Text-Mex

District Taco Takes Customer Feedback Seriously

By Warren Rojas / Photography by Kate Bohler

Now freed from the culinary constraints of their original taco cart, District Taco has unequivocally broadened its commercial appeal.

But rolling out more choices hasn’t necessarily translated into tastier all-around eating—a growing pain the ambitious and seemingly expansion-minded management ought to nip in the bud immediatamente.

Granted, it’s hard to fault DT co-founders Osiris Hoil and Marc Wallace—“Our goal has always been to get this model solid and expand from there,” Wallace says of their forward-looking business plan—for wanting to capitalize on their mushrooming popularity while they’ve got the momentum.

The duo launched one of the arguably most successful—and certainly buzziest—food carts, the cheekily named “El Torito,” not two years ago, and can now point to their brightly appointed, brick-and-mortar headquarters as proof that their street food-inspired tacos have resonated with area diners.

No small feat in today’s sluggish economy.

Especially when you consider that this meteoric rise has been, to date, largely fueled by the feverish consumption of $2-$3 tacos.

And Hoil really wouldn’t have it any other way.

Hoil, who grew up in the northwestern quadrant of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, credits his mother with stoking his burning passion for authentic Mexican home cooking.

“I used to help my mom make the meal of the day, and the results were like heaven to me,” he says of the invaluable lessons gleaned while working at his mamita’s elbow.

Those family-bred talents remained dormant during his days working as a short-order cook out West—though his eventual boredom with everyday grilled fare did push Hoil’s hand to begin recreating the dishes he’d devoured as a youth. “So I started making my own Mexican food from my mom’s recipes. My co-workers and friends loved my food and encouraged me to start my own restaurant,” he says of the “Eureka!” moment sparked by his back-to-basics culinary exposition.

“My mom always told me that I have to cook with love—like it was the last meal of my life,” Hoil shares. I didn’t know what she was talking about then, but now I know.”

Fast forward to today: I fear that some of that supposedly built-in love has been displaced by a new allegiance to expediency and higher efficiency.

Once Hoil and Wallace popped up on Twitter in late summer 2009, they hit the ground running. During their first full month of operation, they fired off 45 promotional tweets, or roughly 2.2 messages per day. At press time, they were on pace to eclipse 300 tweets per month, or roughly 10.2 tweets per day (pounding out as many as 43 rapid-fire messages an hour during daily lunch rushes).

Their desire to actively engage with and understand the wants/needs of their fervent online followers have paid off in spades. Wallace credits Hoil with religiously canvassing Twitter and Facebook for customer feedback.

“Pretty much every change to our menu has been customer driven,” Wallace states, pointing to their now-vegetarian black beans (the frijoles had previously been stewed with pork) as a populist-requested mid-course correction.

“I really believe District Taco is not ours. It belongs to the people who come here,” Hoil adds, stressing that he and Wallace merely “put into practice” that which the teaming masses demand.

Judging by the assembly line operation that’s taken over the District Kitchen, it would appear that customers want: MORE. BIGGER. FASTER.

The fixed location is, obviously, much easier to find than the roving cart. Which means DT has now become more accessible to a clientele beyond those early adopters who happily fluttered from block to block in search of small-batch Mexican delicacies (custom breakfast tacos, cochinito pibil). Though the social media-savvy still come in droves, they must now share the communal tables with: 50-something housewives who have probably never tweeted in their lives and don’t seem to care much that their guacamole arrives in a paperboard tub—so long as the big, creamy chunks of fresh avocado bathed in real lemon juice are still in there (they are)—latch-key tweens toting every electronic distraction imaginable (cell phones, iPads, Nintendo DS) but who apparently don’t know their way around an oven yet (their little hands tightly wrapped around wadded up bills one minute, overstuffed burritos the next), and beaming grandparents happy to indulge their epicurious charge’s penchant for crunchy tortilla chips.

