The "rabbbit-run" taco from Robbie Lewis.
What’s your first taco memory?
There was this place “Casa Bonita” that my family would go to when I was a kid. It was completely cheesy, like a theme park inside with robotic sombero wearing puppet guys and parrots that would pop out of the pseudo-hacienda windows. If I finished my taco meal, the server would give me a “gold doubloon” to go redeem for cheap toy swag at the pirate’s chest. Then I would head back to the table with my booty and proceed to make myself sick, gorging on honey doused sopapillas. Middle-America style good times.
Most memorable taco?
I spent my 30th birthday down in Zihuatanejo. I was down there alone because I was also interviewing for the chef position at a resort down there. It was discovered by the staff that it was my birthday and this amazing older German fellow and his kinda bugged-out artist Mexican wife who also worked at the property, took me around that day in their ancient Beetle. After an hour or so, we wound up out in the dunes at a secluded beachside shack basically, where we sat all afternoon, eating these incredible freshly grilled lobster tacos and drinking ice-cold Pacifico. A surreal day which turned into a surreal night.
What inspired your Tacolicious taco?
I thought about what I habitually cook during this time of the year. What, more often than not, one would find on my menus right now and it seemed that I always would be running some version of a rabbit and fava bean dish: braised rabbit with favas and gnocchi or bacon wrapped rabbit loin on creamy polenta with fava ragout. That was the springboard for my taco. I just opened up a taqueria at work so I was in the taco headspace and I wanted to respect the roots. I didn’t want to create some franco-mexi Frankenstein taco. I channeled a little Diana Kennedy and came up with a Guajillo chile braised rabbit served with a fava bean, radish and mint salad with some cotija cheese.
Favorite SF taquerias?
I’m a La Taqueria fan. I go there probably once a month. Cheap date spot. The Pancho Villa in San Mateo is pretty kick ass too. Better than the one on 16th in the Mission oddly.