Discussion of Robin Garr's Taco Punk review

[Robin Garr]

The small stuff punks Taco Punk
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr

Life’s little frustrating moments: You’re watching an earnest worker trying to put together your lunch. He fumbles. She slips. You ask for this. He gives you that. Oops, a fresh bit just hit the floor. You’re glad you’re watching, deeply suspicious that if the deed had gone unobserved, the five-second rule would have come into play.

This is taking longer than it should, and things don’t get better. You want to offer advice. Then you want to walk around the end of the counter and help. But eventually your order gets down to the cash register, where the cashier is glaring at you for holding up the line.

You end up paying the wrong price (but there’s a 50-50 chance the error will be in your favor). Finally you get to your table and discover that what you got was not quite what you asked for. There is no chance in the world that you will go through the ordeal again in an effort to fix it.

Aagghh!

The first time this happened at Taco Punk, shortly after it opened in January in Toast on Market’s former quarters, I wrote it off as newbie jitters and deferred a review. After repeated visits, though, I’m concerned that Chef Gabe Sowder’s venture is having problems scaling up from its start as a popular street-taco stand that achieved well deserved popularity over the past year at the Douglass Boulevard farmers’ market and other public venues.

By all rights, Sowder has the chops to make this thing go. A former sous chef at 610 Magnolia, he brings to this venture the kind of culinary creativity and deep understanding of flavors that make 610 great. Pacific cod gains a “secret chili rub.” Smoked beef is braised in artisanal beer with grilled onions and peppers. Crispy duck carnitas comes with roasted pumpkin and grilled corn salsa. The Taj-Ma-Hell offers curried lamb leg, tamarind and onion chutney and cucumber-mint yogurt, all on a taco!

This could be memorable stuff, and better still, it’s all done with a serious commitment to locavore produce and meats and sustainably sourced seafood and fish. Indeed, some local foodies, seduced by Sowder’s skills and the hipster Nulu vibe, are virtually aswoon over this recent arrival.

But I’m having a hard time joining in. Yes, Sowder can do great things with food, but too-often clueless counter service and wildly variable food and prep quality signal problems. When it's good, it's very good, but the sum of all its parts too often adds up to “Meh.”

Read the full review on LouisvilleHotBytes,
http://www.louisvillehotbytes.com/the-s ... -taco-punk

And in LEO Weekly:
http://leoweekly.com/dining/dining-smal ... -taco-punk

Taco Punk
736 E. Market St.
584-8226
http://tacopunk.com
Rating: 81

This is a shame. I haven't been down to the new store front yet, but I was a vendor with him at the loops farmers market and I loved loved loved everthing I had gotten from there. I really hope they can find thier rhythm and begin to knock it out of the park like they did at the market. I have faith that eventually this can happen.

The food has been good, but the service? Mostly well meaning, but needs work. I haven't had the bad service others have complained of, and I hope that it's just a matter of getting folks trained.

Still, Taco Punk is an oasis of (relatively) inexpensive food in the NuLu. And I hope to try the duck and the lamb in the near future.

I was hoping for mega awesome like at the loop market but the counter service was way chaotic. They skipped my friend, didn't know the toppings when I said, "Put everything on it how it says on the menu." and I don't think they gave me the "crispy" duck, plus the corn salsa wasn't there because the counter person said it was seasonal and out of season (for corn?). I will try it again but it was a weird experience. I also, didn't think it would be based on the Qdoba/Chipotle model. I thought it was a sit down place. It through me for a loop. IMHO, if you want to borrow a taco restaurant model look at Santa Fe or La Tropicana.

I'm still rooting for TP and will return.

Heartily agree with the review. I didn't get the right meat on one of my tacos - the guy didn't seem to know the difference between the chicken mole and the grilled adobo chicken. And neither of mine were on the tortillas I requested.

The manager was standing near the line area explaining the entire menu, ad nauseam, to every person that went through, despite the fact that everything she was saying was up on the wall for everyone to read. Perhaps she should focus a little more on training the staff and these kinds of issues wouldn't be a problem.

Noticed that numerous people who have reviewed this place on Urbanspooon report similar problems...that and a 64% "approval" rating. Not a good start.

3.50 to 4.00 is steep for one taco. Can get great, authentic tacos at Los Gorditas for 1.50.

3.50 to 4.00 is steep for one taco. Can get great, authentic tacos at Los Gorditas for 1.50.

