Final yr, night time after night time, Jaime Elizondo and Navin Chatlani stared at one another throughout the road. Elizondo was working on the second location of his Tejano barbecue joint, Smoke Crafters, a yellow trailer stationed in a McAllen meals truck park. Chatlani was operating his Mexican seafood restaurant, La Bahia. Through the many sluggish nights, they’d wave to one another.
“We might stand exterior one another’s companies, questioning what the hell was occurring,” Elizondo says. “It was a very sluggish yr for lots of companies, , particularly us.” Ultimately they mustered the boldness to speak to one another.
The 2 Rio Grande Valley natives brainstormed what was and wasn’t working. Because the conversations continued, they agreed there was at the very least one potential path ahead: constructing one thing new. “We mentioned, ‘If one thing occurs, we’ll do it collectively,’ ” Chatlani remembers. The chums determined it was time to shut their particular person endeavors and collaborate.
Their new challenge is ¡Tacos! Mi Gente, which makes use of the Smoke Crafters trailer that they relocated to the parking zone of London Grill & Tavern, managed by Chatlani and owned by his dad and mom. The one seen signal of the enterprise is a streetside banner with the taqueria’s title.
The taqueria has been open mere weeks, but when my latest go to is any indication, ¡Tacos! Mi Gente is already serving a few of the finest traditional pork-beef-chicken tacos within the Valley.
Chatlani and Elizondo labored on recipes for his or her signature barbacoa and chicharron tacos whereas working their different companies for seven months. They nonetheless haven’t given up their day jobs. Chatlani manages London Grill & Tavern, whereas Elizondo retains the unique Smoke Crafters, in Mission, operating.
“We’ve dedicated to 2 tasks, however due to our religion in our chicharron and barbacoa, we don’t thoughts working late,” Chatlani says. “Final night time we had been up till twelve-thirty.” But each morning the companions get up excited to push themselves and their tacos throughout their service hours, which lengthen to midnight. “We nonetheless have to keep up our common eating places and do that, however we think about the trail.”
They in fact carry their experiences from their different eating places to the taqueria. Elizondo provides a contact of barbecue to the meat cheek barbacoa. He begins by inserting the wrapped meat within the Smoke Crafters smoker subsequent to his brisket, however simply briefly, for only a hint of smokiness. The completed product glistens underneath the lights of the parking zone however isn’t too fatty.
Atop beef tallow–dipped nixtamalized corn tortillas, the barbacoa pops with beefiness. Buddies and acquaintances informed Elizondo and Chatlani they’d be nuts to serve their barbacoa at night time. “We heard a whole lot of warnings about it not promoting as a result of it’s usually a morning dish, but it surely’s our greatest vendor,” Elizondo explains. Two out of three orders embrace barbacoa. It’s additionally nice sufficient that Chatlani breaks his non secular edict as a Hindu to not eat beef.
The chicharrones aren’t the smooth, generally overly chewy chunks and rings of pork pores and skin in purple or inexperienced salsa which are served by most taquerias. As a substitute, the cubed protein is fried, allowed to chill, and fried once more. It’s a course of just like cooking Korean fried rooster, and the top end result has terrific crunchy strata of soppy fats above shredded chicken. The saltiness of the chicharron is balanced by the addition of pickled onions and salsas.
The carne asada—a menu requirement in beef-loving South Texas—is chopped small however doesn’t endure from drying out on the flattop griddle. It’s juicy! The tallow-coated tortillas supply an additional meaty increase.
Chatlani and Elizondo understand it’s tough to open a brand new taqueria within the Rio Grande Valley, a lot much less diverge from the requirements beloved by locals, akin to tacos estilo Matamoros. “McAllen is beginning to get higher at that,” Chatlani says. He additionally believes their location provides them a greater likelihood. ¡Tacos! Mi Gente is parked alongside a busy road and has a built-in buyer base with crossover site visitors from London Grill & Tavern and the encircling buying facilities.
Nonetheless, Chatlani and Elizondo aren’t keen to take a day without work. They’ll be those clients see Thursday by Saturday nights. “In case you are available a month otherwise you are available two months, it’s going to be me on the truck taking orders,” Chatlani says, laughing at the truth that though he’s a co-owner, his each day accountability is that of lead cashier.
However simply as they weren’t in a rush to open ¡Tacos! Mi Gente, the companions aren’t keen to get forward of themselves. A second location won’t be opening anytime quickly. If the taqueria is profitable sufficient to warrant a transfer to a brand new location, Chatlani and Elizondo will take into account it. Sustainability is extra necessary than growth. Within the meantime, they’re centered on ¡Tacos! Mi Gente as it’s. “We simply want to offer it our all, and be the perfect Navin we might be and the perfect Jaime we might be,” Elizondo says.
¡Tacos! Mi Gente
129 E. Nolana Avenue, McAllen
Telephone: 956-246-1008
Hours: Thursday–Saturday 8 p.m.–midnight
