Rocco's Tacos and Tequila Bar

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Published on Tuesday, 20 November 2012 10:32

Written by Scott Joseph

It took four visits to Rocco’s Tacos and Tequila Bar before I was able to sample the food. The first time I didn’t even make it out of my car. The restaurant had announced its grand opening -- and the promise of free food -- and the Sand Lake Road complex where Rocco’s is located was so jam-packed that there weren’t any parking space even at the neighboring strip mall. I don’t need free food that badly.

Taqueria del Sol

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Published on Monday, 01 October 2012 09:25

Written by Scott Joseph

“Low Country” Southern-fried chicken isn’t the sort of thing you expect to see on the menu of a restaurant with a Mexican name. And you don’t expect to see a full bar in a fast casual concept.

But there they both are at Taqueria del Sol, a new restaurant brought to town from Atlanta by local Five Guys burger franchise owners BRMGRP LLC. TdS opens today (Monday, Oct. 1, 2012) in a space that was originally occupied by the now defunct O’boys barbecue on South Orange Avenue.

I stopped in a few days ago to have a look and a nibble, and I liked what I saw and tasted.

Taqueria del Sol was started, in 2000, by Atlanta restaurateur Mike Klank and chef Eddie Hernandez, a native of Monterrey, Mexico, who had collaborated previously on a restaurant called Sundown Cafe, a full-service, dinner-only restaurant. The Taqueria was a response to requests that the two serve a casual lunch. There are now four TdS locations in Georgia, and franchises are opening in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.

Azteca d'Oro

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Published on Wednesday, 31 August 2011 10:57

Written by Scott Joseph

It's shredded lettuce, not hair, on the chest of the Macho Burrito.

Of course, I could blame the (usually) complimentary chips and salsa that are the custom of Tex-Mexeries. And I do. But that doesn’t explain the utter loss of constraint i’m somehow able to maintain at other types of restaurants with, say, a mere bread basket. I just keep shoving those little triangles into my face.

But that doesn’t stop me from going whole hog on the entree, hog being the operative word. More often than not I’ll get a combination platter, something that will include rice and refried beans, because I don’t get enough carbs from the chips, not to mention the flour tortillas that are more common than the corn variety at most T-M’s. I think the reason I enjoy Tex-Mex so much is that I don’t have to think too hard. There is very little nuance. Heck, most of the items on any menu are the same four or five ingredients just presented in different order. For a critic, there isn’t a whole lot to do.

Cocina 214

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Published on Monday, 06 June 2011 09:59

Written by Scott Joseph

Here’s one of the things I like about Cocina 214 -- and there are several things to like here: it doesn’t make apologies for being a Tex-Mex restaurant. Yes, it claims on its website that it is “a contemporary Mexican kitchen,” but in defining that term it explains the food is “creative, gourmet interpretations of traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex favorites.” The first thing I look for when I visit a restaurant that claims to be authentic Mexican is the number of non-Mexican dishes, such as fajitas, nachos and the like.

You’ll find such items on the menu here, too, but Cocina 214 doesn’t try to pass them off as something you’d find south of the border. In fact, it places them squarely within Texas. The 214 in the restaurant’s name is not its address on Welbourne Avenue -- that’s 151. Instead, it denotes the area code for Dallas. Dallas isn’t the city that comes to mind when I think of Tex-Mex -- San Antonio, Austin, even Amarillo seem more likely -- but there you go.