A Portland, Ore. burrito shop shuttered a week after being featured in an article, amid accusations of cultural appropriation.

Kali Wilgus and Liz "LC" Connelly took an impromptu road trip to Puerto Nuevo, Mexico last December and became smitten with the tortillas.

"They are handmade flour tortillas that are stretchy and a little buttery, and best of all, unlimited," Connelly told the Willamette Week. The two women were "so enamored with the tortillas, they tried to uncover the recipe," says the article.

Upon return to their hometown of Portland, the women decided to open a burrito pop-up, which the Week featured in an article titled, "Kooks Serves Pop-Up Breakfast Burritos With Handmade Tortillas Out of a Food Cart on Cesar Chavez."

Less than 10 days after the story ran, Kooks is closed, and its presence has been completely scrubbed from social media.

What went wrong for the two tortilla lovers? A maelstrom of cultural appropriation accusations after their quotes surfaced.

In the article, Connelly describes her and Wilgus' efforts to "uncover the recipe" of the handmade tortillas: "I picked the brains of every tortilla lady there in the worst broken Spanish ever, and they showed me a little of what they did," she said.

"They told us the basic ingredients, and we saw them moving and stretching the dough similar to how pizza makers do before rolling it out with rolling pins.

"They wouldn't tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen, totally fascinated by how easy they made it look."

Many took to social media and the comment section of the article to express their outrage.

One commenter — of hundreds — claims the women "boldly and pretty f---ing unapologetically stole the basis of these women's livelihoods" so that "other white ppl don't have to be inconvenienced of dealing with a pesky brown middle woman getting in their way."

"They are clearly exploiting centuries of tradition and survival," wrote another.

BURRITO NEWS: Sushi burrito restaurant coming to Houston

News site Mic later picked up the story and brought it national attention with a story called, "These white cooks bragged about stealing recipes from Mexico to start a Portland business."

The Portland Mercury later ran its own coverage of the story. The blog post begins: "Portland has an appropriation problem," before going on to claim that Connelly and Wilgus "preyed upon" locals in order to "appropriate the secrets of their livelihood."

"These two white women went to Mexico, ate tacos, and then decided they would just take what the locals clearly didn't want to give them," it continues.

The story then calls the closure of Kooks Burritos a "victory" in a city that is 76.1 percent Caucasian, according to the 2015 U.S. census.

Since news of the pop-up's closure broke, some have come to the pair's defense.

BURRITO LOVE: Teen takes epic wedding photos with a burrito

"The restaurant industry would not exist if they could only serve ideas they came up with themselves," says a recent comment on the Week story.

"If learning how to make a food from another culture and selling it is now considered cultural appropriation, then why not take this issue up with the successful Portland businesses that have been doing this at a much larger scale for years, and stop harassing these two women struggling to start a small business,' says another.

Later in the week, a Google Doc surfaced with a list of "(Alternatives To) White-Owned Appropriative Restaurants in Portland."

"This is NOT about cooking at home or historical influences on cuisines; it's about profit, ownership, and wealth in a white supremacist culture," says the introduction to the document.

Read Michelle Robertson’s latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.