Tacolicous Expands Into North Beach With Third SF Location
Tacolicious, with two locations already in San Francisco and a third set to open next week in Palo Alto, now is on the way to opening a spot in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood.
We talked to owner Joe Hargrave late last month as the move was in the works and he said the project is happening quickly and that with the new location, the team has nixed plans for a rotisserie chicken/Mexican takeout restaurant in Noe Valley. As Ms. Tablehopper reported on Friday, the North Beach outpost is taking over the Caffe Maria space on Stockton Street. Hargrave said it will be smaller in size, similar to the original Tacolicious on Chestnut Street.
The Tacolicious model of simple and fresh Mexican food with a “pub culture” will fit perfectly in North Beach, as it has in the Marina and Mission.
In terms of the restaurant’s first move outside the city, we took a tour of the Tacolicious site in Palo Alto recently, which is slated to open on Tuesday, February 19. It’s a large space with room for about 90 (that includes 12 seats on the patio). The menu will be similar to what’s in place at the San Francisco locations, although there will be more vegetarian options.
“It’s a lot of the same formula that we’ve used since starting Tacolicious. We don’t use reclaimed wood; in fact, it’s cedar from Beronio Lumber that we use for the walls. The floor is made of homemade tiles. Paul Madonna is doing a mural for the side wall as well,” Hargrave said. That mural, originally slated to be of the Ferry Building, where Tacolicious started, is instead a landscape of Atotonilco el Alto in Jalisco, a site the Tacolicious team saw from a trip to Mexico.
Formerly housing Mantra, an Indian restaurant, Hargrave said the remodel has been extensive. It was the first site he and the Tacolicious team visited in Palo Alto and he fell in love with the location. “Palo Alto is an up-and-coming city and it’s been on my radar for awhile,” he said. “It’s self-sufficient with all the tech and venture capital people in the area. And it just has a really cool vibe.”
Tacolicious Palo Alto is located at 632 Emerson Drive. The North Beach location will be located at 1548 Stockton Street (between Columbus and Green).
Photo Credit: Tacolicious, via Facebook
