Monthly Archives: August 2012

by | August 31, 2012 · 8:00 am

Taco Ticker: The Bell, The Pinche & The Loco

Friday means Taco Ticker, a selection of light, taco-related reading from around the web. This week’s pickings are dominated by the big boy of crunchy taco chains. Enjoy the holiday.

Kevin Morrison of Pinche Taqueria, Hailed One of American’s Best New Restaurants — Eater Denver

Taco Bell tests new Doritos Locos Tacos flavor — Nation’s Restaurant News

Former Taco Bell to Become Taqueria — Castro Valley Patch

Taco Bell Crime of the Week: Cops Drop Off Drunk Man at Taco Bell; Man Takes Off and Gets Killed by Traffic! — Stick a Fork In It

Which Chain Makes the Best Carnitas Taco? — Serious Eats: Los Angeles Tacos

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by | August 30, 2012 · 1:23 pm

Is Cowboy Chow’s Transformation Into a Taco Concept Too Late?

Photo: Tacos & Avocados/Facebook

By now you’ve probably read that Jason Boso of Twisted Root fame is closing the last of his Cowboy Chow restaurants. Whereas the Dallas location closed in May 2011 and was replaced by Buzzbrews, the second Cowboy Chow, this one in Roanoke, will become Tacos & Avocados, Bosso’s new fast-casual specialty taquería concept.

Menu selections listed in the press release, including a rib-eye steak taco with bacon-onion marmalade, blue cheese crumbles and potato straws as well as a mango-chile pepper paleta and daily fish taco specials, seem appetizing enough, but what separates Boso’s steak taco from any other gussied-up beef option? Continue reading →

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by | August 30, 2012 · 11:27 am

Taqueria Jalisco

Today, Marshall Scott Owens (@WestTX_BBQ on Twitter) drops a guest post on the Taco Trail. The Lubbock resident is a financial adviser at a Fortune 500 company. More importantly, he likes “BBQ, tacos, burgers, and brew,” and, he says, “If college football was a food I would eat as much as I could.” You can read Owens’ guest post on Full Custom Gospel BBQ here. Before you do that, though, read his review of Taqueria Jalisco in Lubbock. It might come in handy during the Texas Tech games against Oklahoma University and University of Texas this fall.

I went to Jalisco under the guise of a “romantic” date with my girlfriend, but I was really there to review what I think are the best tacos in Lubbock.

Taqueria Jalisco isn’t your run-of-the-mill Tex-Mex restaurant. The menu tends to offer more than the typical “food smothered in cheese then ran through a pizza oven.” People commonly refer to Jalisco as Tex-Mex, but those people tend to think all Mexican food in Texas is Tex-Mex. Although I have never been to Guadalajara, I would like to think Jalisco lives up to the name, and it is anything but just Tex-Mex. Continue reading →

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by | August 28, 2012 · 5:01 pm

The Cheesecake Factory

My family and I found ourselves in one of the oversized, church-comfortable booths at the Cheesecake Factory in the Parks at Arlington shopping mall. It was a choice convenient for my son’s great-grandmother, who was due to be picked up by her son at the adjacent Barnes & Noble after lunch, and aren’t eateries like the Cheesecake Factory about convenience? They’re also about intimidation.

With a menu including more than 200 selections the size of an overgrown First Holy Communion Missal and specialties running the gamut of culinary traditions, I was a bit taken aback by my options. Most menus I order from list less than 20 items. Rarely to they exceed two pages. So, I honed in on something familiar: Tacos. I went with the fish.

Continue reading →

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by | August 24, 2012 · 12:05 pm

Cafe Maya Jazzes It Up

Add a swinging Saturday to Margarita Monday, Taco Tuesday, Humpday Happy Hour—not to mention the monthly first Tuesday $1 margarita night—at Café Maya Mexican Kitchen and Cantina. Tomorrow, Saturday, Aug. 25, owner Sergio Pinto will welcome the Magia Negra Latin Jazz Trio.

