El Merkury

Born and raised in Guatemala, Sofia Deleon came to the States a decade ago to further her education, earning a B.S. in food industry management from Michigan State and an advanced degree in food marketing from St. Joseph’s. She’s parlayed her academic cred into a rising local brand in, currently operating in pop-up mode as she hunts for a brick-and-mortar. Busy with corporate-office catering gigs during the day, Deleon can sometimes be found at South Philly’s Garage at night, offering an accessible menu inspired by the building blocks of ancient Mayan cuisine: corn, chili, chocolate and beans. Her signature dish is pupusas, corn-based flatbreads served with meat (carnitas) or not (cheese and serrano pepper).