Advertisements
Thursday, March 28, 2024

whitespace

The first customers line up at The Taco Truck, a storefront eatery in Harvard Square with a design that recalls its origins as a food truck. (Photo: The Taco Truck)

The first customers line up at The Taco Truck, a storefront eatery in Harvard Square with a design that recalls its origins as a food truck. (Photo: The Taco Truck)

The Taco Truck opened its first bricks-and-mortar New England restaurant in Harvard Square on Saturday – after Clover, the square’s second food truck-turned-storefront eatery, but the first to try to retain the feel of ordering from a food truck: Guests place orders at windows set chest-high to workers standing at the front of the restaurant kitchen.

The menu stays simple too, with tacos, tortas and salads with corn tortilla chips, rice and beans, Elotes corn on the cob (with mayonnaise, queso, chile piquin and lime), salsa, guacamole and various sides and, for dessert, fried sweet plantains and churros with seasonal sauces.

Featured dishes include:

bullet-gray-smallPescado taco with catfish, red cabbage, pico de gallo, Mexican tartar sauce and chipotle salsa on a flour tortilla.

bullet-gray-smallBarbacoa de Costilla taco with braised shredded beef, onions, cilantro and roasted red salsa.

bullet-gray-smallAguacate tostado taco with fried avocado, black beans, sesame seeds, pickled onions, tortillas fritas and chipotle salsa

There are also Verduras seasonal tacos, including the vegan Hongos option, whose main ingredient is mushrooms; Pepina, another vegan option of zucchini and pepper; and a vegetarian Kale con Papas of kale and potatoes topped with crema and queso.

Owners say the restaurant aimed for sustainability, with energy-efficient appliances, reclaimed wood, LED and fluorescent lighting, dual-flush toilets, composting of food and biodegradable and compostable to-go packaging. The restaurants says its beef, chicken and pork products were raised on a vegetarian diet without hormones or antibiotics.

They brought in Brooklyn artist Beau Stanton to paint a centerpiece mural of The Taco Truck and the history of Harvard Square. Why from Brooklyn? Aside from the Boston-based actual Taco Truck still out there driving around, the small chain has two New York locations and a New Jersey storefront and truck.

The Harvard Square store is at 83 Mount Auburn St., where Felipe’s Taqueria used to be, and is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays.

This post was written from a press release.