My Favorite Taqueria

classicrockgriller · October 19, 2009, 11:10:49 PM

Stopped off at what used to be my favorite breakfast taqueria. Before, it had sotra stained concrete floors, 8 to 10 Mexican ladies that were cooking, making homemade flour tortillas,
pressing them by hand, one at a time, the line would be out the door, and the conversation you had with a stranger was about the great food you were about to get. None of the chairs matched, and half the tables had something under one leg to even everthing out.

When I stopped the other day, the place looked different. New sign, no line. I went in and they had remodeled the inside. Tile floors, new tables and chairs, etc. When I went to order was greeted by a American and told my order over a microphone. The lady that use to press the tortillas was replaced by this:

The lady that made the delicious tortillas was now busing tables. She told me, while I was waiting for my food, that she was very sad for the place. HUH?

Then I saw why she said that, and why there was no waiting in line:

The food was terrible, was another sad day in my life. But, the memory's were good. Adios Taqueria #3

Hopefull Romantic · October 20, 2009, 12:57:04 AM

Don't you just hate that CRG and they call it modernization or progress >:( >:(

I can relate to your story with my favorite downtown coffee shop. Same as you described for the floor tables and chairs. But the chairs were the old short backless made of straw ones. Old what they serve was the old style glass of red tea, Arabic coffee and on days, herbal tea. They even provided several copies of the day's news papers. There was a waiter there that was older than history but with an ear to ear smile and a memory full of experiences and events that any and all can learn from

Nowadays they have cafe lat and flavoured coffee and skim milk stuff YUK. The floors are wood and every thing inside matches YUK YUK Yuk and no newspapers. The old waiter is sitting at a shoe shine box...and no smile. Another piece of downtown history destroyed.

HR

deb415611 · October 20, 2009, 03:53:50 AM

How sad CRG.

3rensho · October 20, 2009, 05:37:13 AM

That is a sad story. I've seen that happen all too often. Funky and delicious goes to modern/plastic and crappy. Happened to a favorite Vietnamese restaurant of mine. Went from amazing to McNoodles.

Caneyscud · October 20, 2009, 06:24:44 AM

Yeh, know what ya mean CRG. I have to say we have some of the sorriest excuses for restaurants here. A few gems here and there, but generally, ubiquitous monotony interspersed with stale banality with a few restaurants who interpret having character as being rude, dirty, and tasteless or just putting up a couple of faux antique coke signs. One now-tarnished gem was our second non-franchise mexican restaurant. The first was good, not great, but missed, and closed down years before the second one opened. This is a city where salt and black pepper is considered spicy, and before the explosion of latino immigrants. People here did not eat mexican food. The second one was started by a mexican family that started it in a corner of their building that housed their tortilla factory. Neither the wait staff nor the cook staff spoke english. They only had one flat top, a counter, and 4 tables at the time. I usually had to dine alone as nobody else had enough guts to go with me. But they had the best chorizos, tacos de lengua, tripas, carnitas, menudo, a variety of fish and shrimp dishes - my favorites being Filete De Pescado Relleno, Pescado al mojo de ajo and a wonderful Chilpachole with Albondigas de Pescado, various types of Chiles Rellenos, vuelve a la vida with lots of octopus and a refreshing wonderful Campechana. But then they got popular and expanded and "lost" the good recipes - and are just about like every other "Speedy Gonzales" Mexican Restaurant now. Loved going back home and eating at the little family owned mexican joints - hand patted tortillas and all. This last time, two of my favorites were closed. These two were literally housed in the garages where these guys lived. But boy they had some of the best puffy tacos, Chiles Rellenos, Menudo, canitas, and the like. One the proprieter died and the other, some newcomer street nazis to his neighborhood complained and he had to close. Some change can be defined as good, I don't deny that, but so much of it is not!

classicrockgriller · October 26, 2009, 05:43:18 PM

Caney, We had a bbq place in Port Neches that only sat about 10 people and you usually had to wait in line for 15 to 20 minutes for some great BBQ. People would get their orders and if there was no place to sit would walk outside and eat on hood of cars , trucks, sitting on their tailgate, etc. He made so much money he tore down the old place built a new one and something change in the way he did BBQ, wasn't the same. He went out of business in 6 months.

He popped up again in a little old building about a year lader and starting making BBQ like he use to, and to date he has all the business he wants with no plans of building a new spot. Wish Man !

FLBentRider · October 26, 2009, 07:15:37 PM

Quote from: classicrockgriller on October 26, 2009, 05:43:18 PM
Caney, We had a bbq place in Port Neches that only sat about 10 people and you usually had to wait in line for 15 to 20 minutes for some great BBQ. People would get their orders and if there was no place to sit would walk outside and eat on hood of cars , trucks, sitting on their tailgate, etc. He made so much money he tore down the old place built a new one and something change in the way he did BBQ, wasn't the same. He went out of business in 6 months.

He popped up again in a little old building about a year lader and starting making BBQ like he use to, and to date he has all the business he wants with no plans of building a new spot. Wish Man !

We had the same place in SC when I lived there.

no kidding.

Oldman · October 27, 2009, 01:06:16 AM

We use to have an open pit BBQ that was out of site. The owner died. His wife sold it to some folks from the middle East who sold it to some other folks that turn it into a fish place who then sold it to the business next door that tore it down and made that area into a parking lot....

There is only one other open pit here and that place is so nasty that I would not allow a dog to eat there. Plus there is now a law that no more open pits resturants can be built here...