Cheap Eats: Gringo Grub
White guys make great tacos on Capitol Hill.
By Allison Austin Scheff December 31, 1969
Category: Eat + Drink Articles
Frustrated with the area’s dearth of delicious late-night eats—the kind you wolf down on your tipsy way home from the bar—Campagne alums Taber Turpin and Michael Pitts decided to fill the void by opening Taco Gringos (Capitol Hill, 1510 E Olive Way; no phone; tacogringos.com), a takeout-only taco shop that doesn’t even open ’til 8 p.m. (and usually stays open past 2:30 a.m.). Taco Gringos roughly translates to “white guy tacos,” and Turpin and Pitts make no claims about authenticity. The shop’s name drives home the point that they’re making tacos in their own unique style. That style involves tender, warm, palm-size corn tortillas enclosing one of the three rotating fillings offered each night. On my visits I devoured a braised-pork taco topped with a little chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime (it reminded me of some of the best carnitas I’ve ever had), and a pulled-chicken taco, whose nice acidic twang from the tomatillo in its sauce balanced the meat’s deeply savory flavor. Some nights you’ll find chorizo tacos; on others, roasted-rabbit tacos in an incredible house-made pasilla sauce. All tacos are just $2, and worth every penny.