Taco News
Urban Taco closes at Dallas' Mockingbird Station, but the tacos live on
A trailblazing taqueria concept has shuttered its last brick-and-mortar location: Urban Taco, a Mexico City-style restaurant concept founded in 2007, closed its location in Mockingbird Station in early March.
However, according to founder Markus Pineyro, the closure does not signify the end of Urban Taco. Instead, its menu will be available through Pineyro's newly launched digital food hall startup, Oomi Digital Kitchen.
Pineyro says that the shift reflects changes wrought by the pandemic in the way people are eating these days.
“Starting during the early months of the pandemic, and to date, we've been seeing our business model evolve and move more towards delivery and carry out," Pineyro says. "We've loved serving Dallas in person for last 16 years, but we see this as a way to bring Urban Taco to more diners through OOMI in this new chapter."
Urban Taco was a restaurant inspired by Pineyro's roots in Mexico, far ahead of the "taco revolution" and predating chains like Rusty Taco and Velvet Taco.
Originally from Mexico City, and a graduate of SMU, Pineyro went on to found Del Sur Restaurant Group in 2010, opening more restaurants including an Urban Taco on McKinney Avenue. In 2018, that was taken over by, and has been a location of, Velvet Taco ever since.
The year before, he relocated the Mockingbird Station restaurant to a bigger storefront in front of the Angelika Theater after the restaurant had reached the end of its original 10-year lease.
A spokesperson for Mockingbird Station says they are in talks with potential tenants for Urban Tacos's space, and will share news of a replacement in the coming months.
Pineyro founded Oomi, his digital food hall, at 3510 Ross Ave. in November 2022. It allows customers to order from multiple different restaurants from one place — including Earth Burger, the buzzy vegan concept from San Antonio, as well as Which Wich Superior Sandwiches, FlyRite chicken, and Bowlrito healthy bowls.
"The entire Urban Taco team is grateful to Dallas and Mockingbird Station for the amazing 16 years we were able to welcome people into their restaurant and hope that Dallas diners will follow us to our new outlet," Pineyro says.