The first ivories will be tickled by Magia Negra’s pianist/vocalist Miriam Hernandez at 9 p.m. The last chord will be played at 1 a.m., with bandmates Young Heo on bass and Lamont Taylor on drums.

While you’re in the house, fire it up with a cochnita pibil doused with the off-menu habanero salsa, then cool down with a mango mojito.

Café Maya Mexican Kitchen & Cantina
1001 W. Jefferson Blvd.
214-948-9900

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by | August 23, 2012 · 3:57 pm

The Great Taco Run Goes the Tortilla Course

A different sort of taco trail is taking to Dallas on Sunday, Sept. 30. The Great Taco Run will give the city another race with another hook, yes, but can you think of anything more rewarding after giving it your all along the streets of the Big D than tacos? I can’t.

Presented by area sports store Luke’s Locker and benefiting the Trinity Strand and Katy Trail, the race will be separated into 5K, 10K and 10-mile lengths, all finishing at the Runners Village at Museum Way and Victory Avenue, near the American Airlines Center, where several taco vendors will be serving up their signature fare beginning at 8:30 a.m. Participants will be able to vote for their favorite taco vendor while a panel of judges will choose theirs. The winners will be announced on National Taco Day, Thursday, Oct. 4. Continue reading →

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by | August 21, 2012 · 3:51 pm

Taste of Home

Last week, I decried the fact that no food truck, much less a taco truck, was serving breakfast tacos. Then, I went to the Grand Prairie Farmers Market’s Hatch Chile Festival, hungry. There weren’t any taco trucks stationed on the west end of the market, but Taste of Home, a rig specializing in Chicago-style sausages, was selling breakfast tacos, Hatch chilies optional.

The line for the tacos was five deep. The number of people waiting for their orders was twice that, while the wait for said orders was 30 minutes. One woman paced, barely containing her exasperation. Shortly thereafter, her name was called with the wrong order repeated to her. She darted out of view when she got the correct tacos. But the natives were getting restless. Other customers grumbled. One threatened to demand reimbursement. Another remarked, “These breakfast tacos better come with gold plate.” Continue reading →

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by | August 16, 2012 · 10:32 am

Torchy’s Tacos SMU Preview

Torchy’s Tacos, Austin’s favorite specialty taco brand and home of the Dirty Sanchez, is putting the fire to the feet of local uber-chain, Fuzzy’s Taco Shop. And, I, for one, am happy about it.

There’s much to like about the Torchy’s Tacos near Southern Methodist University, which held a preview party last night and had its grand opening this morning. The restaurant is down the street from SMU, it’s got a cool fast-casual design, is the first Torchy’s outpost to serve cocktails, called Firewater and, of course, its “Damn Good Tacos.”

Nevertheless, if the quality of the fare and service on display last night is maintained, there will be no problems here, only damn good tacos. That is, if the obnoxiously loud DJ was a one-time thing.

After the jump, photos from the sneak peek-and-eat fiesta. Continue reading →

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by | August 14, 2012 · 8:06 am

Tacos La Banqueta—Arlington

I’ll never be cool. Cool people keep their cool. Eating great tacos makes me want to shout and dance. The selection at the Tacos La Banqueta in Arlington, the largest of the area chain’s outposts (two locations in Dallas, one recently opened in Fort Worth) make keeping my composure impossible.

All five tacos my wife and I enjoyed were clean—except when they weren’t supposed to be, in the case of the cabeza, which had pulling beef and nuggets of fat clinging to the meat kept tidy within bantam oil-free tortillas and no sign of cracking under the pressure of its filling. Continue reading →

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by | August 9, 2012 · 10:57 am

Tepa Mar y Tierra—Breakfast Tacos Edition

The regular tacos at Tepa are terrible. The breakfast tacos, on the other hand, are a fine haul. That’s not to say they’re perfect. The flour tortillas aren’t as spongy as I’d like them to be. However, they are cooked to order. I watched as the taquera placed the dough on to the griddle and flipped the flatbread discs when each began to puff. Shortly thereafter, I was handed a trio that cool at an unusually fast rate, which shouldn’t be a problem. You’re not going to chatter on about the day’s headlines with these babies nearby.

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