Taco ... taco ... taco ... deli. On July 25, Tacodeli opens its fourth restaurant in Dallas-Fort Worth, at the busy Plano intersection of W. Park Boulevard and Preston Road.
The Austin-born company has steadily made its way into North Texas. But beyond the four Tacodelis in D-FW, the brand has recently popped up at lots of small businesses, like at Top Pot Doughnuts in Dallas; Royal Blue Grocery in Highland Park; and at coffee shops in Dallas and Plano.
Basically, you might've eaten a Tacodeli taco even if you haven't been to a Tacodeli shop.
That's been part of the company's strategy since the beginning: The first Tacodeli, in Austin, was 700 square feet, and in order to get tacos in front of more people, the owners branched out beyond the store.
They "would set up in the entryway of office buildings, cater at night, do deliveries and more. They'd do anything to get the product in people's hands," says Tacodeli's publicist Lindsey Miller of Lindsey Miller Public Relations. "From this necessity, they learned the product travels well and drove business back to the restaurant."
The new Plano location, at the northwest corner of Park and Preston, near Whole Foods, marks 10 Tacodelis in Texas. All of the shops are breakfast and lunch only, with the restaurants closing at 3 p.m. each day.
Tacodeli joins a very crowded breakfast taco market in Texas -- one where a declaration of a favorite taco shop is enough to start a family feud. Even Guy Fieri is slinging tacos in Texas.
Tacodeli is known for its simple, reliable tacos that come in some 40 combinations. The daily specials offer more flair, like the Banh Mi special on Tuesdays: pork, sweet and sour sauce, carrot-daikon escabeche; or the Scallops special on Thursdays: scallops, mojo garlic sauce, roasted peppers and grilled corn.
Tacodeli is run by chef/founder Roberto Espinosa, who was born and raised in Mexico City; and partner Eric Wilkerson, who lives in Dallas and Austin.
