After 31 years of U.S. Army service, a retired Puerto Rican soldier chose El Paso as home and decided to give this city a taste of what he had always loved — the real food of Puerto Rico.
After 31 years of service in the U.S. Army, a Puerto Rican soldier retired and chose El Paso as his home. He had traveled the world, but the food he always missed — the food that always brought him back — was Puerto Rican.
He looked around El Paso and saw that nobody was doing it right. No real mofongo. No slow-roasted pernil. No taste of the island. So he decided to change that himself.
He opened 787 — named after Puerto Rico's area code, a number every Boricua knows by heart — and made it his mission to bring Puerto Rico to El Paso, one plate at a time.
At 787, we cook the way abuelas cook — with time, with intention, and with ingredients that honor where this food comes from. Our pernil slow-roasts for hours. Our mofongo is made fresh, pressed and pounded the traditional way. Our sofrito is made in-house.
We are not just a restaurant. We are a piece of Puerto Rico planted in the middle of the desert — a place where Boricuas far from home can feel it, and where everyone else can taste why the island is so unforgettable.
Every plate that leaves our kitchen is a handshake between two worlds: the discipline and dedication of military service, and the warmth and generosity of Puerto Rican culture.
The values behind every plate we serve.
No shortcuts. Every dish follows tradition — real sofrito, slow-roasted meats, and plantains prepared the way they are done on the island.
Military values run through everything we do — discipline, respect, and showing up every single day to give our best to our guests and our team.
787 is a home away from home. For the Puerto Rican community in El Paso, for the military families stationed here, and for anyone who loves good food.
Every item on our menu has a reason to be there. The pernil is slow-roasted the way it's done for special occasions in Puerto Rico — low and slow, until it falls apart with a crisp skin that crackles when you touch it.
The mofongo is hand-crafted with fried green plantains, pressed with garlic and pork crackling, then filled with your choice of shrimp, chicken, or carne frita. It's the kind of dish you'll be thinking about days later.
And our lunch specials — Tuesday through Friday — make authentic Puerto Rican food something anyone in El Paso can enjoy on any budget, any day of the week.
View Our Full MenuWe're at 6219 Airport Rd, El Paso, TX — open Tuesday through Sunday.