Taco Punk un-punk’d

[Robin Garr]

Taco Punk un-punk’d
LEO's Eats with Robin Garr

A brief social media hurricane surrounded Taco Punk recently after the unofficial campus newspaper, The Louisville Cardinal, ran a sharply critical review that, among other things, found the hip NuLu hangout guilty of such high crimes as allowing a pricey Porsche to park out front, fostering gentrification and, it seemed, being imperialist 1-percenter piglets. In my Feb. 22 review, I had found it guilty of only misdemeanors: slacker service and fragile tortillas.

In the aftermath of the imperfect media storm, I decided to give them another shot, and I’m pleased to report that both issues are now well under control. Service was quick, competent and smiling, and my fresh corn tortilla was solid enough to bear its load of black beans, cheese and salsa with savoir faire. Let’s raise that rating to a thumbs-up 88. (Taco Punk, 736 E. Market St., 584-8226, tacopunk.com.)

I went there a couple of days ago as I figure any place that gets that kind of hatchet job (Cardinal) deserves to rise up on my list of eateries to try. Robin's earlier review noted some concerns, as he notes above.

Service was one issue I focused on. Mostly I asked the counter staffer for suggestions. She was enthused, friendly and quite helpful. Her attitude telegraphed that she really likes the food. Both she and the lady at pay point checked to see if there were additional items I might like with my meal. That's good, something I'd want if I owned the place. Nobody was phoning it in. Quite the contrary, thanks to the staff I already had a warm feeling about the place before I ever sat down to eat.

My pineapple pork taco was just heavenly. I am not erudite in taste description, but I paid attention to the physical integrity of the soft taco shell. It never split at any point while eating. I'm not usually a big fan of soft tacos but this was very good and reminded me of the ones used in the Asian BBQ beef tacos at Dragon King's Daughter.

I was so into my food I wouldn't have noticed if the Batmobile parked out front. If there have been issues, chronic or sporadic, they were not in evidence the other day and I am very glad I went to Taco Punk.

I took a couple of menus to show to our friends who haven't tried it and expect to be back soon with my wife.

Big thanks to Robin for the rewrite. We have taken every valid criticism to heart and have worked very hard to refine our food and service. Taco Punk was forced to open much later than expected and our debut was rushed, to say the least. After only six weeks of construction, I thew a bunch of kids on the line with about six hours of training. I cannot praise the TP staff enough for their dedication to improving every day. All of the corrections in service and tortilla quality have been due to the hard efforts of my employees. It is a great joy as a restaurant owner to employ good people who genuinely love working at TP. Once again, a very classy act on Robin's behalf to give us a second shot, it is deeply appreciated.

Well deserved Chef. I'm coming back in soon. Your sauces and meats are on point.

Taco Punk was forced to open much later than expected and our debut was rushed, to say the least. After only six weeks of construction, I thew a bunch of kids on the line with about six hours of training.

Gabe, I'm glad that Robin chose to "revisit" your establishment and count me among the people who thought the Cardinal review was terribly written...but just to comment on a portion of your reply.

Not picking on you Gabe, I've never dined at your place and honestly it's WAY out of my way, so I probably never will...but speaking in general, count me among those who find it extremely annoying when a restaurant opens without being prepared (untrained staff, lack of product, poor menu execution, etc, etc). I'm sure it is a difficult task but there is simply no excuse for someone not having their ducks in a row before they swing those doors open...but yet I observe this kind of thing time and again. One of the things that -really- annoys me is when a person negatively critiques a new restaurant and they are met with the excuse that "Well we've only been open for two weeks, so what do you expect". I've heard that song and dance several times and it's not making my hit parade. Personally, I was roundly criticized for negatively "reviewing" both Doc Crows and Hammerheads shortly after they opened...So my question would be was I wrong for being critical or were they wrong for not having their game on before they opened the doors ? On the other side of this coin I'll put up Coals and Gordon Biersch as examples of places that did it "right". Coals baked literally hundreds of "test"pies and their staff had ample training (POS, menu, etc) before they ever served pie-one to the public. Same thing with Gordon Biersch, I spoke with the regional manage at an event right before their "hard" opening and couldn't believe the numbers he related to me regarding the hours of staff training and menu testing. In my humble opinion this focus on training and preparation has served both of these establishments well.

Wishing you good luck and many more favorable reviews...

Not picking on you Gabe, I've never dined at your place and honestly it's WAY out of my way, so I probably never will...but speaking in general, count me among those who find it extremely annoying when a restaurant opens without being prepared (untrained staff, lack of product, poor menu execution, etc, etc).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Release_ea ... ease_often

This argument has been going on for a long time in other fields.

