byob?

tacos and burritos just arn't the same without a cold one. The Modelos w/ lime look good.

I've eaten tamales from the Tamale Guy and I've enjoyed them.

As I stated, I have mixed feelings about this type of operation (I've even requested that friends who know this place take me there). I don't see that as a U-Turn. We're just chatting.

=R=

Head's Red BBQ wrote:

tatterdemalion wrote:

Head's Red BBQ wrote:no matter how cool a concept you may think it is ..its all irrelevant once you start charging the public for food

There are a handful of these "operations" in a certain part of town in Austin TX that I frequented when I lived there recently. Some of them were very cool (a menudo-man), some of them not as much. But they were all so far off the grid that they weren't posing any kind of competitive threat to legitimate businesses. I always thought of it as more like a yard sale. I'm not sure I understand your comment.

once you start charging for food you are susceptible to health laws..meaning in comparison to bringing a plate to pass at a party ...a yard sale is not a good comparison

Actually it could be free and the health department could shut it down.

I'm looking forward to next week's posts about how long the wait was for a taco, how poorly management handled the lack of adequate seating, how no one from the establshment seemed to care that a customer's taco was served barely luke warm, and how much better the service is at Frontera Grill.

ronnie_suburban wrote:I've eaten tamales from the Tamale Guy and I've enjoyed them.

As I stated, I have mixed feelings about this type of operation (I've even requested that friends who know this place take me there). I don't see that as a U-Turn. We're just chatting.

=R=

and getting hungry.

Kennyz wrote:I'm looking forward to next week's posts about how long the wait was for a taco, how poorly management handled the lack of adequate seating, how no one from the establshment seemed to care that a customer's taco was served barely luke warm, and how much better the service is at Frontera Grill.

Don't forget the dissection of their phone etiquette!

G Wiv wrote:I should have guessed the quick u-turn the thread would take.

Was there any other possible outcome from this discussion (the article and the original LTH post) than this place being sought out and shut down?

What was expected - calm dialogue and picture exchange from the ten people on the board or Reader readership who have been there, PM exchanges of the address to other "trusted" diners, polite inquiries at Zaragoza to find the place so that those willing to actually travel to the neighborhood can enjoy the tacos?

Making this particular place public with images, general area description, and family names - rather than a more general discussion of this type of place as part of an urban cultural phenomenon - makes all of us readers complicit in its activities, and its fate.

Back to corner BBQ - I am reminded of all the fund raisers I remember from the south east US - Boyscouts et al. Someone's dad would set up shop in a parking lot, put out a big old charcoal grill, probably made from 1/2 an oil drum, they'd have chicken leg quarters grilling, and you would pay something and get it wrapped up in foil to take home or eat there. I wonder if they were licensed.

leek wrote:Back to corner BBQ - I am reminded of all the fund raisers I remember from the south east US - Boyscouts et al. Someone's dad would set up shop in a parking lot, put out a big old charcoal grill, probably made from 1/2 an oil drum, they'd have chicken leg quarters grilling, and you would pay something and get it wrapped up in foil to take home or eat there. I wonder if they were licensed.

probably not..and it doesnt cost much to get a one day permit to cook onsite for fundraisers either ..be nothing worse than getting shut down in the middle of a fundraiser too just to save a couple bucks..
I do know the health dept does have huge issues with people prepping and cooking food at home to sell..it doesnt make sense that you can cook on site outside under a pop up with a permit vs cooking at home but it is what it is
i dont make the rules i just try to follow them

Let's not forget those of us that contribute home baked goods for fundraisers.

Dave148 wrote:Let's not forget those of us that contribute home baked goods for fundraisers.

i havent..lady next to me at farmers market sells baked goods and she rents time at a commercial kitchen in order to have a permit to sell them..
even the girl and boy scouts in the area use a local commercial kitchen to bake stuff for thier fundraisers..and a lot of commerical kitchens let them use the kitchen free of charge
plenty of other examples but it would be redundant..
bottom line some want to do it the right way..

Santander wrote:What was expected - calm dialogue and picture exchange from the ten people on the board or Reader readership who have been there

Matt,

LTHForum is filled with interesting posts about places and restaurants I will never be, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hoi An and Hue, Rao's, and Cleveland, to name a few. That in no way diminishes my enjoyment in reading posts, looking at pictures and sharing the experience my fellow LTHers were kind enough to take the time to share.

Enjoy,
Gary

G Wiv wrote:

Santander wrote:What was expected - calm dialogue and picture exchange from the ten people on the board or Reader readership who have been there

Matt,

LTHForum is filled with interesting posts about places and restaurants I will never be, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Hoi An and Hue, Rao's, and Cleveland, to name a few. That in no way diminishes my enjoyment in reading posts, looking at pictures and sharing the experience my fellow LTHers were kind enough to take the time to share.

