If only Phoenix had more tacos – said no one , ever .
Phoenix is not a wetback desert . There are hundreds of thousands – perhaps gazillion – of tacos assembled day by day in tiny mom - and - pop shops with legit Mexican ties , and in local and national range of mountains run by Mexican - Americans and gringos alike . Phoenix even hosts an annual Arizona Taco Festival – a two - 24-hour interval affair celebrating what could be the most everlasting nutrient . We ’re flush with tacos : right , bad , and everything in between .
So when a young taco shop open , it ’s not surprising we approach it with trepidation . All too often , it ’s another average taco joint . Not so with the new Tacos Chiwas on McDowell Rd , just west of SR 51 . Its owners are cranking out killer Chihuahuan wetback made with superbia that you may smack in every meaty bite .
Chanelle Sinclair/Thrillist
If it were n’t for the thoroughgoing white planetary house ( which used to advertise a Dairy Queen ) , it would be easy to zip past the standalone building that house Chiwas . Steel bar breed the windowpane ; a blockheaded black font spells out Tacos Chiwas over an precis of the Mexican state of Chihuahua . The Department of the Interior is peachy and tidy , with an order return , a blackboard card , and a long , narrow dining room with utilitarian booth and table . Chiwas is remarkably unassuming for the passion put into its food .
And the spot unfeignedly is a passion projection for owners Armando Hernandez and Nadia Holguin , who conform to at an Arizona State University political party in 2012 . Both were expect in the Mexican land of Chihuahua ( although in unlike town ) and moved to Arizona when they were young . Hernandez function in the front of the sign of restaurant since he was 15 , while Holguin hails from a eatery family , attend culinary school , and worked in the back of the house .
get hitched with for two years , the couple dreamed about opening their own eating house soon after they met . They adjust finish , made plans , test recipes , scrape money together .
Chanelle Sinclair/Thrillist
On March 4th , they quiet start the door to their humble shopfront , which previously house a suddenly - lived barbecue marijuana cigarette . They knew precisely what they need : a restaurant where they could show off the dwelling house - dash cookery of their birthplace .
“ The whole estimate was rest home cooking from the get - go , ” Hernandez said . “ Every sentence we would go out to eat , we ’d try out to find our food . No fortune . ” That ’s when the duad think they might be on to something .
Tacos Chiwas ( a phonetic spelling for Chihuas , the cognomen for the people of Chihuahua ) might be the only Chihuahua - way taco workshop in the Valley .
Chanelle Sinclair/Thrillist
“ I do n’t think what we ’re doing is judgement - swash , ” Hernandez said . “ I think what bring in us different is we misrepresent at the eatery the same elbow room we cook at home . When you invite a guest over to wipe out , you do your in effect . That is what we are doing . It ’s why we make the tortillas to order . Why we cut off the meats by hand , and make the salsas fresh . You ’re come to our ‘ nursing home . ’ ”
That is n’t far from the true statement , considering the match is spending up of 18 hours a day at the fledgling eatery .
Made-to-order seals the deal
press and cooking corn tortilla to order is a rarity in the restaurant diligence , at least in the US . It ’s much easy to give tortilla making to the mill , and just reheat to order . But Hernandez was adamantine about serve the tortilla of his childhood .
“ I remember standing by the wood cooking stove in my grandma ’s business firm with my little buddy . That was her thing . stool tortillas from scratch . Every first light , we would stand there , waitress for her to land up a tortilla . We ’d lift out it up , add butter and salt and BOOM ! There it goes , ” he said .
The tortillas are , if not mind - bodge , certainly extraordinary compared to other taco joints . They ’re impeccably soft , imperfectly round , and deep corn - flavored . Not too thick , not too fragile , and because they ’re cooked only after you ordinate them , it takes a smidge longer to get your tacos than at other place . But a duad minutes for a cooked - to - order tortilla is a small cost to give .
Chanelle Sinclair/Thrillist
The state of Chihuahua is meat - centric : cattle , hogg , chickens , goats , and sheep . Department of Agriculture is big , too : corn , potatoes , squash , and beans . And of course , chiles . So it ’s not surprising most of the taco fillings are meat - based , although they are tardily introduce some vegetarian options . You ’ll find chunky carne asada ( skirt steak ) , blue carnitas with a hint of smoke ( thanks to the smoker the couple purchased from the premature tenant ) , and chicken ( grill breast , marinated in a cilantro vegetable oil ) . There is lengua ( squawk tongue ) and tripa ( carefully make clean , boiled , and fried crisp ) . And then there is the signature Tacos Chiwas , loaded with carne asada , ham , hatch chile , jalapeño , and shyly smothered in queso asadero .
I ’d be remiss if I did n’t cite the gorditas , griddled flour disk satiate with a myriad of fillings , including shredded beef with a lusty red sauce ( deshebrada rojo ) . kidney bean charros , a slushy loving cup of creamy pintos swimming in a saucy broth with more pork than ought to be legal – bacon , chorizo , and ham – is reason enough to devolve everything and head there pronto .
you may consider on tending to detail in every whole step of the surgery , from bridge player - pressed and fudge tortillas , to hand - cut meats fix with care , to a variety of salsas made fresh daily .
Tacos Chiwas is not your mean greaser shop . Hernandez and Holguin are cranking out killer Chihuahuan tacos made with pride . you may taste it in every meaty bite .
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