Consumer demand made keeping breakfast tacos around all day a no-brainer. It ultimately led to the creation of the self-service-style salsa barra—a toppings bar outfitted with most of their house-made salsas—they still keep the dangerously delicious habanero salsa behind the counter (by request only)—plus other after-the-fact seasonings (cilantro, fresh lime, minced onions).

The vox populi also prompted Hoil and Wallace to add fish tacos into the weekly rotation (they currently pop up each Tuesday at the restaurant). “People want them every day,” Hoil says of the groundswell for more grilled seafood.

The beef and pork fans aren’t too far behind.

“The meat is selling out every day,” Hoil says, pointing to the new(ish) burrito mojado option and al pastor pork—marinated overnight in proprietary spices, then slow-cooked on a vertical rotisserie with a fresh pineapple raining tropical sweetness down upon it throughout—as phenomenally popular menu additions.

The so-called ceviche is terribly one-sided, and not just because of the lone protein approach (traditional ceviche often includes calamari, squid, chopped fish and other myriad marine life). Their bowl doesn’t skimp on the shrimp, but the timid specimens are virtually washed out by the overwhelming citrus-cilantro cover.

Tacos remain their shining star. Though the temptation to bust through the house’s recommended “three toppings per item” limit is often too great to ignore.

And for those who (still) don’t know—ALWAYS ask for corn tortillas. The cornmeal provides a heftier and more appetizing canvas than the dull, doughy flour tortillas.

An al pastor-filled number was quite mesmerizing, the pork naturally caramelized and brilliantly complemented by diced pineapple. Adding in a spoonful of dulcet black beans makes for a sweetness trifecta.

Pollock is ingeniously spiced, paraded across the grill and then splashed with a zesty cream sauce before being lowered into its corn wrapper—as fine a fate as any I can imagine for your average fish. Wallace notes that tilapia remains the frontrunner in the race to developing the perfect fish taco, but suggests that they’ll continue to audition other contenders until they are completely satisfied with the end result.

Pollo asado emerges with a fiery edge to it—the ends are literally singed black—that is duly softened by the silky, creamy guacamole deposited upon its expertly charred carapace. Carne asada is less imposing, the strips of tender steak seeming content to simply blend in with the requested toppings.

Barbacoa seemed overly seasoned at first, but each mouthful got progressively tastier. Soon my palette was craving the sting of hyper juicy, mildly peppery beef plus its corresponding accompaniments (some might consider adding bacon to the aforementioned beef bonanza overkill. I called it “delicious.”).

Huevos rancheros always proved formidable, but they were also typically a tad soupier than I prefer. Perhaps the base of overlapping flour tortillas were simply not meant to handle the deluge of stacked-to-order toppings (black or pinto beans, rice, cheese, salsas, etc.), fried eggs—the yolks, just set; the whites fried till wiggly—and gorgeously grilled peppers and onions. Perhaps yours truly is just too prissy to appreciate a sloptacular Tex-Mex eye opener.

Burritos mojados were all sorts of messy delicious, delivering loosely wrapped loads of white rice, beans (pintos were creamy and pleasingly mild), raw onions (crunch, piquancy really stood out), shredded cheese (proved more emphatic in the tacos), guacamole (very good) and the selected protein (roast pork was robust, juicy and had a fair amount of spicy kick to it) swimming in cross-streams of zesty tomatillo salsa and sour cream. (Prissiness: overcome.)

The burritos have sold so well, in fact, that Wallace says they devoted the winter break to retrofitting El Torito to allow for mobile burrito making.

If all goes according to plan, El Torito may soon have some company. Or perhaps a second home base to return to for restocking. Though he declines to discuss specifics, Wallace suggests that adding another cart, a second storefront—most likely also in Arlington—and living up to the “District” portion of their name by finally crossing over the river are all on the table.

“We’re going to expand—for sure,” he pledges.

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District Taco
5723 Lee Highway, Arlington; www.districttaco.com
Hours: Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily.
Prices: Average entree under $12 ($)

(May 2011)