Taylor’s Tacos finally gets a home on Taylor Street, plus 5 more new restaurants in Chicago
Chicagoans — from Lena Waithe to Chance the Rapper to this critic — have been salivating over Taylor’s Tacos for years.
In 2021, it landed on my list of best new tacos, even though the concept didn’t technically have its own restaurant. Instead, owners Taylor and Maya Mason worked out a deal with Dock’s Fish in Bronzeville to offer a limited menu, while handling large catering orders out of The Hatchery on the West Side.
Two years later, the married couple is thrilled to finally have their own bricks-and-mortar restaurant in Little Italy (1512 W. Taylor St.), which will soft open April 4. “We are stoked,” Taylor Mason said. “We have a fantastic team, and all the tools are ready for us to build something great.”
Two kinds of tacos inspired the idea for the concept, Mason said. The first is traditional Mexican street-style taco, the ones with corn tortillas and freshly grilled meat, topped with salsa, cilantro, onion and lime juice. But she was also influenced by the tacos she grew up eating in the predominantly Black West Side of Chicago. “A Black taco starts with a flour tortilla, seasoned meat, that’s usually ground,” she said. “Then it’s topped with lettuce, tomato, cheese and definitely sour cream. If you don’t have the sour cream, it’s not a Black taco.”
At Taylor’s Tacos, she hopes to create tacos that “straddle between those two.” “We use corn tortillas, but fry them a bit for texture, but not too much,” she said. “And we have a secret salsa that has a crema base.”
After numerous trips to Mexico, Mason said she’s also excited to serve a number of vegetable tacos. “I don’t know why vegetable tacos are neglected in the U.S.,” Mason said. “We treat them with the same care and respect as we treat the meat.” Her catering customers caught on quickly. In fact, the asparagus taco has been their No. 1 seller for catering orders, even though it’s only available seasonally. “When it’s not in season, we serve sweet potato tacos, and we also have a portobello mushroom taco,” Mason said.
Her tacos use smaller tortillas, about 4 ½-inches across, so guests can put together a balanced meal by ordering a few meat tacos and a few veggie tacos. “You can create a full meal with tacos,” she said.
Along with Taylor’s Tacos, Taylor and Maya Mason also own Taylored, an event space at 2451 S. Oakley Ave.
Asked if it was intentional that Taylor’s Tacos found a spot on Taylor Street, Mason said it just happened to work out that way. “But when we found it, we couldn’t pass up the chance to open up on Taylor Street,” Mason said.
1512 W. Taylor St., 773-615-0947, taylorstacoschicago.com
More notable new restaurants, listed in alphabetical order:
Daisies 2.0
The Logan Square pasta-focused restaurant reopened at a larger location Wednesday after shuttering its original spot this month. Jean Banchet Award-winning pastry chef Leigh Omilinsky joins the team to round out the restaurant’s rebrand and will prepare Passover and Easter pastries including kosher lemon sponge and flourless chocolate cake, coconut macaroons, cinnamon roll kouign amann and strawberry cream scones. 2375 N. Milwaukee Ave., 773-661-1832, daisieschicago.com
Herbivore
After doing pop-ups at Kimski and working out of a shared kitchen in Humboldt Park, chef Max Musto opened Herbivore’s first bricks-and-mortar restaurant in Bridgeport this month, in the former Pizza Fried Chicken Ice Cream Space adjoining Maria’s. The plant-based menu includes Musto’s cult-favorite burger The Bix Max, a vegan Italian beef called The Don, buffalo and sweet soy wings, chk’n Caesar salad, as well as desserts, including Oreo or carrot cupcakes. 964 W. 31st St., 773-801-0486, herbivorechicago.square.site
Sephardic Sisters
From the owners behind the former vegan restaurant Kal’ish, Sephardic Sisters is now open in Uptown. The restaurant celebrates plant-based Middle Eastern cuisine with Sephardic and Israeli influences. Find fattoush salad topped with pomegranate syrup, red lentil soup and baklava cheesecake, as well as laffa flatbreads and specialty hummus plates. 1313 W. Wilson Ave., 773-293-7768, instagram.com/sephardic_sisters
The Corned Beef Factory Stickney
The longtime Chicago sandwich maker has a new suburban outpost. Get your corned beef fix, or try their Tom & Jerry combo: corned beef and pastrami on rye. Italian beef and hot dogs are also on the menu. 6817 W. Pershing Road, Stickney; 312-666-2536; cornedbeeffactory.com
The Understudy Coffee and Books
Opening last weekend in Andersonville, the bookstore and cafe serves “fresh beans and all the drama” after being under construction for the past year. Co-owners Adam Todd Crawford and Danny Fender aim for the shop to be a welcoming space for Chicago’s theatre community. The coffee shop serves pastries and brews with coffee from Metric Coffee and teas from Sprit Tea and The Coffee & Tea Exchange. 5531 N. Clark St., theunderstudy.com
