A TASTE OF MEXICO

Taquero stays true in dishes and décor

Story by RENEE UMSTED | Photography by KATHY TRAN

Taquero Might

GO unnoticed to drivers speeding through the Greenville and Ross intersection, but once inside, the restaurant demands attention.

Executive chef Fino Rodríguez transformed the old Pints & Quarts burger joint, which was originally a tire shop, into a vibrant, welcoming space.

“That’s how the houses are in Mexico,” Rodríguez says.

The front door, which connects the main dining rooms to the outdoor patio, opens to the glass room. Rodríguez added three glass walls to close in part of the burger restaurant’s patio, creating more indoor dining space yet allowing sunshine to flood in.

Further inside, light brown tones coating the walls are juxtaposed with bright blue tile below the high-top counter and lush greenery spread throughout the room.

One piece of artwork catches the eye: a framed portrait of María Félix on the set of the film Juana Gallo . Félix, a Mexican actor and style icon, was also known as “La Doña” or “Maria Bonita.” Rodríguez says the actor, who died in 2002, used to travel with a chef so she could always eat Mexican food.

It’s a cuisine Rodríguez grew up around. His father had taquerías in Mexico, but that’s not how he learned the basics of cooking.

“I learned how to cook when I was 7 from watching my grandma,” he says. “And my grandma’s the one that would tell me, ‘Put a little bit of this here. Put a little bit of that there. This yes, this no.’”

Before he opened his own restaurant, he worked at Mesero. He had just about every job possible while he was there — washing dishes, busing and waiting tables, helping as a line cook — and eventually became executive chef.

But he always wanted to have his own place. The first Taquero, which opened in West Dallas in 2017, primarily offered outdoor seating. The cost of rent was relatively low at the time, and the location lasted until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic emerged.

Rodríguez and business partner Victor Rico, who goes by “Lalo,” were attracted to the current restaurant location because it’s a high-traffic area. But they had to complete major renovation work, replacing everything from the floor to the roof.

Now, the restaurant, which opened in September 2020, accommodates about 80 guests outside and in the indoor dining areas.

Despite its name, Taquero isn’t a taquería, though there is a taco section on the menu. The taco rico, one of the most popular, comes with grilled steak, red onion, cilantro, guacamole, red rice and pinto beans. Another favorite is the taco Fino, filled with pork pastor, red onion, pineapple and micro cilantro.

One of the top-selling menu items at the current and past Taquero locations is the ceviche Fino, made with red snapper, Roma tomato, red onion, cilantro, serrano chiles, homemade mayonnaise and avocado slices. The appetizer also happens to be the chef’s favorite.

Mole negro is another popular order. It takes three days to prepare the dish, which has a sauce made with the chilhuacle negro chile.

Many of the menu items are named after places in Mexico. There’s the Oaxaca appetizer, which is chips with a cheesy dipping sauce made with mozzarella, cheddar, queso asadero, brisket and spinach. The Mazatlán taco has grilled red snapper, Mexican coleslaw, jalapeño ranch and queso asadero, a mild Mexican cheese.

Rodríguez prides his restaurant on its authentic flavors and homemade ingredients, including salsas and dressings.

“What we do here is original,” he says.

Complementing the food is a full bar and a signature drink menu. The Mr. Rodríguez margarita comes with silver tequila, fresh avocado, lime and organic agave. El Famoso is Taquero’s version of a swirl, made with the Mr. Fino margarita and house sangria. Another notable mention is the La Mezcalita, made with Espina Negra mezcal, orange, lemon and agave honey.

Rodríguez says some first-time Taquero diners are amazed by the taste of the food and wonder how they’ve never been there before.

“We are like something really secret,” Rodríguez says. “Here, it’s like a hidden pearl in all of Dallas.” there were 200 pigeons living in the attic. Three feet of water was standing in the basement. Some of the flooring on the first level had rotted because a previous owner used it as a dog kennel. Parts of the floor on the second story rotted, too, because of a water leak, meaning the roof had issues. Animals were living in the columns in what’s now the sun room. Sections of the internal gutter system were rusted. Greasy soot had accumulated on all of the walls.

Details made the staircase one of the Deans’ favorite features of their home.

Fixer-upper is an understatement for the Georgian Revival house on Swiss Avenue that David and Jean Dean bought in 2000.

It took 3 1 / 2 years to renovate the home before the Deans moved in 2003.

“We would never have purchased the house if it hadn’t been structurally well-built,” Jean says.

Plus, they loved the historical neighborhood and the home, which was built in 1916 for G.M. Taylor and most likely designed by Hal Thomson, they say. One of their favorite features is the staircase, each step made with one piece of hardwood.

So when they did the renovations, they did them properly.

“We’re all historic preservationists of the first order,” David, an attorney and former Texas Secretary of State, says of Swiss Avenue residents. “It’s not an academic exercise for us.”

A lot of that work happened inside the home.

But outside the home, the historic district guidelines dictate how renovations can be done, and homeowners must get their plans approved before construction can begin.

One of the projects the Deans wanted to complete was extending the second story over the sun room to create space for a closet off the master bedroom.

The addition would be visible from the street, but it would look identical to the existing second story. Normally, closet space isn’t something that the landmark commission or neighborhood task forces or city council care about. But the Deans had to make a case for it. And ultimately, they were successful.

“They spent 30 minutes on whether Ross Perot would get $190 million of tax incentive for American Airlines stadium,” David says of one council meeting at the time.

“And they spent 5 1 / 2 hours on whether Jean Dean was getting a place to hang her clothes on Swiss Avenue.”

From the outside, the addition, designed by Todd Hamilton of Hamilton and Ward Architecture with help from Jay Henry, blends seamlessly into the original structure. That’s true even from the backyard, which provides the Deans’ favorite view of the house. Surrounded by a pool, manicured shrubs and a sea of cactuses and succulents, the rear of the property has hosted countless soirees over the years.

“We like the flow of the house, just to be able to entertain, where you don’t get stuck somewhere,” Jean says.

The Deans’ commitment to preserving history extends beyond just the architecture. For David, it’s kind of a family tradition. His father, a former president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, advocated for bond funds to be allocated to restore the Music Hall at Fair Park, rather than tearing it down, in the 1970s.

They found a fountain sitting inside one of the rooms in the house, and they moved it outside and made it functional.

Some of the decorative molding above and around the doors was damaged, so they repaired it and replicated it in other parts of the home, with the help of artist Brad Oldham, who created “The Traveling Man” statue in Deep Ellum. Oldham also worked on the backplates on doorknobs, inscribing

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