An award-winning taco restaurant in Dallas is bringing its taco magic to Garland: Taco Y Vino, the innovative gourmet taqueria and casual wine bar in Oak Cliff, is opening a second location in downtown Garland, in a darling storefront at 706 Main St. that was formerly home to Jim's Barber Shop.
Taco Y Vino is the brainchild of the ultra-charismatic Jimmy Contreras, a hospitality veteran who cut his teeth at Pappas Restaurants then worked for more than 15 years in the wine industry, representing boutique wineries and helping restaurants build their wine lists.
He developed the original idea of a restaurant doing a fine-dining twist on tacos, along with an affordable wine list, and opened Taco Y Vino in 2018. Its combination of good food and wine at low prices made it an instant favorite.
"We always want to be affordable — a place you can go daily to grab bottle of wine and tacos, but also nice enough to bring out of town guests," he says.
The menu features a "three tacos for $14" that lets you mix and match fillings like cochinita pibil (pulled pork braised in bitter orange & achiote), pork carnitas, carne asada, barbacoa, brisket guiso, ahi tuna, tempura catfish or shrimp, chicken tinga with guacamole, black bean & cheese, and fried avocado.
Shareable dishes include jalapeno poppers stuffed with catfish and shrimp; and avocado "toastadas" — a witty twist on avocado toast, featuring corn tostadas topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, lettuce, and pickled onions.
They do brunch — but it's every day from 11:30 am-3 pm, with dishes like Brisket Con Huevo, featuring stewed brisket and scrambled eggs on a flour tortilla.
Everything about the place is much like Contreras himself: approachable, friendly, and fun, and has generated intense goodwill and loyalty for the restaurant among locals and foodies alike. There is no one who does not love Jimmy.
Jimmy Contreras with a glass of wine.Courtesy
"Oak Cliff has been amazing to us," Contreras says. "We're so grateful for the support from neighbors, diners, and wine lovers, and we have great employees who give a sense that they're happy to be there, which has definitely been a big part of our success."
With the original location humming along, Contreras began considering another location. It only took one visit to downtown Garland and he and his business partner Brian White were smitten.
"We immediately fell in love," he says. "The area has great old buildings and businesses like Intrinsic Brewing, Fortunate Son, Rosalind Coffee, Latham Bakery, plus music-forward places like guitar shops and Dead Wax, the record store. It just felt like a cool place to hang out."
Garland has been undergoing a major transformation, one that includes a big revitalization of the Downtown Garland Historic District.
The building they're going into was built in 1928 and they're doing as little as possible to alter the original structure. It's 1300 square feet, with a front and back patio, patio being part of Taco Y Vino's DNA. (They even won a CultureMap Tastemaker Award in 2024 for Best Patio, hoo-rah.)
"We did remove the stucco wall so that the original brick could come through, and we're putting in doors and windows from that timeframe to match," he says. "We just want to keep it as is."
The menu will be the same, with one exception.
"Garland will have not only wine but cocktails," Contreras says. "You would not believe how many people walk in and ask about margaritas. So we'll do a frozen margarita, a paloma, ranch water, a sage margarita on the rocks — but not a full bar."
Their planned for opening date is the end of summer.
Contreras' idea when he opened was to have a business where he did not always have to answer to somebody, to not have a boss. "But every person who comes in is my boss," he says. "I think that service ideology is something you can never lose."
Trattoria Bugatti chef Erin WillisSamantha Marie Photography