 2021 during the pandemic, La Tingeria has become one of the Little City’s hidden culinary gems, ranked among Washingtonian’s “100 Very Best Restaurants” (2023, 2024) and named a Washington Post top-10 “Best Casual Restaurant” in 2022.
On Thursday, we published our interview with Tillman describing why he selected to highlight Chef Peña – both for Peña’s unusual and distinguished Mexican halal menu and his compelling background story. Here's the story:
Christopher Jones
Today, The Falls Church Independent features our interview with Chef David Peña.
What's the Show Concept?
The PBS local restaurant TV series Signature Dish features Tillman and crew traveling each week to three select DMV restaurants to meet their chefs, visit their kitchens, sample their “signature dish,” and explore their diverse culinary influences.
Now in its fourth season, tonight’s 30-minute episode is entitled “Taqueria Time.” “In this episode, Seth goes beyond tacos to uncover the true depth of local taquerias,” PBS/WETA says. “He begins his journey at La Tingeria in Falls Church, where he enjoys the namesake tostadas de tinga. Next, he heads to Navy Yard for Taqueria Xochi, savoring a stacked Pueblan sandwich, the Chicken Cemita. Finally, he stops at Ixtapalapa in Gaithersburg to indulge in a festive Mexican soup: pancita.”
What's Chicken Tinga?
In April 2022, Washington Post food critic Tim Carman reviewed his initial visit to La Tingeria when it first opened in Falls Church at 626 S. Washington Street. “My first taste of the chef and owner’s chicken tinga was at his new storefront, situated on the corner of South Washington Street and West Westmoreland Road in Falls Church, just across the way from a shop that specializes in Greek-Mex cuisine,” Carman wrote. “I ordered tacos packed with Peña’s chicken tinga, this juicy mass of shredded breast meat held together with a guisado-like mixture of tomatoes, onions, chipotle peppers and more. The tinga had a decided chile pepper bite, but it was augmented with the most tantalizing sweetness, the kind that lingers just beneath the principal flavors, unobtrusive but essential…. once I tried Peña’s chicken tinga, there was no way I would ever forget it. It’s that good.”
No wonder Chef Peña’s tostadas de tinga popped up on Tillman’s local restaurant radar.
Chef Peña's Entrepreneurial Background... and Hala Menu
In September 2024, Washington Post food writer Jessica Sidman explored Chef Peña’s compelling entrepreneurial background story and business acumen. “Peña worked in construction before getting into the food industry as a line cook at Rustico in Alexandria, eventually working up to sous chef. During family meals, he’d often cook tinga tostadas with stewed chicken, and one of his fellow cooks would joke, ‘When are you going to open up La Tingeria?’ When he was laid off a year later, the name stuck with him. He opened La Tingeria food truck, and eight years later, in 2021, he turned it into a taqueria in Falls Church. La Tingeria was the first Halal taqueria in the region, which Peña says brought in an influx of Muslim customers who helped him regularly sell out.”
Vision Boards & Rapid Expansion
In 2024, Peña also “expanded to a larger location in Spotsylvania, south of Fredericksburg,” Sidman continued. “Peña says he’d initially been looking to buy property to live out there when he came across the restaurant space and fell in love with it. Meanwhile, the Port City [Alexandria] location is set to open in late October or early November [2024]. Peña is eyeing Maryland or Woodbridge, next. And, who knows, maybe even someday… Japan, where his brother was recently stationed for the military…. I do a lot of vision boards,’ Peña says. ‘I’m a big believer in just putting the energy out there and just seeing what happens.”
Challenges as an Immigrant Restaurant Owner
Peña described the challenges he faces “being an immigrant restaurant owner.” To Washington Post writer Jason Rezaian, he said: “My parents were 17 and 18 years-old when they left Mexico. They didn’t know a lick of English but now both have successful careers. They own a home, completely paid off; both have successful jobs they can retire from. I felt like, What is my excuse? Knowing all that, I’ve always pushed myself in every job I’ve had. But there are skills we were never taught when we were little. We were always taught just to work, work, work. And my parents would tell me to save money. What I’m learning now is not just about saving, but also learning how to invest — learning to use your money to make more money, about good debt and bad debt.”
Experience Filming Signature Dish
We asked Chef Peña how it felt being showcased by Signature Dish. "It’s always a great experience working with different networks and journalists," Peña said. "Every time we get involved with something like that it’s always great. You see how different people film and how they coordinate everything. It’s something we’ve done a lot. People say like, ‘Oh man, you’ve done that [already].’ And when you see the real edits on the screen it’s way different from behind the scenes. And how many takes it takes, and this and that. But it was great working with Seth, very professional, his team was very professional. They really knew how to coordinate, how they were going to do what – and so they made it fairly easy on my part."
