Tacolicious Is Opening a Quick-Service Taco Spot Downtown

Local Cal-Mex mini-chain Tacolicious is heading downtown to serve a very Mexico City-style work lunch: tacos de guisados, or hearty tacos made from braises and stews. The quick and-to-the-point spinoff will be called Tacolicious Chico, and it opens at 685 Market Street (near 3rd Street) in early October.

True to the name, the new Tacolicious operation is a chico 425-square-feet. With no seating inside and just a few seats outside, the focus will be to-go orders. The menu will include tacos de guisados like guajillo-braised beef (popular at Tacolicious’s existing five locations), pork chile Colorado, mushrooms and rajas, chicken chile verde, lamb barbacoa, and vegetarian options like peppers and corn and “greens n’ beans,” all served on corn tortillas made fresh on-site. For easy pricing, every item — including a few drinks like horchata cold brew and hibiscus lemonade — will be $3.50.

“If a taco’s merit is measured on the amount of juice that drips down your wrist (which of course it should be), then a taco de guisado is hands down the winner,” writes Sara Deseran, who runs Tacolicious with founder Joe Hargrave. “Since we started regularly traveling to Mexico City 10 years ago, Joe and I have been inspired by the likes of Tacos Gus (which has sadly closed) as well as Tacos Hola.”

Started in 2009 with a stand at the Ferry Plaza farmers market, Tacolicious was such a hit that it eventually supplanted Hargrave’s original restaurant in the Marina. It’s since expanded to Valencia Street, North Beach, Palo Alto, and San Jose, with a spinoff in San Miguel de Allende and a new location on the way to Manhattan Beach. The Ferry Plaza market stand continues on Thursdays — and starting in September, the team will call that outpost Tacolicious Chico, too, paving the way for the brick-and-mortar Chico location.