Another Austin institution bulldozed

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by Trainwreck20

Eh, and why should I care who their target market is?

It was part of the discussion, and I was responding to prior posters who were objecting to the characterization that cBach gave. I just pointed out that based on the menu that Torchy's chooses to post online, cBach's characterization is pretty accurate.

No reason you should care at all.

[ATX Wahine]

Originally Posted by Idlewile

This is great fun, thanks! Gotta spread it around before I rep you again but +1. We go on the weekend and I always get my Democrat, hubs loves his Repbulican and my little kids love that they make their bfast tacos (any time of day) made to order. Not to mention the are cheap considering quality and quantity. We get chips and gauc (some of the best gauc in Austin) and they offer to refill our chip basket every time. We've never managed to finish a gauc bowl, the serving is so large.

Once we had to wait a good while for our food, one of those nights when the line is out the door, and they comped our entire meal for 4 AND gave us gift cards for next time if you can believe it. They're banging out high-quality, inspired food and a best practice top notch customer experience every time.

I worked for a few years for a software company here that brought in Torchy's every Friday. They put together 50-75 taco orders for us every week ... in individual bags with sauces and napkins and wrote every employee's name on their bag. They were flawless with their delivery each and every week. Outstanding service.

One week I got caught in a meeting and someone helped themselves to my bag. The offender never fessed up, but the chain of humorous-but-intense shaming emails that went out company-wide more than made up for the theft of my food.

[cBach]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

It was part of the discussion, and I was responding to prior posters who were objecting to the characterization that cBach gave. I just pointed out that based on the menu that Torchy's chooses to post online, cBach's characterization is pretty accurate.

No reason you should care at all.

Thanks for coming up in my defense TexasHorseLady. The first time I went to Torchy's, it was still a trailer on S. 1st and hadn't become a chain restaurant. I had the Democrat and while it was decent, I've had better tacos. In fact, the tacos at Turf and Surf are like 100x better than Torchy's and that's a poboy shop

For those that don't understand, let me explain it this way. If there was a bagel shop in Brooklyn that served bagels with creative names it would quickly be called a "hipster joint" and be written off as not a legit bagel shop. If there was a deep dish pizza place in Chicago that instead of serving standard deep dish pizzas it used Sriracha_sauce instead of tomato sauce and insisted upon pineapple, mango, lime, and avocado pizza (with a big portabella in there), it would probably be run out of town in a split second.

It's like every new concept has to be liked by everyone in the city of Austin whereas in other cities those same ideas would be run out of town.

[ScoPro]

Well, can anyone recommend a where to get a good puffy taco - like El Matt's used to serve 50 years ago?
Antonio's came pretty close, but they kinda went south & closed a few years back.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

Well, can anyone recommend a where to get a good puffy taco - like El Matt's used to serve 50 years ago?
Antonio's came pretty close, but they kinda went south & closed a few years back.

Tio Dan's, right in your hood in RR specializes in them.

El Chilito has them since El Chile is now more snooty. Also available at Vivo now in Lincoln Village. Only places I know of, but there must be more. Much more of a SA thing - witness the popularity of Henry's there.

[Phisch]

I am surprised no one has mentioned Torchy's trailer park taco. I love that one trashy. And what was this thread about again?

[creepy]

I knew it was coming. I liked Fran's, I miss it, but I expected this. I hate Torchy's though, talk about some Gringo taco joint!

[hornraider]

Hey, does anyone remember Ken's Tacos, on Dessau and Rundburg??
Now those were some big tacos... We used to go there for breakfast from Samsung and load up
Ah, the good ol' days..