We wondered how Peña felt about Tillman choosing to highlight La Tingeria's namesake tostada tinga chicken in particular, given that some of his other menu offerings have been even more popular. "Oh it’s great. I mean, that’s definitely one of our signature dishes so with what they’re trying to promote and what they’re trying to showcase, it really worked well together because a lot of people come to us for our birria tacos or birria egg rolls or other items and our tostadas tinga are fairly popular. But I would say our birria tacos are a little bit more popular because that was like the big thing we brought out a couple of years ago. So, showcasing actually what we’re named after and that I feel is one of our top items is one that I think will do fairly well."
"What exactly are birria tacos?," we wondered. "Birria… those are more of like a stew meat. A lot of locations will sell birria. But one thing I say is they’ll sell birria, but birria beef. But if you were to ever travel to Mexico you would never ask for birria beef. You’d just ask for birria because traditionally birria is goat. Yeah, like people will say, ‘We do the best birria, but you do birria beef, not like real birria.' I feel like a lot of people stay away from it because it is like a gamier type of meat so if it’s not cooked right it can taste kind of gamey. But I feel like the way we cook it is right and actually one of our best sellers is birria beef."
We wanted to know how filming the 10-minute segment on tonight's episode of Signature Dish went. Was the chef happy with what he prepared for them? "Yeah, I feel like on my end everything went well because we were able to coordinate with them and they were able to tell me how the scenes were going to go, so as far as preparation and everything, it all went very well," Peña said. "I haven’t seen the final product, [however], I guess I’m not going to see it until everybody sees it, but they did a good job."
Views of Falls Church City
We wondered how Chef Peña feels about having a primary restaurant in the City of Falls Church, given that some of the neighbors raised nettlesome parking issues a few years back. "We actually love being there," Peña said. "There’s discussion with me and the City about relocating because it's a small location and we are a high-paced location. So it’s one of those things where we do need a bigger space but we love the location where it’s at. There’s lots of traffic. If you see, [S. Washington Street] is really busy so we’re very visible. But just the parking situation sucks.... and our dining area is only about 400 sq. feet."
"Our customers and everything are great," Peña said. "Our cashiers remember a lot of our customer base and their names. We have a ton of regulars. Especially when we have the deals throughout the week. Like, they'll come on Tuesday to get the $2.00 tacos, Wednesday to get their birria egg rolls for $6.00, and then Thursday to get their tostadas for $2.00. And then they’ll come on the weekend with their family. So on my team, we’re like, ‘Man, some of these people are eating here like three or four times as week.’ And I was like, ‘Now that’s very rare.’ Me personally, I don’t probably go to the same place more than once or twice in a week. Like if I go to Popeye’s this week, I’m not going to go again this week. It’s very rare that I would go to the same place twice in one week. So I feel like that is one of the biggest compliments I can get, seeing customers that come back two or three times a week."
We let Peña know we had also visited La Tingeria the day before to sample the "signature dish" and indeed it was delicious, as was the elote. And the restaurant was also truly packed. "Yeah, so you saw yesterday.... but luckily we also have outdoor seating so that helps a lot," he said.
The Little City's Food Culture
We were curious how Peña likes the City of Falls Church's food culture. "It’s dope," he said. "Because I do see lots more businesses opening up in that area. Just for instance, we have Harvey’s down the street, with a very talented chef. I love how he switches up the menu. That’s something I honestly miss about doing some fine dining and cooking, is that you’re working with the seasons. We’ll have specials here and there. But I feel like we’re not fast food but we’re also not fine dining. We’re casual. But I also think changing our menu would hurt us because so many people are used to our menu. So just having specials is ideal for us."
"And then also down the street Paris Baguette just opened up as well," Peña continued. "I can’t name all the restaurants, but I know a lot of restaurants have just come in. And [the City] has the Asian food, the Italian food, and all these new restaurants that have opened up probably in the last two-to-five years. So I definitely feel like the food scene is getting a lot better."
Peña agreed the food scene near La Tingeria was "vibrant" and the the Mexican-Greek fusion restaurant across the street was another example of unusual combinations, similar to his Mexican halal menu.
Staying with the Halal Menu
We asked Peña to describe how he came to choose a halal menu and why he's sticking with it. "Yeah, that’s something that blew up. I honestly feel like we don’t get as much recognition as we should because of that," Peña said. "Because if you look during Covid or pre-Covid, you’d never hear about Mexican halal tacos, halal pizza, halal Italian, and all this. But now, Roaming Rooster – and they’re a Christian company – they’re doing halal sandwiches. All these new chicken spots are – I even think of Lola’s in Ballston – they used to not use halal but then they became halal. You have a new Chinese buffet in Bailey’s Crossroads that’s a halal Chinese buffet. So I feel like we’re the front runners of mixing it up and showing people that halal food doesn’t have to be Middle Eastern food."
