Two taco trucks in Brighton Park -- any info?

I was driving by El Guero 10 supermarket in Brighton Park and noticed two taco trucks next to the parking lot selling handmade gorditas, sincronizadas, and tacos with fillings like huitlacoche and flor de calabaza. Would love to have stopped but was stuffed from my meal at Burrito Juarez in Archer Heights (will post about this separately). One of the trucks was called "Lab's Tacos," and there was a decent crowd of people at both.

Just wanted to see if anyone had been. I haven't seen many traditional taco trucks operating around town since food trucks started to be a thing.

4023 S Archer Ave
(between California Ave & Montgomery Ave)
Chicago, IL 60632
Neighborhood: Brighton Park
(773) 847-1600
supermercadoselguero.com

Today I was able to visit the yellow truck closest to the grocery store entrance, called Antojitos Mexicanos Ortiz, which seems by far the more popular of the two. (It turns out the less popular truck is called Lalo's Tacos, which I originally misread as "Lab's Tacos.")

The food was superb. I ordered a quesadilla with flor de calabaza -- thick, made-to-order corn tortilla filled with a generous serving of squash blossoms. I'd definitely get this again, but not before I try the other fillings, which include huitlacoche, nopales, chorizo, and hongos. You can get any of these on a huarache too, which seems to be the truck's other specialty. I also got two tacos -- one pastor and one tripitas. Both were significantly better than most other versions I've had in the Little Village/Pilsen area. Very fresh tortillas (handmade?) and a hefty amount of meat. There's also a selection of freshly made garnishes on the serving windowsill, including a dangerous-looking orange habanero salsa and some different kinds of escabeches.

The proprietor says they're open every day until midnight. Nice to have an excellent taco option in the neighborhood. I'll be back to visit Lalo's, which seems to have a very similar menu. Sorry for the sad looking picture of the quesadilla -- I tore through it before it occurred to me to take a photo for the forum.

Spotted these blazing down Archer on a recent Friday night. Both were in action and each had quite a few folks standing around them so we had to go see what was up. The yellow truck was unmarked as far as names go but as pointed out by wahpahh goes by Antojitos Mexicanos Ortiz.


The Yellow Truck

Both offer similar menus and make their own tortillas for the quesadillas and also shape their own masa for Huaraches. I don't think they make fresh ones for the tacos but they were more than passable on the chicharone and steak tacos I ordered. There was a wonderful display of fresh salsas and relish on the truck. The steak was good and plentiful but the chicharones were anything but crispy fried pork skin. There wasn't a communication problem so not sure what went wrong.


Chicharones and Steak tacos

On this visit Lalo's was the busier of the two. So I had to stop at that one as well. Also tempting was the fact the smells from this one were filling the air with some nice aromas, probably do to the fact that were cooking up so much. People were ordering by the bag full.


Lalo's Tacos

Despite not seeing a spit I tried an al pastor and also got a steak quesadilla with grilled onions and cilantro inside. The al pastor was pretty bad. Fatty pieces of chewy pork couldn't be saved by their smooth and spicy avocado blend salsa. But the 'dilla? Damn! I hadn't had one this good since my trip to Puerto Vallarta when I tried one the same way with shrimp instead of steak. The fresh tortilla was pounded out after I ordered and it was full in flavor. Inside of it the steak, grilled onions and tons of melted chihuahua made for a mess of a delight. I added in some of their pickled habanero mix and it was no joke as far as the heat goes. You need a knife and fork and some space to eat it over but what a glorious pain it is. I'll be returning for a Mexican Cheese Steak sometime soon I presume. Thanks for the heads up!


Sensacional Steak Quesadilla

Nice. Very often, I'd say usually, "chicharones" as a taco filling is "chicharones en salsa verde" and they are soft. Perhaps no communication issue but also no mistake or even oddity there. Your post also highlights a paradox - many of us gringos hear "quesadilla" and think "Taco Bell" or "kid's meal" and see a bad white bread flour tortilla from a Kroger in Ohio and some Kraft shredded Mexican blend, when in reality, at an authentic place, the quesadilla is the single most likely antojito to score you a hand-made tortilla and the best cheese in the house.