art wrote: I think of all the surbuban and city garages out there on game day when guys are simmering big pots of chili on the turkey fryer burner and selling cups of beer.

I need to walk the alleys more. In all my life I've never encountered these guys. Approximately how many blocks across the city line would you say they are? Any subtle clues about how to find them?

@kennyz, I wish I had some locations to give you other than my brother's garage where he sells some of the finest venison jerky you could ever chew.

I forgot to mention, previously, that the best quesadillas I have ever tasted were peddled out of a rolling brief case on a Mexican street.

mtgl, I think my Spanish is pretty good, for a non-native speaker. I lived for several years in a Spanish-speaking country where, by the way, a lot of business, food-related and other, was conducted in cash, without receipts and licenses and, oh, by the way, paying taxes on the income received. (Just in case anyone wants to look inside that can of worms... in an overcontrolled country such as Chile, some businesses avoiding paying taxes means other businesses get scrutinized that much more ... in an undercontrolled country such as Argentina, practically every business and individual trying to figure out how to avoid paying taxes contributes to economic collapse. Here in the USofA, when you see someone asking to be paid in cash and you suspect they're not going to be reporting the income, what do you, but grind your teeth?)

But I don't believe it's my place to be talking people who like to cook in their yard or garage into opening restaurants if they have their own reasons for not wanting to do so.

I think there's something to Kennyz's point that this is essentially a private backyard event (albeit one where attendees feel a compulsion to give the homeowner some cash to share his food costs with him), rather than the typical Eating Out in Chicagoland restaurant thread.

We've had some threads in the past about private, "underground" dinners ... just thinking out loud, are those a good analogy? The concept is a discussion topic in itself; the food is harder to talk about since very few of us ever have the chance to experience it.

Kennyz wrote:

art wrote: I think of all the surbuban and city garages out there on game day when guys are simmering big pots of chili on the turkey fryer burner and selling cups of beer.

I need to walk the alleys more. In all my life I've never encountered these guys. Approximately how many blocks across the city line would you say they are? Any subtle clues about how to find them?

Go to the southside and its surrounding suburbs and start driving/walking thru the alleys. We used to go to my grandmas for the day every Sunday for dinner and what not with my moms side of the family and her moms 6 sisters and all my cousins. She lived right across the street from St. Xavier. My cousins and I always roamed the neighborhood and we encountered quite a few but this was years ago. They even let us drink an O'Dohuls and fed us chili and watch the game.

Speaking of these at home establishments and the southside, has anyone ever been to this place on the corner of a side street and Pulaski-I think?



not quite the same as a garage but its def. in the owner of the houses yard and is gated off by his fence. Im sure he has a license and follows the law but Ive always wondered about the tacos. Ive driven by a few times but it was never open.

I don't think a search of Tacos and Mexico will be very helpful in the search thread or even google so Ive never really found anything on it but never tried too hard either. This thread brought it back to mind.

Katie wrote:
I think there's something to Kennyz's point that this is essentially a private backyard event...

That was Santander. I haven't made any intelligent points at all in this thread.

Sorry about that. Santander's point.

Da Beef wrote:Speaking of these at home establishments and the southside, has anyone ever been to this place on the corner of a side street and Pulaski-I think?

65th and Kedzie. I've driven by it a number of times. Never had a chance to stop in.

How could I have forgotten the lady who sold hot dogs through her living room window on 18th and Union! I don't think she's around anymore. And technically she had her steamer right outside her window, not literally in her living room. She would sit on the couch watching TV and you'd get her attention by peeking your head through her window and she'd access her cart (steamed buns and all) through the screenless window.

If you were desperate you could buy a 6 pack to go from the shady bar next to her house.

Working my way through RSS feeds over lunch, I reread the Mike Sula's article in the Reader. It strikes me that the article (like this thread) is less about the food than the phenomenon. Food is mentioned in only 5 of the 11 paragraphs of the article, and in only one sentence (saying the tacos "are good, though, easily rivaling any of those found at the Maxwell Street Market") does Sula give an indication of whether or not he liked it.

went to the underground taco stand .
had 1 pork & 1 blood sausage taco
the creamy guacmole sauce was outstanding
i will be going back forsure

LTH,

Garage Taqueria doing a brisk business at 9:30 AM, steaming bowls of menudo, simmering chicarone, jet black morcilla, stewed pork with potato, fresh grilled carne asada plus refried beans and cactus salad.

Rich mineral morcilla even better than memory, stewed pork long simmered with deep red chili and cactus salad studded with serrano made for a delicious cold spring morning meal. I would have had a bowl of menudo as well, but Phil and I were on our way to a BBQ get together.


