Many just call him the Burrito Man. Gerry Gutierrez, 61, is a Butler icon.

Known for preparing Mexican cuisine for over 20 years, Gutierrez, who once had a restaurant on West Jefferson Avenue, has served “mobile Mexican food” for several years.

Making his food fresh daily in a rented kitchen, Gutierrez takes phone orders, sets up pop-up tents and delivers his homemade meals in a cooler in his car.

Since making his way to Butler by way of Laguna Beach and Acapulco years ago, Gutierrez has become a familiar face and a fixture in the community.

On Aug. 29, Gutierrez slipped and hit his head. He carried on with his day, planning to start meal prepping for his burrito orders before his limbs went numb and he lost consciousness. When Gutierrez was hospitalized, he was told he had suffered three brain bleeds.

Unable to work, he and his wife, who suffers from health issues and sustained a fall before him, are relying on GoFundMe donations to keep afloat. Being Butler’s Burrito Man helped him survive financially after his restaurant closed, Gutierrez said at home on Sept. 18. Recovery will take some time, he shared.

Gutierrez, who was born in Acapulco and immigrated to Laguna Beach from Tijuana in 1980 as a teenager, married Butler native Tammy Gutierrez, later making the move to Butler County.

Food service wasn’t a new endeavor for Gutierrez. His uncles and mother all cook, he said.

Each Sunday, his mother, who is 80, roasts a pig, and cooks potatoes and carrots in a pot alongside it. After hours of roasting, she serves plates of food to people on the corner of a little restaurant as they eat and chat, Gutierrez said.

“I cook because in my mom’s family, we’re all cooks,” he said.

On his journey to the United States at nearly 15, the bus ride from Acapulco to Tijuana took seven days, Gutierrez said. His first job was working in a Mexican restaurant in California. At 61, the taste of Gutierrez’s Mexican food encapsulates a fusion of two worlds: his Thanksgiving Burrito, for which his wife Tammy, makes the stuffing and mashed potatoes, is just one example.

His homemade spicy ranch, whipped with smoked peppers, is another.

“Variety is important,” Gutierrez said about the burritos he makes.

With some money he had saved working for Marriott in California, Gutierrez opened a restaurant in Butler. The restaurant moved locations a few times, finally closing after staff had become unreliable, Gutierrez said, and the monthly rent had become too much to keep up with.

With decades of experience cooking and serving food, Gutierrez came up with a mobile food service model that allowed him to keep his business and livelihood alive.

Now, Gutierrez is known by for serving hearty, freshly made dishes — most notably, burritos, and sometimes enchiladas — to anyone who gives him a call. Nobody makes hot sauce and salsa the way he does, Gutierrez said.

“They’re always looking to buy a jar of that salsa,” he said, laughing.

On early weekday mornings, workers at the main gate of AK Steel could see Gutierrez handing out breakfast burritos. At lunchtime, he could be spotted setting up at manufacturing company JSP International.

On weekends for the past two years, Gutierrez could be spotted setting up a pop-up tent in the parking lot of the Donut Connection, said Chris Lunn, executive director of Alliance for Nonprofit Resources, which owns the doughnut shop. Gutierrez also sells his burritos in-store.

“It gets people in the door,” Lunn said. “Having (Gutierrez’s) name out is pretty popular. People knowing that we sell his burritos has been big for us.”

The burritos are in popular demand: Donut Connection manager Courtney Baehr said she orders anywhere from 100 to 175 burritos to sell in the store a week, and they go fast.

Lunch burritos and chicken enchiladas sell out within 45 minutes, Baehr said.

Jared Cypher, a customer, said he first heard of Gutierrez at his previous place of work. Gutierrez would come around lunchtime every day and sell his burritos from a cooler in his car. With enough advance notice, Gutierrez would also take special orders.

“If you say 'The Burrito Man,’ everybody knows who you’re talking about,” Cypher said. “I don’t know anybody that will make burritos and bring them to you in the back of their car in Butler.”

Cypher said that over the years, Gutierrez has brought a lot of joy to the people he serves.

“When he does bring your burrito he makes you laugh, makes sure you’re having a good time,” he said.

“It brings a lot of positivity to the community because, you know, people gather in locations where there’s good food. It’s inevitable,” Cypher said.

Gutierrez is also familiar face to the workers at the steel mill. At 5 or 6 a.m., his breakfast burritos invite conversation among workers who haven’t eaten yet at the break of dawn and are getting ready for their shift.

“The main gate was almost like a meeting place in the morning, where you get Gerry’s burritos,” said AK Steel union president Jamie Sychek.

Sychek described Gutierrez as always very friendly and talkative — a “social butterfly.” Fast food burritos, or like Sychek put it — “microwaved-type mass-produced things” don’t hold a candle to Gutierrez’s well-priced meals, he said.

“He’s a good guy, makes a good, honest product,” Sychek said. “He always had a smile on his face.”

It will take some time for Gutierrez to get back on his feet, he said, sharing that he hopes he will be able to return to business by the end of the year.

“I’m glad to be alive,” Gutierrez said.

So far, Gutierrez’s GoFundMe page has raised nearly $10,000 for medical expenses. Find his GoFundMe at gofundme.com/f/burrito-man-medical-expenses.