Yo Quiero Taco Bus: New Location Spices Up Downtown

In the past few years, food trucks have become a trendy staple in the hip food world. This is due to their unique and carefree method of traveling and plopping down wherever it seems customer’s stomachs are grumbling. Well, what if one of these highly acclaimed food-mobiles permanently moved in somewhere? Say, on North Franklin St. in downtown Tampa Bay? Lucky for us Floridian Mexican cuisine lovers, that is exactly what the Taco Bus did!

Say goodbye to Taco Bell, college students – the Taco Bus just added a third and permanent location, moving away from their first and original pit stop on East Hillsborough Avenue, and second in downtown St. Petersburg. If you’re looking for a casual yet extremely fresh and ethnic meal at an affordable price, then this Mexican tacqueria is your destination.

Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Taco Bus’ menu incorporates cultural items ranging from breakfast burritos, to Lengua, which we Americans would call beef tongue tacos. (One must be daring to swallow a tongue by using one’s own in the process!) The traditional Mexican recipes are translated onto each and every plate, as it is apparent that the quality of the product is what matters here.

All of the meat, the barbacoa (braised beef) in particular, is tantalizing to the tongue, bursting with flavor, melting in your mouth. The freshness of the vegetables can be sensed at first glance, the colors pop with summertime red tomatoes, vibrant green lettuce and purple skinned onions.

The Taco Bus is exceptional in the sense that it veers away from the popular “tex-mex” style of cooking that we seem to be familiar with, and instead, uses techniques that date back 5,000 years ago.

According to the menu, the Conchinita Pibil is pork marinated in achiote and bitter orange, which is then wrapped in banana leaves and slow roasted in a smoker. This old Mayan recipe stays true to its roots and can only be understood by tasting it in a fresh and delicious taco with cabbage and a dollop of sour cream.

Not only does the Taco Bus have an unmistakably distinctive menu, but also it draws in an eclectic crowd. Whether you’re wearing your suit and tie during your lunch break from the office, or in a grungy top you threw on just in time to catch your ride out, or even still in your bikini from your tough day out at the pool, you’ll fit right in.

The menu is priced appropriately for all incomes, where a taco is only $2.69 with tax, (aforementioned… see ya later Taco Bell and your stomach aches!) Now there’s a taco joint where the beef is real and doesn’t come from a tube.

The restaurant’s atmosphere is casual and inviting, where the walls are painted a deep orange, embellished with Mexican style paintings and phrases that adorn the doorways and wooden tables. A flat screen is posted up with SportsCenter most likely on, and genuine Spanish music hums through the surround sound.

The ambiance is nothing less than what one would envision when entering a true restaurante mexicano – a humbling environment where the employees are welcoming and the food is too good to only go once. Taco Bus is open 9 a.m. till 9 p.m. but Friday and Saturday they stay open 24 hours to handle your munchies at any hour. They are located at 505 N. Franklin St. in downtown Tampa Bay. Just look for the yellow school bus, you’ll know where to enter – tener una buena comida!

Jordan Schein can be reached at jschein@spartans.ut.com.