DISPATCHES FROM THE BLUE ZONES: A $22 burrito? San Francisco restaurant owner says he’s keeping up with inflation.

The owner of La Vaca Birria says it’s not an attempt to make more money, but an attempt to continue to break even as prices for everything rise.

When you walk into the restaurant, it smells, “either like birria, or charcoal,” said Ricardo Lopez, owner of La Vaca Birria.

For the last two years, he has operated the spot — built out of a former record store in the Mission.

His vision has been to make the kind of food his aunts, uncles and mother used to make — but kicked up a notch.

The only problem is, the price of nearly everything he uses to make his food has gone up. Like onions for example.

“Before COVID, they were like $9 a sack at Restaurant Depot, I used to pick them up. During COVID, and after, it was $40 dollars. Right now, it’s $80,” said Lopez.

That’s obscene.