Just in time for spring and after nearly four months of wholesale renovations, Tacos del Norte is reborn.
A long time Penticton favourite, and notable for both its location (practically on the bank of Penticton Creek), and the building that houses it (a tiny, quirky five-sided detached structure erected 64 years ago as part of an automotive garage), Tacos del Norte has been shuttered since late 2018. Owner Ian Nelson decided to opt out of the taco game, and had put it up for sale.
Almost immediately, Nikolas Dos Santos and Emily Patrocinio, two South Okanagan cousins of Mexican heritage, swooped in. He'd just completed his business degree, and she knew how to cook. Together, they'd already toyed with the idea of a South Okanagan Mexican food truck.
So when PentictonNow ran a story on Nelson's decision, they reached out. A couple months later, on January 15th, the deal was done. And it's been heavy duty renos ever since.
"It's been challenging," said owner Dos Santos yesterday afternoon while taking a break from serving customers. "We faced a lot of unexpected challenges. We had to strip almost everything right out."
"The only things that are left are the hot water tank and the sink. Everything else is brand new, including the storage area (in a separate facility accessed outside the back door)."
Dos Santos talks about the "extensive" electrical work they've had to do - how they've replaced virtually all the cabling, upgraded the panel, and installed new lighting throughout the building.
And that's just the start. PenticotnNow visited the restaurant just after the purchase and can verify they gutted the joint.
And now, it's a whole new ballgame. The basic layout - kitchen in the rear, counter running through the middle with a chalkboard menu hanging above, and a small seating and ordering area just inside the front door - has not appreciably changed. Other than that, it's a total makeover.
The most immediately obvious upgrade is in the cooking equipment.
"This is a brand new 60-inch commercial range with a 48-inch griddle, two burners, and dual ovens," says Dos Santos. He speaks as if he's referring to a gleaming new hot rod. And no wonder - it's gorgeous.
"It was custom made for us in Mexico," he says, before pointing us toward the humungous exhaust system hovering over top. "It's an eight-foot system that we had custom made in Kelowna."
Just to the right of the range and its accoutrements stands another impressive stainless steel device called a gyro. "Most people," he says, "know it as a donair machine."
Essentially a vertical rotisserie, a gyro rotates and slow-cooks large cuts of meat. Patrocinio says they use it for a traditional central Mexican dish called "al pastor," which involves placing a pineapple above a cut of pork as it cooks. As the pork bakes over the course of 12 to 24 hours, it's infused with drippings from the pineapple.
"We're still working on a recipe for al pastor that we're truly happy with," says Dos Santos. "It's an incredible taste, but it's a very finicky process. It has to be perfect." Dos Santos and Patrocinio believe theirs is the only gyro in the South Okanagan.
Big ticket items aside, the new kitchen is clean, refreshed, and seemingly more spacious - not an easy feat given the available square footage.
The new customer area benefits tremendously from new paint, new flooring, new seating, a new colour scheme, stainless accents all around, and new counters. It's less rustic and certainly more modern, though seating remains at a premium. There's enough room for a half-dozen people to sit down and eat.
Dos Santos doesn't see that as a big issue. "The other day when it was rainy, we had 15 people in here, standing, eating their tacos and chatting. And thankfully the Okanagan is sunny most of the time, and we'll have our back patio open soon too."
The restaurant's logo has also been revamped, as has its menu. Indeed, you won't find any of Nelson's recipes at Tacos del Norte Version II. "Nothing exists from the old menu," says Dos Santos. "We tried to work with it, and we just weren't happy with it."
A big part of the purge stems from the new management team's philosophy - a philosophy they instilled right from the start.
Says Dos Santos, "We no longer serve Baja-style tacos. Where Emily and I and our families come from, the state of Jalisco in central Mexico, the food is a different taste, with a different approach."
"So we serve Jalisco-style street tacos. There's nothing quite like it in Penticton right now."
As in the past, the Tacos del Norte menu is not expansive. And Dos Santos loves the simplicity. "We'll keep the menu small. Most people don't like a lot of options. They want simple, tasty, and fresh, and that's us."
Currently, the venue offers tacos, quesadillas, and an original Tacos del Norte blend of the two called a "quesa taco."
Meat selections for the above include "polo" (shredded chicken with garlic and lime), "asada" (grilled steak), and "carnitas" (marinated slow-roasted pork). And then you add your choice of salsa - either "pina" (a pineapple base with cilantro and onion), or "pico de gallo" (a tomato base with cilantro and onion).
The more adventurous will also want a splash of hot sauce. Two varieties (tomatillos avocado and traditional tomato) are available, and each comes in a mild or hot variant.
Everything Tacos del Norte serves - including all salsas and sauces - is made from fresh ingredients, local when possible, on the premises. And the armoa is spectacular, especially when you're lucky enough to stand at the prep table. The pina salsa in particular is wonderful.
We had a chance to try a trio of tacos - each with a different variety of meat and salsa and/or hot sauce - and can say with some assurance that they were marvelous. Clearly, Jalisco-style tacos don't play second fiddle to their Baja-style counterparts.
Even more to the point, Dos Santos and especially Patrocinio know their way around a kitchen. The carnitas taco topped our own personal charts, preferably with the pina salsa, and we came away with that great vibe you get when you've just filled up on healthy food.
"Mexican food is not complicated," says Dos Santos. "We want it to be fresh all the time. Nothing is frozen. We buy our meat every day, and all our salsas are made fresh."
And a little extra variety is on the way. Dos Santos says they're looking into other Jalisco favourites, including fish tacos and guacamole with homemade chips. Additionally, they'll regularly tweak their recipes so daily customers won't get bored.
But, he says, they don't want to compromise freshness for variety. Tacos del Norte is a small-scale operation, and too many choices may mean too much delay between prep and consumption.
Currently, $12.75 gets you a plate of four tacos of your own choosing. Plans are afoot for a midweek special that'll pair a taco quartet with a bottle of beer at a discounted rate.
Non-alcoholic beverages include a made-in-Mexico soft drink called Jarritos. We tried the mandarin flavour and absolutely loved it.
Starting next week, Tacos del Norte, at 85 Backstreet Blvd, will begin a five-day-per-week schedule that should remain in place through the foreseeable future. Wednesday through Saturday it'll be open 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday will be 11:30 to 4. Meals ordered in advance by calling the restaurant at 778-476-2288 will generally be ready within 15 minutes.
And Dos Santos and Patrocinio aren't finished yet. They're planning to repaint the exterior sometime this spring, thereby ridding Penticton of one of its only neon yellow buildings. And they're on the lookout for employees too. Contact them at the above number if you're interested.
According to Dos Santos, 500 customers have come through the Tacos del Norte door since it opened two week ago. That's a pretty good number, but their ultimate goal is higher than that. And with a full-scale overhaul, some really great Jalisco-inspired dishes, and the obvious commitment of ownership and staff, they may well hit and surpass their goals.