Whether it is a good idea in the restaurant business may be an entirely different argument.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_viable_product

I guess that is the real question, what is the MVP for a restaurant.

My first 2 visits (early on) left a lackluster impression and I pretty much wrote off visiting again. However, after the Cardinal "review" and the ensuing discussion, it prompted me to revisit. I must say that Taco Punk is much improved from my early visits.

Steve,
I don't often get involved in the back and forth segments of these pages, but wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents on this one. I am not sure of, but taking a guess at, the fact that you have never been involved in the opening of a restaurant. Even my experience on the subject is somewhat limited. I will use Wild Eggs as an example to your Gordon Biersch. We have opened 4 stores now over the last few years, and while each one gets easier and easier, there are always snags that come up. One of the greatest assets is the fact that we have done this a time or two, a la Gordon Biersch, and there are many things already in place that come with the prior experience, such as: recipes that don't need to be fine tuned, trainers/managers that have been working with the concept and menu for years already, suppliers providing contacts if they can't help themselves in the opening ordering process, experience with health code laws and practices, prior training on POS software, money already in the bank (and believe me this is a huge one), name that is already proven/recognized in the market, etc... I could go on forever. Gabe, and most restaurants do not have any of these advantages, and will need to start generating cash flow in the form of sales to pay for all the things they have purchased and the payroll that their staff has hard earned in getting the place up and running. Delayed openings can kill a place before it ever gets its feet off the ground.

As to whether it is the absolute best way to open a place, probably not. There are many of these problems that you can anticipate but can't really correct until they actually occur, and they are always way worse than you ever dreamed of. As to whether or not, we should be given any slack, or a pass for just having opened the doors? I guess that is entirely up to you. My take is this, I will call it like I see it, but will always give it another try, especially if a place has just opened. Taking risks like these guys do in opening new restaurants is something most people wouldn't have the stomach for, so I say kudos to those who do (Gabe included). The restaurants that are consistently bad will get weeded out, and those who shake out all the kinks early on will rise to the top. If we quit on everything we tried the first time and didn't like it, most people wouldn't have very interesting lives.

P.S. I HATE to use this as an example (and we have all had this discussion before) but: If you go to Urbanspoon and look at the first 4 reviews Coal's ever received, guess what, they are bad. I love Coal's and I am glad those people didn't affect the business and hopefully they got to have another chance. And trust me, our Urbanspoon page is a mess as well, everyone's is, so please don't think I am casting stones at anyone.

Steve,
I don't often get involved in the back and forth segments of these pages, but wanted to weigh in with my 2 cents on this one. I am not sure of, but taking a guess at, the fact that you have never been involved in the opening of a restaurant.

Ned, you are correct...I have not been involved in opening a restaurant and I hope my post didn't reflect a lack of respect for what I'm sure is an extremely difficult undertaking...on any level. Obviously there are a lot of balls to keep in the air, some do it well...Some keep dropping them...my remarks were directed at toward the latter group. Trust me, I'm NOT one of those people who has kittens if a fork is missing or out of place...but when my overall dining experience is negatively impacted as a result of poor preparation or poor training, I do get a little miffed. My dining dollars do not grow on trees. Despite my not having opened a restaurant I -was- involved in corporate-style training (for lack of a better description) for many-many years, including a couple of stints with Oklahoma University...So as a result I do have a knack for recognizing when it is done effectively and when it is done haphazardly. Not to pick on Gabe but rather just to use him as an example...six hours of training for employees who will be helping me realize my life's dream is simply NOT enough and I'm afraid the early reviews reflected that.

And trust me, our Urbanspoon page is a mess as well, everyone's is, so please don't think I am casting stones at anyone.

The reviews on Urbanspoon run the gambit from well written to piss poor...and I will agree there are enough clueless/thoughtless people posting on that site that describing it as "a mess" is probably a statement well deserved. That being said, there are also a lot of people posting thoughtful reviews...both positive and negative (I've posted 35 or 40 reviews myself...80% of them favorable)...I typically don't have too much trouble separating the wheat from the chaff, thus Urbanspoon as -one- of the (several) resources I use when considering a new dining spot.

holding a VIP night (or two) before you open to the public can root out a LOT of problems and prevent a clumsy opening. Plus, if you are feeding 100 friends and family for free, they rarely complain when things aren't just so.

