Taco Taco, the first look and taste

Posted on 14 August, 2018

Those Barrio boys are taking us to Mexico with their newest venture, Taco Taco.

Since it opened on Lonsdale Street in 2015, Barrio Collective Coffee has delivered Canberra superior coffee, a tiny but perfect menu, and the warm hospitality of Duncan Turner, Dan Zivkovich and Sam Burns.

Now the Barrio boys, along with their good friend Nick Smith, are opening the doors to their much-anticipated Mexican street food-inspired cantina in No Name Lane—Taco Taco. From Thursday you’ll be able to wander in for an experience that is distinctive from your Barrio days, save for the friendly smiles of the lads. For one thing, there is no espresso!

Taco Taco is a place for a meal with a definite Latin American slant, to be washed down with a beer. Try a local Capital Brew schmiddy, including the limited run pineapple and jalapeno beer. Alternatively, the fully-licensed eatery will have a small wine list of mainly local labels including Nick O’Leary, Limbo, MADA and Mallaluka. There will also be a handful of Mexican-inspired cocktails, such as the blood orange Paloma with tequila or the smoked horchata with mescal—which, quite frankly, sounds lethal. Where do I order?

What you choose to accompany your drink is another adventure entirely.

The menu will change due to seasonal availability and the creative whims of head chef Jeff Shim formerly of XO. But you can start this week with guac gordita—fried masa, roasted guac, pickles and dirty onions; a chilaquiles of totopos, eggs, refried beans and salsa; a chilora taco of blood orange and guajillo braised pork, pickled onions and jalapenos; or a fennel taco which features a warm tortilla, charred fennel, adzuki butter, roasted guac and hazlenuts.

Larger meals include the tlayudas—a large grilled tortilla, refried beans, scarmorze, salsa and pickles, or a house bean bowl featuring chilli baked beans, corn salsa, fresh guac, rice, pickles and totopos.

We can’t not mention the stew of paprika braised smoked pork and great northern beans with pickled veg and rice, nor the daily broth bowl comprising broth, chicken, rice, corn, coriander, jalapeño and lime salsa.

Clearly there is something there to keep every hungry gringo happy.

The place itself has that sparse and bespoke Barrio feel about it, featuring a tiled bar and an L-shape configuration of tables inside (seating about 30) with the familiar wooden benches outside (seating another 30).

On the ANU end of Alinga Street, Taco Taco is in increasingly busy company as No Name Lane embraces a new swag of eateries including Terra and the soon-to-be-finished Baby Su (the offspring of Lazy Su).

It is light-filled and imminently instagrammable. Just what we have grown to love and expect from the Barrio Collective.

Opening hours are a little flexible at this stage as the soft opening begins. But the boys are thinking of between 10am-6pm Monday to Friday with a high probability of opening the doors for weekly night service and Saturday afternoons for a meal, maybe a DJ and a cocktail or three.

Their dedication to customer satisfaction and genuine warmth has earned them a loyal clientele who are sure to be drawn to the other end of Civic on the aromas of smoky paprika, slow-cooked pork and refried beans. ¡Arriba!

the essentials
What: Taco Taco
Where: No Name Lane, Alinga Street, City West
When: Open 10am-6pm Monday to Friday during the soft launch.
Web: tacotacocbr.com