Enjoy,
Gary

GWiv, you may get to Cleveland someday. Dream big.

Louisa Chu wrote:Actually it could be free and the health department could shut it down.

That’s pretty much the bottom line. I agree with Ronnie-suburban that it is a slap in the face to the legitimate business people who work hard to follow the rules. I live on a cul-de-sac and there is a sign that states “No Parking” and the entrance to the street. Three out of nine neighbors seem to think that sign doesn’t apply to them. I’ve contacted the association and their response was “call the police." Which I have……more than 30 times on one of them, and you’d think they’d get the clue. One night it was so parked up that a friend of mine couldn’t leave because his Honda Civic couldn’t fit down the street. It would have been real nice if there had been a medical emergency, a fire, or some other incident requiring emergency services.
I’ll admit, at times, there may be too many rules, but I believe that it’s due to the severe lack of common sense and consideration for other people.....but rules are rules. Just my $0.02.

Not to mention all those moms making peanut butter sandwiches for their kids. Do they have to pass a health inspection? So why do we have one set of rules for a preferred group called "moms" and another for honest, hardworking restaurateurs?

Mike G wrote:Not to mention all those moms making peanut butter sandwiches for their kids. Do they have to pass a health inspection? So why do we have one set of rules for a preferred group called "moms" and another for honest, hardworking restaurateurs?

Could it be at least in part because mom assumes legal liability for any misfortune that befalls her kids due to their consumption of her peanut butter sandwiches, but Sr. Garage Taquería assumes no legal liability for any similar such misfortune that might befall the OP due to his consumption of his garage tacos?

Mike G wrote:Not to mention all those moms making peanut butter sandwiches for their kids. Do they have to pass a health inspection? So why do we have one set of rules for a preferred group called "moms" and another for honest, hardworking restaurateurs?

Maybe that's why my Mom cooked the holy cr@p out of everything.

Could it be at least in part because mom assumes legal liability for any misfortune that befalls her kids due to their consumption of her peanut butter sandwiches, but Sr. Garage Taquería assumes no legal liability for any similar such misfortune that might befall the OP due to his consumption of his garage tacos?

Could it be... nobody's really arguing the legal principles here, despite the fact that some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

Mike G wrote:
some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

the great looking food, and eating outside the cultural box is what interests me. The legal, and alleged ethical debate is what does not interest me.

jimswside wrote:

Mike G wrote:
some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

the great looking food, and eating outside the cultural box is what interests me. The legal, and alleged ethical debate is what does not interest me.

I'm interested in both (or is it all three?) aspects.

Mike G wrote:

Could it be at least in part because mom assumes legal liability for any misfortune that befalls her kids due to their consumption of her peanut butter sandwiches, but Sr. Garage Taquería assumes no legal liability for any similar such misfortune that might befall the OP due to his consumption of his garage tacos?

Could it be... nobody's really arguing the legal principles here, despite the fact that some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

Personally, I'm not much interested in either. Just thought the mom and her sandwiches not a fitting analogy.

Katie wrote:

Mike G wrote:Not to mention all those moms making peanut butter sandwiches for their kids. Do they have to pass a health inspection? So why do we have one set of rules for a preferred group called "moms" and another for honest, hardworking restaurateurs?

Could it be at least in part because mom assumes legal liability for any misfortune that befalls her kids due to their consumption of her peanut butter sandwiches, but Sr. Garage Taquería assumes no legal liability for any similar such misfortune that might befall the OP due to his consumption of his garage tacos?

This got me wondering, so I asked an attorney friend of mine. His opinion (based on a few somewhat-similar cases he studied in law school) was that both the mom and the unlicensed vendor could be sued if someone consuming their food got sick, and they would most likely lose if the victims could prove that they were not using "reasonable care" while preparing the food (his example of "reasonable care" was making sure mayo isn't expired, not making the peanut butter sandwiches on a cutting board simultaneously being used to butcher meats, etc.).

All that aside, I personally consider eating at an unlicensed taqueria here the same as eating at a taqueria stand in a village in Mexico, or a roadside chaat stand in India, or any other relatively sketchy source of down-to-earth, simple food (or at least I would look at it this way if only I knew where this place was located): if I get sick, it's my own damn fault for risking my gastrointestinal health in the pursuit of tasty foods...and it would become the integral "I'm more hardcore & adventurous than you" part of the tale every time friends asked me about it ("Seriously dude, cold sweats, vomiting, fever, chills...I was LAID OUT for a solid THREE DAYS! Totally worth it for those tacos though. I'm going again for lunch tomorrow."). I think it's a shame that so many people's knee-jerk reaction in this situation is to sue...not that I think anyone here fits that mold, but a sad state of affairs none the less.