I have not yet been to Taco Punk, but if the above is your sole philosophy, you could be outside their target market.

...it’s all done with a serious commitment to locavore produce and meats and sustainably sourced seafood and fish.

[Sowder] brings to this venture the kind of culinary creativity and deep understanding of flavors that make 610 great. Pacific cod gets a “secret chili rub.” Smoked beef is braised in artisanal beer with grilled onions and peppers. Crispy duck carnitas comes with roasted pumpkin and grilled corn salsa. The Taj-Ma-Hell offers curried lamb leg, tamarind and onion chutney and cucumber-mint yogurt, all on a taco!

If this (locavore produce & meats, sustainably sourced seafood, out-of-the box culinary creations using unique ingredients) is Taco Punk's philosophy, then it's going to cost more than $1.50 for a taco. It's just fine if you yourself don't want anything other than a $1.50 taco, but you can hardly ding them for having prices that are too high when their cost to create their vision just is what it is. You pay for what you get. A $1.50 taco can hit the spot for sure, but that's not what Taco Punk's going for, it seems. (All service issues aside for the moment.)

[Robin Garr]

... if the above is your sole philosophy, you could be outside their target market.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Really, I'm sort of surprised that this philosophy would lead anyone to this forum, or to the local restaurant community in general.

I dine almost exclusively local. I also don't throw money away and value my money. Personally, I've never heard of $3 to $4 price point for a taco. Three tacos for lunch plus a drink and you've spent $14. People are price sensitive regardless of income or assets. Heard the millionaire next door stories? People that have money because they don't throw it away. If a delicious pastor taco is 1.50 at Los Gorditas, then for 3.50 it would need to be very special to justify the pricing at Taco Punk. I will give them a try but without even going yet, I'm skeptical about the value.

[Robin Garr]

I'm skeptical about the value.

Maybe you missed the part about local and sustainable meat and produce. If the price on the bill was the only criterion, then a steak at Ponderosa would be a better deal than a steak at Jeff Ruby's.

I'm skeptical about the value.

Maybe you missed the part about local and sustainable meat and produce. If the price on the bill was the only criterion, then a steak at Ponderosa would be a better deal than a steak at Jeff Ruby's.

On the other hand it sounds like the service is better at Ponderosa as opposed to Taco Punk irregardless of one's price point.

I'm skeptical about the value.

Maybe you missed the part about local and sustainable meat and produce. If the price on the bill was the only criterion, then a steak at Ponderosa would be a better deal than a steak at Jeff Ruby's.

Ahhhhmmmmm...and maybe you missed the part that for a LOT of people "local" and "sustainable" do not by themselves justify $$$ for a $ dish...That kinda stuff might have you sporting wood but don't assume that is the case for everyone. Not bein' argumentative, just pointing out something that I think you overlook about 99.9% of the time. Not everyone has drank from your glass of Kool Aid Robin...some of us actually factor in things other than "local" and "sustainable" when making our buying decisions.

Not bein' argumentative, just pointing out something that I think you overlook about 99.9% of the time. Not everyone has drank from your glass of Kool Aid Robin...some of us actually factor in things other than "local" and "sustainable" when making our buying decisions.

Steve, I respect you for a variety of reasons, but in this instance, you're not addressing my and Robin's point. It's perfectly OK - and you don't need me to tell you this - for you not to budget for tacos that cost upwards of $3 apiece. That's your choice, and that doesn't make either of us better or worse people. However, that does not change the fact that local and sustainable produce and meat just cost more. You might choose not to patronise the place because you'd rather pay less for tacos no matter what's inside them. We're saying that Taco Punk chooses to use ingredients that are inherently more expensive because they place less negative impact on the planet, and that choice is a foundational piece of their business model. Just don't buy food from the place, but understand that what they're doing is admired by many (not you or Brian) and it, by definition, costs more to purchase and prepare.

Once again, we're speaking only of their food and not their service, which I have yet to experience in the restaurant, so service issues don't enter into my point.

[Robin Garr]

Not bein' argumentative, just pointing out something that I think you overlook about 99.9% of the time. Not everyone has drank from your glass of Kool Aid Robin...some of us actually factor in things other than "local" and "sustainable" when making our buying decisions.

What Antonia said. Is that Kool-Aid local and organic? It makes you talk kind of funny.