Tacolicious

Unscrupulicious

Tacolicious Forks Over $900,000 Settlement for Screwing Over Workers

Tacolicious—the Mission restaurant that helps keep upper crust Tostitos fanboys out of Farolito—just coughed up a $900,000 settlement for not paying their workers proper wages. It turns out only charging $9.50 for a side of guacamole just isn’t enough to pay the bills.

According to Eater SF, the settlement worth 94,737 orders of guac stemmed from a 2015 lawsuit in which two line cooks alleged the restaurant burdened employees with “improper compensation, inaccurate wage statements, illegal deductions, and failure to pay out for overtime.”

“We love our people and take great care of our people,” Tacolicious’s owner, Joe Hargrave, told Eater in a Trumpian statement. “We chose to settle because if we chose to fight it, we’d go out of business.”

Thanks to the settlement keeping them in business, you can still grab a roasted butternut squash taco for $4.95.

[Photo: Adam O/Yelp]

$12 Tacos For Easily Sunburnt Skin

Finally, San Francisco Has Mexican Food For White People

I was recently thinking there aren’t enough $12 al pastor dos tacos in San Francisco. Sure, there’s Tacolicious and their famously foul beer, but they only flip their tacos for four bucks.

Fortunately for San Francisco’s foodie conquistadors, there is now Bandidos, a Mexican-themed restaurant that proudly trumpets their Caucasian targeting.

Inside Scoop hits us with the preview:

“I know that San Francisco has a lot of good Mexican food, and Tacolicious has taken over that scene in a way,” says [consulting chef Jamie Lauren], adding that she was also inspired by the Mexican food she sees in Los Angeles.

Bandidos will make its own corn tortillas, using masa from La Palma, and tacos will dominate the menu. Beyond the tacos, there will be smaller plates like albondigas, quesadillas, and a wet, enchilada-like version of taquitos, as well as entrees like sizzling fajitas.

“I hate to call it white people Mexican food but it is. And I think the Castro needs a place like that.”

I didn’t know “white people Mexican food” was synonymous with “milking money from milky morons.” Every taqueria worth a damn has a complimentary salsa bar that (taking a leap here) would blow away whatever mild mess salsa flight they smashed up for $5. But I suppose if we’re dealing with people who think that Tacolicious has “taken over” the Mission Mexican “scene,” we’re already fucked.

[Inside Scoop]

Sensitive Tacolicious Employees Do Not Wish to be Mocked As They Perform Manual Labor

PG&E is awful—just awful.  And in all their awful awfulness, they cut off power to the Tim “Let Time Smoke” Lincecum-endorsed Valencia Street taco purveyor Tacolicious, forcing the business to close down operations for the day.  And to make the situation worse, the business is now forcing their staff of servers and bartenders to perform “manual labor,” which, like, you know, is totally beneath them.  So please don't tap the glass and frighten their fragile sensibilities.

[Photo by Mission Local, via SFist]

Tim Lincecum Rocks Sweet Tacolicious Hat

Now that San Francisco has gone from pretending to care about football to tweeting obsessively about the impending baseball season, noted pothead and Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum greeted fans at this past weekend's FanFest with a Tacolicious cap on his head.  Does this mean the Marina/Valencia restaurant has finally 'made it'? And has Tim ever drank a Tecate there?

[Inside Scoop]

The Fanciest Tecate You'll Never Drink

Against my better judgement, I went to Valencia's bougie taco and margarita upstart Tacolicious/Mosto the other night. Mistake!

My friends and I arrived at 7pm and were informed it would be about a 35 to 45 minute wait for a table, which seemed a little high for a slow weekday night.  But they have a bar/holding cell attached to the restaurant, so we figured we'd guzzle some drinks and stand out like a group of broke hipsters in a room full of beautiful people in sports coats.

The initial conversation at the bar went something like this:

“How much for a house margarita?”

“Eleven bucks.”

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh do you have something for a guy who clearly can't afford a haircut?”

“Tecates are three.”

“Sick brah.”

Then a Tecate in a wine glass was put in front of my face.  Took one sip.  It was skunked.

Now, I think I've only had Tecate from anything besides an aluminum can once, so I assumed that was how cheap beer in a wine glass was supposed to taste.  But it was awful.  I could feel the muscles in my face wrenching with every sip.  So after conferring on the taste of this atrocity in a glass with my Mission compatriots, I did the unthinkable: I sent the drink back to the bar.

The bartender was apologetic and poured a new Tecate in a pint glass, and the manager even came over to make make reparations in the form of a complimentary margarita.  The margarita sure was tasty, but the new Tecate was just as shitty as the first one.  But not being one for spit in my food, I foraged for a handful of limes at the bar and drank it anyway.

Now, after a couple more drinks, we realized it was already eight fucking thirty.  For those of you who aren't good at math, that means our 35 to 45 minute wait had been crawling along for 90 minutes.  As we were heading out the door to go to Cancun to drink fresh Budweiser and eat tacos like normal people, the hostess grabbed us and let us know our table was ready.

I won't bore you with the details of my admittedly tasty food, but let it suffice to say that I paid $13 for two tacos and complimentary chips and salsa.

Painting Dolores Park

Artist Paul Madonna discusses his latest work, a 40-foot mural depicting the San Francisco cityscape as seen from Dolores Park, which will be unveiled IRL later this month inside Valencia Street's forthcoming Tacolicious location.

In the meantime, if you haven't checked out some of the preliminary visuals of the work, be sure to do that.

[via Grub Street]

Forthcoming Valencia Street Tacolicious Location Unveils Coming Soon Signage

Marina-based taco and tequila purveyor Tacolicious is going to great lengths to shed their freighting Chustnut Street image for their foray into the Mission, going so far as to employ the Mission's artistic weapon of choice to paint their new signage. And, as Eater reports, we have a lot more than shots of nondescript tequila and hard-shell tacos to look forward too:

The outdoor seating section will be sheltered by a retractable roof, there will be a designated phone area made out of 1950s and 1970s phone booths and—something new in these parts—tequila on tap.

While all that may sound needless and gimmicky, I'm all sorts of pumped that bars are recognizing the growing need for a quite place to yell at Siri.

Opening this November!