Taco Mania
From-scratch tacos fill the food bill at Preston Hollow Village
Upscale shopping center Preston Hollow Village will get tacos this fall with the opening of Cinco Tacos, a new taqueria concept from the owners of Cinco Tacos Cocina in Addison.
Located on Belt Line Road, Cinco Tacos Cocina was previously known as Lazaranda; in January, the restaurant underwent a reconcepting in order to better describe what it was about.
Co-owner Mario Letayf says that the Preston Hollow restaurant will have some similar dishes as the original but with a more narrow focus.
"It's a spin-off," he says. "It'll have the same food, the same kitchen, but it'll be just tacos and the bar, with beer and margaritas. And unlike the Addison restaurant, it's not going to be a full-service. It'll be more like a taqueria."
They'll be going into new construction near Blue Sushi and Verts; other restaurants at the center include Pakpao, Modern Market, Matchbox, and the recently opened Blatt Beer & Table.
"We'll start with about 18 tacos, because we'll be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner," he says. "So that means breakfast tacos, plus meat, chicken, pork, seafood, and vegetarian. We'll do specials, too, like a taco of the week."
They'll also make their tortillas in-house. "In my mind, there is no way you can do a taqueria if you don't make your own tortillas," he says.
But it's just part of an overall approach in which they make everything from scratch, to order.
Letayf and chef Antonio Marquez opened Lazaranda in 2011 as an offshoot of their restaurant from Monterey, Mexico. After a few years, they felt that changing the name to Cinco Tacos Cocina would make a better connection with diners.
"We've changed some things on the menu, but at the end of the day, our food is the same," Letayf says. "Our soul is the same. For us, the soul is the food. But since we changed the name, we've seen an increase in business, so it was the right thing to do."
That helped inspire the idea to do a taco place. "A lot of it depends on the location," he says. "The space at Preston Hollow Village is a lot smaller."
The center also has a different kind of clientele.
"Addison has many business and hotel customers," he says. "Preston Hollow Village is near 75 and has businesses and hospitals, but it's also near a residential area. In Mexico, our restaurants have always been part of a community, with families coming in on the weekends. That's something we know."
The shop offers an assortment of kulfi sticks.Photo courtesy of Kesar Creamery