Jarro Cafe
My coworker Pablo took the bus to work this morning. An engine belt broke, and he had to pick up the belt at an auto parts store.
“Where do you live, Pablo?”
“North Gessner.”
“That place where all the tacos are?”
“Yep.”
“Need a ride home?”
North Gessner, in the Spring Branch area, is a taco lover’s paradise. The streets are strewn with taco stands and taquerias. I knew the auto parts store might close, but hey, I’m shopping for tacos here.
If you're advertising the best tacos in town, you'd better deliver!
I saw the Jarro Cafe taco truck on the left, and hit my brakes in the middle of North Gessner. I had seen that logo before, remembering Robb Walsh’s Top Ten Taco Trucks list from 1995. This one was on the top of the list. It’s also been featured on Addie Broyle’s food blog, and was one of the historic Austin Meets Houston Taco Tour stops.
As a matter of principle, I like to stop at the lesser known taco stands, the places that might have a unique taco meat selection and regional salsas. But I’m not missing the “number one” taco stand. I can’t just drive past it.
As you can see, the sign clearly states “The Best Tacos in Town”. Hearing the cars crash behind me as I u-turned my boat-car, I noticed that the other side of the sign read “The Best Salsas in Town”. I pulled up and jogged to the taco stand as if I was carrying a styrofoam cooler containing a heart transplant.
Oddly enough, the stand is in front of an actual restaurant of the same name. Others may not understand my logic, but why go inside a restaurant when there’s a taco truck right here?
This taco trailer was in tip-top shape, with polished stainless everywhere. These people knew exactly what they were doing.And then I saw the menu. Every taco meat I’d ever heard of was on the list, in Spanish and English. Shazzam!
Even suadero tacos. And suadero, my friends, is something you want to sink your teeth into.
Their tacos were priced at $1.50 each, and there was a five dollar special that advertised three tacos and a drink. Although I had a feeling their fajita tacos would be top-notch, I decided to go with some of the more unusual fare.
Cochinita Pibil, Campechano, and Suadero.
Campechano: Chorizo and beef. That’s right, in the same taco. Jarro Cafe claims this is their specialty.
Cochinita Pibil: Yucatan-style pulled pork.
Suadero: An excellent type of beef, a cut, texture, and flavor that is perfect for tacos.
These tacos were served with lime, grilled onions, cilantro, and radishes. The radishes were a great touch, and reminded me of the Tijuana taco stands that served whole radishes with every taco order.
I tried the campechano first. I thought the beef and sausage combo was unusual, and I was right. It was unusually awesome. This was grade-A chorizo, and the two textures were perfect together. I generously applied the bright-orange salsa from a nearby plastic container. It accented these meats perfectly.
Then I tried the cochinita pibil. It had a texture similar to canned sloppy joe mix, for lack of a better description. It had an interesting smoky and tangy flavor, with an obvious influence of dried peppers. I could tell you more, but I pretty much scarfed it down in order to get to the prize taco. It was good, but the lesser of the three. Hey, there’s gotta be one, right?
I applied lime generously to the champion suadero.
“Best salsas in town?” I thought to myself.
“Let’s see what they’ve got”.
I asked the lovely taco lady if she had anything hotter. She smiled and pulled another container from ice, which contained neon green salsa. This salsa would literally glow beneath a black light, if given the chance. I giggled like a little girl as I dumped this stuff all over my suadero taco.
It tasted magnificent. It was absolutely spectacular. And it was really hot. I mean, the orange stuff was hot by most non-Texan standards, but this neon-green wondersauce was the stuff of legends. It was nuclear.
I handed the bottle to Pablo, but he had already killed his three tacos.
“Pablo, please get another taco so you can try this stuff”.
“I already ate”
“But you need to try this salsa”.
“Why?”
“Because it’s amazing, that’s why.”
“But it looks really hot. Look, you’re sweating”.
“Aren’t you Mexican?”
“Yeah, that doesn’t mean I’m a dumbass”.
His logic was sound.
You sir, are almost certifiably crazy. lol
And as for Pablo, well he is like hot coco… brown underneath with a fluffy white head.
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Jay, keep up the good work, Brother! I love how Jarro Cafe sounds like a mis-pronounced Hard Rock Cafe, and how similar their logo is to Hard Rocks’. I hope the shills don’t decide to sue them into oblivion. I need to stop by there on my way to my Bud’s place on Conrad Sauer!
iPAZ, AMIGO!
Rico Chuy
[…] teams stopped in at the famous Jarro Cafe on North Gessner. Not only did they have the aptly-named “Neon”, the sauce with a […]
I go with the pastor in tacos and tortas here. But there is something about the electric red and charred ends on a little cuts of pork that do me in. Solid tacos for sure and solid pastor. I’ve tried most of the others but Im always drawn back to the pastor. I have to meet a lab breeder out in that area today so I’ll make a pitstop at jarro for sure. If you’re into to tostadas try the monterrey style tostadas next door at tostado regia. Good shit and the little cup of chicken soup that comes with it goes pretty hard as well. I like there green sauce better. hmm. I wonder if I can borrow one of their green sauce bottles for a minute to soak my pastor from next door in.
When we had the taco crawl last year, Jarro Cafe was pretty crowded so a few folks tried out Tostada Regia and really enjoyed it. I haven’t had a chance to try it myself yet. Hard to do when Jarro Cafe is right next door.