Las Fabulosas Taco Trucks

Behind the Jarro Café, there are two brand-new taco trailers that Memo has recently ordered. He intends to expand his brand with franchisees. Why franchise taco trailers instead of restaurants? "Because the trailers are cheaper, easier to run and more profitable," Memo says.

"It's crazy to have a taco trailer out front in the parking lot competing with your restaurant, huh?" Memo says with a laugh. But there's no way he would close it. The trailer makes as much money as the restaurant.

Why don't the taco trailer customers come inside?

"There are lots of reasons," Memo explains. Some loyal outdoor customers are laborers who don't have time to change clothes and clean up. It's also faster outside, and it's 25¢ a taco cheaper.

"It's my drive-through window," he jokes.

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The taco truck has a long history in Texas. Cowboy chuck wagons, which were often manned by Mexican cocineros, appeared on the scene in the 1860s. Spanish vaqueros used mobile kitchens mounted on oxcarts on the earliest trail drives in the 1700s. Tamale carts and other mobile food vendors were also very common in Texas before the sanitary laws of the Progressive Era were enacted in the early 1900s.

But the first actual taco trucks in Texas were Model T Fords. One such early taco truck can be seen in a 1939 black-and-white photograph by famous Texas WPA photographer Russell Lee. The photo is titled "Mexican lunch wagon serving tortillas and fried beans to workers in pecan shelling plant, San Antonio, Texas."

In the photo, a Hispanic man squats in the back of a Model T pickup truck with a cardboard box full of tortillas. His customers take the tortillas and make "self-serve" tacos from a selection of fillings in metal pots arrayed along the edge of the open tailgate. It's a unique solution to the lack of hand-washing facilities -- the taco truck vendor never touches the tacos.

Modern taco trucks are a variation of the panel trucks known in various parts of the country as "maggot wagons," "grease trucks" and "roach coaches." These mobile canteens were easily adapted to the street food traditions of the Latino communities of the Southwest, where they became known as loncherías.

In Texas, the taco trailer is increasingly popular as a lower-cost alternative to the taco truck. The trailer is hauled back and forth to a commissary by another vehicle, generally a heavy-duty pickup truck. Jarro Café buys their trailers from a fabricating company in Monterrey, Mexico. The simplest design can be purchased for as little as $15,000.

In 2003, a rash of complaints about Houston taco trucks triggered a crackdown by the health department. Angry restaurant owners who considered the trucks unfair competition went to the press with accusations that the trucks weren't following the city's sanitary standards. Reports of illnesses were rumored. Television crews caught a few infractions on video. Since then, Houston taco truck operators report that enforcement has stiffened.

The rules require taco trucks or trailers to show receipts for daily trips to a "commissary," which is the only place where they're allowed to discharge greasy wastewater, fill their tanks with potable water from an approved source and undergo required maintenance. There are 12 such commissary locations in and around Houston.

Every taco truck or trailer in Houston must obtain a license from the appropriate health department in order to sell food. The mobile kitchens are subject to the same sort of inspections as restaurants. There are around 800 mobile food-service operations inside Houston city limits, and 600 in the nearby suburbs.

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So what's the best taco truck and the best taco in Houston? I am calling it a tie between Taqueria Tacambaro and its tacos de mollejas and the Jarro trailer and its phenomenal Angus sirloin tacos and stunning salsa bar.

If you have never eaten at a taco truck before, either one of these is a good place to start. "Some people avoid taco trucks because they think they are dirty," says Piñedo. "Go take a look inside our trailer. It's cleaner than a lot of restaurants. There are clean taco trucks and dirty taco trucks, just like there are clean restaurants and dirty restaurants."

"When I was a little girl, we visited some relatives in San Diego," says Ms. Piñedo. "We got chips and sodas from a big stainless steel food truck that parked at a construction site nearby. It was so clean and shiny. I said, 'I wish we had those trucks in Mexico.' Now we own one. The food may be Mexican, but taco trucks are totally American."

"It's a restaurant without the headaches," says Memo. "When I came here, it was my dream to own a restaurant. Now I want to sell the restaurant and buy more taco trailers."

Las Fabulosas Taco Trucks...Delicioso!
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There are some muy sabrosos tacos out there if you're brave enough to eat at a taco truck and don't mind ordering in Spanglish. -- Photos by Robb Walsh

Jarro Trailer
In front of Jarro Café
1521 Gessner