My goodness...

jimswside wrote:

Mike G wrote:
some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

the great looking food, and eating outside the cultural box is what interests me. The legal, and alleged ethical debate is what does not interest me.

For me, it's hard to separate the 2. I guess it's because I work in the food industry and my company has to take money that would otherwise be profits and employee bonuses and spend them on regulatory and compliance personnel. When others don't do the same, it irks me a bit. It's also not easy to separate them because the very thing that distinguishes this operation is the fact that it's being operated surreptitiously out of a residential garage. If it were a legitimate restaurant, it'd just be another taqueria.

But again, I'm not casting aspersions. From where I'm coming, it's just hard to appreciate the rogue aspects of this place without a wee bit of irritation (and/or envy). That said, I do hope to try this place out someday.

=R=

jimswside wrote:

Mike G wrote:
some people are! very! concerned! about such things, much more than they're interested in the culinary or cultural aspects, clearly.

the great looking food, and eating outside the cultural box is what interests me. The legal, and alleged ethical debate is what does not interest me.

To each his own, but I like to minimize risk in my daily life--- I would never consider eating at an unlicensed COMMERCIAL food provider. To equate what this "garage chef" is doing and what people bring to a not-for-profit fundraiser in my opinion, is a specious argument.

Regarding "eating outside the cultural box"---- There is absolutely NOTHING preventing this guy from adapting his recipes and serving them in a legal fashion according to laws currently in place.

ronnie_suburban wrote: That said, I do hope to try this place out someday.

=R=

When you get the address, which it's abundantly clear this thread will not provide explicitly.

Unlike when Wiv gets to Cleveland and has all the information he needs from us 'generous' posters to find the places he'd like to try.

I'm with Jim and Ravi - love eating at these places, care little about the code and legislation. What I do care about is the journalistic choices involved in the coy sharing / concealing of the information. There are just barely enough details between the article and Gary's post to get some people in trouble they may or may not deserve.

Santander wrote:I'm with Jim and Ravi - love eating at these places, care little about the code and legislation. What I do care about is the journalistic choices involved in the coy sharing / concealing of the information. There are just barely enough details between the article and Gary's post to get some people in trouble they may or may not deserve.

The information seems necessarily well-concealed to me. I don't see how the info in article and post could be triangulated to locate this place (I've been there and even I'm not sure I could find it again...but I've got a directional learning disability).

cito wrote:To each his own, but I like to minimize risk in my daily life--- I would never consider eating at an unlicensed COMMERCIAL food provider.

This woman in Hanoi carries around her whole mobile kitchen and plops down to cook you your meal when you flag her on the street. It's a little hard to make out, but she has all of her ingredients, utensils, the stools that customers sit on, and a pot of broth over a live charcoal fire, all stashed in the two hanging baskets. I personally don't regret eating her food one bit - my only regret is that I didn't have more stomach capacity to try more of the roving food vendors' wares.

-Dan

p.s. As Khaopaat suggests upthread - I got violently ill for a couple of days during my trip to Vietnam. Totally worth it, wouldn't do anything differently next time.

David Hammond wrote:

Santander wrote:I'm with Jim and Ravi - love eating at these places, care little about the code and legislation. What I do care about is the journalistic choices involved in the coy sharing / concealing of the information. There are just barely enough details between the article and Gary's post to get some people in trouble they may or may not deserve.

The information seems necessarily well-concealed to me. I don't see how the info in article and post could be triangulated to locate this place (I've been there and even I'm not sure I could find it again...but I've got a directional learning disability).

Really? Seems pretty easy to me: you go to Zaragoza and you ask.

Kennyz wrote:

David Hammond wrote:

Santander wrote:I'm with Jim and Ravi - love eating at these places, care little about the code and legislation. What I do care about is the journalistic choices involved in the coy sharing / concealing of the information. There are just barely enough details between the article and Gary's post to get some people in trouble they may or may not deserve.

The information seems necessarily well-concealed to me. I don't see how the info in article and post could be triangulated to locate this place (I've been there and even I'm not sure I could find it again...but I've got a directional learning disability).

Really? Seems pretty easy to me: you go to Zaragoza and you ask.

Or use a combination of Google and Google Maps. But whatever - the point is obviously not for us to find and eat at this place, it's to admire the concept that such a place exists.