Garage Taqueria


Enjoy,
Gary

Simply put, it is an unlicensed restaurant avoiding all the laws applicable to licensed restaurants. It has an unfair advantage to all resturants that have complied and will comply with the law. How many times has a new place that could not meet its overhead had to shut down due to the cost of complying with regs and rules it need to open up in the first place? How expensive are handicap accessible bathrooms, sprinkler systems, heating cooling and ventilation systems? The Departments of Health, Zoning and Building are here for a reason. The Department of Revenue and IRS collects funds that go to cash strapped cities, counties, states and the country. I assume that these are cash only-no tax collected places. Who pays for the person who gets hurt on the job at one of these places? No OSHA or workmans comp here. And what about zoning-no one wants to have a place like that next door to their house, the litter, smells, fire risk and excessive noise of customer traffic. We may not agree with the laws, rules and regulations that may or may not be excessive but no one should be exempt from following the law. I love a good taco but not at this price.

Elfin wrote: I love a good taco but not at this price.

Price was $5 for two tacos, cactus salad, grilled onions and a soda.

I neglected to mention the thin puree of spicy avocado salsa, though they called it guacamole, a most glorious accent to the morcilla.

Enjoy,
Gary

Gary,

The food looks fantastic. Wish I was in on the secret, but living in the NW Burbs would probably preclude this as a excursion in any case.

With the guacamole/salsa, any guesses as to the contents besides, of course. Avocado? I've been experimenting with things like Avocado vinaigrette and super smooth guacamole and I think that salsa is where I was heading but never had the clarity of thought until I read your post.

One thing about this forum is that it has revived my interest in Mexican food and finding sources for what I like. Since moving out of the city, I thought I would only find the old ground beef tex-mex food but there are gems and you don't even have to look that hard.

stopped at the taco garage this morn.
it was outstanding
had 1pork &1 churizo taco,bean salad,&onions & a pepsi
5 bucks

G Wiv wrote:

Elfin wrote: I love a good taco but not at this price.

Price was $5 for two tacos, cactus salad, grilled onions and a soda.

Not to speak for Elfin, but I'm pretty sure he was not talking about the monetary cost, but the societal costs associated with the following:

Elfin wrote:It has an unfair advantage to all resturants that have complied and will comply with the law. How many times has a new place that could not meet its overhead had to shut down due to the cost of complying with regs and rules it need to open up in the first place? ... We may not agree with the laws, rules and regulations that may or may not be excessive but no one should be exempt from following the law.

SSDD

blood sausage & pork today
outstanding guacumole sauce ,hot

stopped for breakfast today.
had the menudo,& tacos

philw wrote:stopped for breakfast today.
had the menudo,& tacos

How were they? Anything make them particularly memorable?

i am liking the churizo the best then pork,blood sausage,beef.
served with potato's ,onion,cilantro, cactis salad is great

but had the menudo today = outstanding
you can go to the fridge & get a beer or pop in the cooler

Struck morcilla gold this morning at the Garage Taco Stand, used as an add on in the same fashion as potatoes or beans to other meats, at least at the GTS, I ordered a stand alone morcilla along with chorizo and lengua. They had menudo on hand, but as we were going to a cooking demo/class that involved whole pig we ate light

Chorizo, cactus salad, lengua, morcilla



Billy, Lee Ann Whippen, Samantha Whippen



From one garage to another, School of Fire Winter Demo, Seasonings and Marinades.

School of Fire, Matt Freistadt



Matt smoked and grilled beef, chicken and pork for the demo and, along with Phil Wingo, smoked a whole pig, and a delicious pig at that.

Lee Ann, Matt



Phil Wingo prepping pig



Enjoy,
Gary

Do I understand correctly that this place is still "flying under the radar" or is there some way I can learn of its' location (PM is fine)?

gret pics gary,i eat here 2 times a month or so .
love it
churizo is tops for me ,also the pork

Is this place in the city? Could someone P.M. me as well? Or I am only allowed to find this place by getting lost and stumbling into it by chance? Someone could play a really mean joke and just give me some random person's address. i prob wouldn't know any better and just go wandering into their garages asking where they keep the tacos at!!

G Wiv wrote:

Matt smoked and grilled beef, chicken and pork for the demo and, along with Phil Wingo, smoked a whole pig, and a delicious pig at that.

Lee Ann, Matt



Phil Wingo prepping pig



Enjoy,
Gary

Nice that hog looks super nice...love that cooker to! NICE

Did the cat enjoy any?

local597 wrote:Did the cat enjoy any?

Thought this was snark for snark sake, but realized the coat to the left of the fruit might look like a cat. Its a coat and gloves, not a cat, so no, the cat did not enjoy any pig.

G Wiv wrote:Its a coat and gloves, not a cat, so no, the cat did not enjoy any pig.

How about the coat? Did the coat enjoy any?

it does look like a cat , but yes it is my jacket & gloves
but matts dog did have some pig