"As long as you’re buying halal meat you can transform anything into a halal menu. So that’s what we did during Covid and I feel like that’s been one of our biggest successes. But I’ve had comments online like, ‘Oh, I won’t ever go there. You’re only catering to Muslims.’ You know, a lot of Islamophobia stuff. But I tell a lot of people it’s not just catering to Muslims. We’re actually – instead of excluding Muslims – we’re just including more people. So a lot of restaurants that aren’t halal menus, they will never get our customer base because they’re still selling alcohol and they’re still selling pork versus us where we’re just including more people to come in and enjoy our food."
Questions of Faith
"So, we’re definitely family friendly and we don’t discriminate against any religion. It doesn’t matter if you’re Catholic, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, anything you want," Peña said. "Our food is for everybody. I just did it because during Covid I didn’t want to bring a lot of our food out – like the pork and this and that – because we didn’t know about how sales were going to do. And I had my best friend who’s Muslim and he’s like, ‘If you’re only going to bring chicken and briskets, why don’t you just make it halal?’ And that way I didn’t have to bring out my full menu. But the thing is, I’ve always bought halal meat. I just hadn’t ever promoted it because I knew that I was selling pork. But if you really look at the quality of the meat, the halal meat is better quality."
We were curious whether Peña was also offering a full halal menu for personal reasons of faith. "Personally, it was because of the quality of the meat. But now, I did revert to Islam so I’m a Muslim, so it’s a little bit of both," Peña said.
What Makes La Tingeria Unique?
We asked Peña to describe what makes La Tingeria unique. "What makes us unique is our menu. We’re basically street food in a restaurant. We specialize in making antojitos Mexicano which is basically Mexican snacks," Peña said. "So, if you go to Mexico, you’ll have the taco vender, the sopa vender, the elota vender, and we basically brought that all into one [menu]. And you see like, when you came into our restaurant, the cool thing – especially at a place like Port City where we have a contract – is that you can come in with your friend and get two tacos and go talk with them, and then after that, if you’re still hungry, go get another taco. My experience in a lot of Mexican restaurants, however, is it’s kind of generic and with the same menu. You have your carne asada, your fajita platter, your re-fried beans from a can, and your microwaved rice. But one thing for us is we don’t use a microwave."
No Microwaves
"I teach my staff how I was taught by my chef who was the highest executive chef at Rustico at the time. When I got there I had no sense, and I was trying to melt some butter one time and I was like, ‘Yo where’s the microwave so I can melt the butter?’ And he was like, ‘You don’t use pots and pans?’ And I said, ‘Well, I use the microwave at home.’ And he said, ‘Nah, real kitchens don’t use microwaves.’ So even though we’re not fine dining, I still try to instill that in my staff. That we still have to run this like a real long kitchen and not go cheap by using microwaves. Because I’ve seen it, some Mexican restaurants go and heat up your meat in a microwave or put your beans and rice in a microwave, but that’s not real home cooking. So, that’s one thing."
"And we also really specialize in small items. One issue I had when I went [to another Mexican restaurant] is they had a platter of four tacos and I wanted to mix and match, but they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t do that. We just sell the four chickens, or the four this [or that].’ And I was like, ‘Dang, I’m being forced to buy four tacos.’ So that’s our biggest thing – that we really do Mexican snacks and real authentic Mexican street food and it’s halal."
Growth Strategies in the City
We were curious what sort of growth strategies Peña had within Falls Church City, now that he had established outlets at Port City, Audi Field, Spotsylvania, and Alexandria – all from his original Arlington food truck origins. "I don’t know if you noticed but we also have a contract with Levy [Restaurants] so we do all the D.C. United games and all the Spirit games inside the stadium…."
"And I do have plans later on. I do want to go back to fine dining. I don’t know if it will be called La Tingeria, but I do plan on doing fine dining within three to five years. But as far as La Tingeria itself, we're on track to keep expanding, like in Maryland, and we wanted to open up in Arlington. But we kind of stepped back and put things on hold because I’m the only owner, so right now what I’m doing is restructuring the company so I can invest my time in other stuff and have these [locations] run a little better with general managers. So, once we structure our business a little better, we'll continue to expand La Tingerias."
"We’re really grateful for where we’re at," Peña said. "We really love being in Falls Church and being part of that Little City and hopefully we just continue to grow."
"....And definitely come back and try the tinga beef tostada because it’s the same as the chicken but it’s a brisket and we also add rosemary and thyme and we braise it for eight hours," Peña said. "So it’s very soft and very tender, same flavors, it’s just that you get that hint of rosemary and thyme – it’s got that hit as well and if you haven’t had the sopas, I definitely recommend the sopas as well."
By Christopher Jones
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