My feelings are REALLY out of rhythm with all of the negative reviews about TP. I've been several times and have absolutely loved it. I probably should have spoken up sooner about this, but I didn't rush down there as soon as they opened for business, so maybe my opinions aren't that valid. That said, it wasn't long after they opened, and it was in time to try the former version of their tortillas - matter of taste. They wouldn't have been easy to pick up and keep intact, but I like food that requires me to use utensils. Their tortillas are like nothing else I've ever tried, and in a good way. My only complaint would be the unavailability of ceviche every time I've tried to order it, but that's completely forgivable - that's the kind of dish that's too costly to waste and easy to over produce because of short shelf life. So there - I love Taco Punk, and I've been there of my own volition because the menu looked wonderful to me from day 1. If I were downtown more often, I'd probably choose to dine there 50% of the time. I could get down all day on their food.

*** I also think it's short-sighted to compare them to any other garden variety establishment - they are definitely doing a lot of things outside of the norm. Different strokes, fokes.

I have a lot of experince in this department...

I opened Varanese, Majid's, Z's Fusion and Rainforest Cafe (Animal Kingdom.)

It's all meetings and then you get into the nuts and bolts. Some of the promises become unkept. The GC goes AWOL. The codes don't come in as they should. You forgot (x.)

The last 48 hours become a flurry to the restaraunteur. There are many more of them than you- and everyone is critically important. All the details matter.

Talk about getting kicked in the teeth! A couple of the above-named establishments harbored not even opening! But restaurant folk tend to make these things happen...

So, big props to Gabe and crew- go get you some)

I do not mean any disrespect to Steve and the L'ville foodie scene in general, but I am amazed buy the gap between excellent food knowledge and shaky restaurant business understanding. Putting TP in the same category as GB is kind of hilarious. To be transparent, I opened TP with $150k within six weeks after taking over the lease. I secured a $40k NONFORGIVABLE loan from the city with my house as collateral as no bank (I tried six) would touch me despite a 35 page business plan. The rest came from my own destroyed credit and investor contributions. GB is a very successful organization with a model and a gigantic FORGIVABLE loan from the city secured by Cordish. Of course they could "do things right."
My biggest question for the critics has always been, "Do you think I planned on screwing up?" An independent restaurant simply cannot afford things that are SOP for corporate. Especially when a project is delayed by three months. In May I signed a letter of intent and was assured by the landlord that the occupants would be out no later than Sept. I made every single plan around that date.
We took possession of the lease on Dec 1 and by then the consequences kept piling up: lost talent to other projects, financial drain and lost revenue.
There is no question TP opened too soon but I had to open ASAP simply to stop the financial bleeding that comes with a three month delay I had no control over. I knew damn good and well it was a huge risk but I have always believed the quality of our product would shine though. It is a restaurant truth that you cannot know what to change until errors are made and we have worked every day to correct those errors. I cannot give enough credit to my employes for rising to the challenge.
This bring up a huge issue in the modern restaurant model. For once and for all, let me get this clear: When a customer dines at a respectable restaurant they are entering into an agreement. The restaurant agrees to a great experience and the customer agrees to demand such. If you are a diner and especially a blogger or critic and have a problem with your meal, please for the love of god complain! Tell us to our faces we have a problem so we can correct it. Any decent place will either refund your money or serve you something better. Running to the internet to pitch a hissy fit does no one any good. Please, act with some manners and actually talk with the staff, you will be surprised.
And, by the way Steve, GB is only 1.5 miles from TP, stop in and ask for me, I'm only there 90 hours a week.

.... I've never dined at your place (Taco Punk) and honestly it's WAY out of my way, so I probably never will...

...I was roundly criticized for negatively "reviewing" Doc Crows

Steve, these two places would be about...7 blocks apart?? ooops, credibility takes a holiday....

Ned and Gabe- you explained it better than I could:

Gabe, and most restaurants do not have any of these advantages, and will need to start generating cash flow in the form of sales to pay for all the things they have purchased and the payroll that their staff has hard earned in getting the place up and running. Delayed openings can kill a place before it ever gets its feet off the ground.

As to whether it is the absolute best way to open a place, probably not.

When we opened our place, I came from deep-experience in project planning/start-ups and 20 years of marketing. In our case, due to flooding, and construction and ventilation delays, despite best plans we had to shelve all our initial marketing plans, skip the Grand Opening and open with incomplete stock - we had to start generating cash and pay employees. Not at all the way I wanted to do it, but we had no choice. I total get it when things are not smooth at opening, and I also get that it may result in frustration from customers ( personally, I never rush to a newly open place, to save my dining dollars from this exposure. ) .
This site is great in part because it exposes the consumers/ clients to the issues owners have to deal with.
Deb