let's go tacos

Houston taqueria's 2 new locations will serve cocktails by Anvil owner

Chef Maribel Gomez, Tacos A Go Go founder Sharon Haynes, and Anvil owner Bobby Heugel.

Photo by Dylan McEwan

A staple Houston taqueria will open two new locations before the end of the year. Tacos A Go Go is moving its Heights location and adding a new outpost in Briargrove/Memorial.

The restaurant has claimed the former Lola Neighborhood Diner (1102 Yale St.) and Killen’s STQ (2231 S. Voss Rd.) spaces for the new restaurants, which are scheduled to open in late 2025. As both of these locations are substantially larger than either Tacos A Go Go’s current Heights location on White Oak Dr. or its original location in Midtown, they will offer larger kitchens with room to prepare family packs from sister concept Fajitas A Go Go and to make fresh corn and flour tortillas throughout the day.

Both new locations will offer bar seating — a first for Tacos A Go Go. Adding bars means serving cocktails, To create a cocktail menu, founder Sharon Haynes turned to Anvil owner Bobby Heugel, who is a longtime Tacos A Go Go customer. Known for businesses such as Anvil, Refuge, and his former agave bar The Pastry War, Heugel’s cocktail menu will take inspiration from Mexican cocktails and ingredients and utilize tequilas and mezcals from family-owned distilleries.

“I’ve always wanted to have a real bar inside Tacos A Go Go with margaritas, mezcal and Mexican cocktails. These two locations have the space for it, and when Bobby offered to help, we knew it was meant to be," Haynes said in a statement."

“I’ve been a fan of Tacos A Go Go for nearly 20 years, so this project is especially exciting for me,” Heugel added. “I’m working to bring the same creativity and care their team puts into the food to the bar program, so guests enjoy an experience that feels just as fun and delicious as the tacos.”

Both restaurant will serve Tacos A Go Go’s familiar menu. Led by chef and co-owner Maribel Gomez, it includes street-style tacos with fillings such as carne guisada, pastor, picadillo, and barbacoa. In addition, the restaurant offers breakfast tacos all day and more elevated options such as grilled shrimp and smoked brisket. Non-taco options include burritos, quesadillas, and salads.

“I came to this country in 1991 with a dream of cooking the food I grew up with,” Gomez said. “To share those recipes here, in a place that has become my community, is a dream come true. Thirty years later, I’m proud to be doing what I love and grateful for the chance to bring people together with food that reminds me of home and hopefully makes them feel at home, too.”

Tacos A Go Go will announce grand opening plans for both locations in the weeks to come.

news-you-can-eat openings tacos tex-mex cocktails

Houston's smallest restaurant?

Michelin-recognized Houston sushi chef fires up 4-seat Japanese skewer spot

Courtesy of Sip & Skewer

Diners sit in front of chefs cooking on a grill.

The team behind one of Houston’s Michelin-recognized sushi restaurants is opening an intimate new izakaya. Sip & Skewer is the newest concept from Hidden Omakase owner Tuan Tran and chef Marcos Juarez.

Opening Friday, February 13, Sip & Skewer is a four-seat restaurant devoted to skewered meats that’s located within Sushi by Hidden, the group’s affordable omakase restaurant in Rice Village. At Sip & Skewer, diners sit across from the chefs as they cook a 10-course, $90 meal on a Japanese binchotan grill.

“Sip & Skewer is small, loud, and intentional. The kind of hidden experience you’d find in Tokyo,” Tran said. “And with Chef Marcos guiding the team at Sushi by Hidden, this space is getting new energy from every angle.”

A four-seat restaurant within a 10-seat restaurant might seem kind of superfluous, but Tran explains that it’s part of a larger plan for his group of restaurants, which also includes West U. hand roll restaurant Norigami. It also builds on the success of Hidden Omakase, the Galleria-area sushi counter that earned a Recommended designation in the Michelin Guide.

“Sip & Skewer is part of a larger vision. It’s designed as a stepping stone toward our next concept, Kōri, a new hand roll and craft cocktail bar opening in the Heights. Our plan is to open Sip & Skewer directly next to our hand roll spot, creating a small alley of Japanese concepts that feed into one another,” Tran explains.

“This allows us to build awareness, train our team in a new format, and introduce guests to Japanese charcoal grilling in a very personal way before we scale the idea into a larger setting with Kōri. The four-seat format keeps overhead extremely low while serving as a live test kitchen and brand builder for what’s coming next,” he adds.

On a related note, Juarez and the other chefs at Hidden Omakase are dividing their time between all three restaurants. Tuam explains that it’s a deliberate strategy to ensure a consistent customer experience.

“The same team that works Michelin-recognized omakase service also runs the grill here, which keeps quality and execution consistent while allowing the chefs a creative outlet in a very different format,” Tran said. “Because Sip & Skewer is only four seats and reservations only, it does not require a dedicated full-time staff. It’s an extension of the team rather than a separate operation.”