Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
More than Tacos: At Willow Glen's Taqueria Tlaquepaque, a plate of cocido, a beef shank soup with vegetables, waits to be served to a customer, while cook Jose Hernandez works in the kitchen.
WG taqueria offers fresh, authentic Mexican dishes
By Jim Aquino
On digitalcity.com's website, there is a section on the best places to live in the United States. Willow Glen is praised by the site's writers for its "innovative but casual restaurants" and "a great selection of authentic taquerias."
One of those authentic taquerias is Taqueria Tlaquepaque (tlah-keh-PAH-keh), 2222 Lincoln Ave.
Opened in 1990, Taqueria Tlaquepaque shows up frequently on "best of" lists in local newspapers because the staff prepares every item on the menu from scratch daily, from the burritos to the tortilla chips.
"We fry them everyday," says owner Ubaldo Navarro, referring to the chips. "Sometimes we fry them twice a day because we run out."
Another item that gets a lot of requests is the green salsa, which customers often use as a chili-style topping for soft tacos and burritos. The creamy salsa received a nod in the Willow Glen Resident's "Best of 2001" issue.
"For some, it could be too hot," Navarro says. "But most people today request that."
Navarro first learned to cook when he was a 9-year-old boy growing up in Tlaquepaque, Mexico, a "suburb" of the city of Guadalajara (as well as the taqueria's namesake). His mother ran a restaurant and taught him the recipes that he uses at Taqueria Tlaquepaque, which he prefers to think of as more of a restaurant than a taqueria.
Tlaquepaque's interior is a bit roomier than the average taqueria's, although Navarro says he wishes his restaurant was larger in space, even after an expansion five years ago, when he bought the space previously occupied by a neighboring hair salon and turned it into a waiting room area.
A large, dramatic tile painting of the ancient Aztec legend of doomed lovers Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl adorns the restaurant's dining room wall. The lovers' names were given to a pair of volcanoes near Mexico City because they resembled the shapes of a man and a woman. Navarro says he had the artist create the painting from an image on a Mexican calendar that caught his eye.
Another aspect of the restaurant that expanded over the years was the menu, which in the beginning only carried half the items it has today.
Besides tacos and burritos, Tlaquepaque also offers tamales, combination platters and Mexican-style steaks.
Lately, Navarro has been mulling over adding oysters, fish tacos, shrimp tacos and Mexican-style fried fish to the menu because he says that many patrons who dine on Saturdays and Sundays have been requesting them.
"A lot of people have requested fried fish that I don't have, so I'm definitely thinking about it," says Navarro, who adds that he prefers to take his time in experimenting with a new dish before introducing it to customers. "Everything that we come up with is always hard work."
Navarro says every single item on the menu is his favorite dish. "I like everything," Navarro says with a laugh. "If I don't like what I sell, then I have a problem."
Taqueria Tlaquepaque, 2222 Lincoln Ave. Open every day, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, call 408.978.3665.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
