Wynwood Is Developing a Taste for Tacos

SIGNIAGE 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

Address: 313 NW 25th Street, Miami, Florida 33127
Neighborhood: Wynwood Arts District
Property Type: Street Retail
Commercial Use: Fast Casual Restaurant
Tenant: The Taco Stand
Opening: February 21, 2018
Size: 1,700 square feet
Seats: 45
Hospitality Group: Shōwa Hospitality
Design: Ximena Estadella
Mural: Rigo Leon
Additional Concept: Hiden, an eight seat omakase restaurant

The Taco Stand has opened at 313 NW 25th Street, bringing its Baja style taqueria from San Diego to Miami. This is its first location on the East Coast and another restaurant looking for a place in Wynwood’s growing food scene.

The 1,700 square foot restaurant has 45 seats and feels like a Mexican taqueria from the moment you walk in. Ximena Estadella designed the space with corrugated metal, hand painted typography and the green, white and red of the Mexican flag. Cuban artist Rigo Leon painted the mural, tortillas are made in the open kitchen and the al pastor turns on a vertical spit. My favorite part may be the salsa bar, where the difficult decision comes after you have already ordered.

IN + OUT 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

The Taco Stand is not far from Coyo Taco, one of the anchors of NW Second Avenue. People come to Wynwood for the Walls, but they also come specifically for tacos. Coyo brings people in throughout the day, and its bar in the back keeps the address active late into the night. It has become part of how people use the neighborhood, not only another stop between murals.

Watching Wynwood grow, I have learned that filling a storefront and creating an anchor are two different things. An anchor gives people a reason to return and slowly changes the way they move through the surrounding streets. Coyo has done that for NW Second Avenue. Its success also gives another restaurant group evidence that Wynwood has an appetite for tacos.

The Taco Stand is part of Shōwa Hospitality, the San Diego group founded by Julian Hakim and Aram Baloyan. Its first location opened in La Jolla in 2013, followed by several more in Southern California. Hakim and Baloyan grew up between San Diego and Tijuana, and that Baja influence carries through the food, the design and the way the restaurant operates.

For a landlord, that history matters. A restaurant with several working locations brings an operating record, an established identity and some proof that people return after the opening excitement is over. Wynwood can attract plenty of attention. The harder part is turning that attention into enough regular business to carry a restaurant through the rest of the year.

At the far end of The Taco Stand, an unmarked door opens into Hiden, a 450 square foot omakase with only eight seats. The restaurant was created by Shōwa Hospitality with Edo Lopez of Mexico City’s Edo Kobayashi. Guests receive a code on the day of their reservation, then walk through the taqueria to enter.

Hiden gives the address another use at night and a completely different customer experience within a very small amount of space. It is not a new real estate formula, but it is a good use of the room available. Most people can walk into The Taco Stand for tacos without knowing that an eight seat Japanese restaurant is operating at the far end.

Wynwood is learning how many restaurants it can hold and which ones become part of its regular rhythm. Coyo has already become an anchor. Now a San Diego taqueria has opened nearby, bringing another interpretation of tacos and another reason to walk farther into the neighborhood. Wynwood appears to be developing a palate for them.

THE TACO BAR 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

THANK YOU FOR THE WAI FAI 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

THE MENU📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

FRONTAGE 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

LOGO 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

LA LUCHADORA by MUTAVISION 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid

HEIGHT 📍The Taco Stand 🌮 | photo by Nadia Bouzid