Taco Tico on Vets in Metry is now:

El Fogon Tacos and Grill



"His new restaurant El Fogon just opened, but already Edwin Martinez has heard it plenty of times.

“People come in and say ‘this is different, do you have real Mexican food?’” said the young restaurateur.

He eagerly assures them he does, and points out not just the menu but some of the gear on hand to prepare it, like the namesake fogon, a wood-fired grill.

El Fogon is a New Mexican restaurant at an address already well known for tacos. The boxy little building on Veterans Boulevard was for decades home to a location of Taco Tico, part of a regional chain for American-style Mexican fast food (crunchy shell tacos are the calling card). This location closed in 2015.

El Fogon, however, is aiming for a different niche. It serves traditional Mexican flavors in a setting that feels like a homey, family-friendly taqueria with a menu that reaches beyond the taco shop standards (see the menu here).

“We want people to taste what we think of when we think about Mexican food, the food of home,” said Martinez, whose family hails from Querétaro in central Mexico.

One head-turner is the pina Maya, a split pineapple that’s grilled and stuffed with shrimp and chicken, peppers and onions and mango, all of it grilled for a sweet/savory/charred blend. It’s filling but still refreshingly light with all that grilled fruit."

2ta

El Fogon