3 minute read
TACOS FOR PRESIDENT
from (614) February 2022
tacos for
president
This former ghost kitchen for tacos has found a brick and mortar home inside the Ohio Statehouse, and Columbus is eating it up.
↑ Some of the delicious offerings at House Taco
The Ohio Statehouse is a historical treasure. It serves as the site where each of the state’s carefully-considered laws are brought to life, and has stood in downtown Columbus since 1861, making it one of the oldest statehouses in the nation.
And now, you can get tacos there. Really good tacos.
No, this is not a joke, nor is it the premise of a bad Woody Allen movie, either. This is House Taco. And if you’ve never heard of the up and coming Columbus restaurant, you’re in for a treat. →
↑ The taco salad box
House Taco, which officially opened in early December, took the place of Milo’s Capital Cafe, the former tenant which ran a catering service and on-site eatery inside the Statehouse’s Capitol Cafe, a 2,500 square foot designated restaurant space located on the building’s first floor.
“I worked with the owner of Milo’s for a while, and knew that they planned to get out of the Statehouse property because they wanted to do full-blown catering,” said House taco owner Zach Martin. “And this place came to me exactly when I needed it the most.”
House Taco began as a pandemic passion project of Martin, who launched it while on furlough from his sales job. He began making tacos and quickly realized that Columbus really liked his food, from indulgent taco options like barbacoa and pork shoulder, to nachos and even stuffed chilies.
“When you go to most places for tacos, they’re always represented the way they are in someone’s backyard. There’s this authenticity and boldness of flavor you get when someone makes them personally, small scale,” he said. “I wanted to bring forward those vingers, acids, the heat and the sweet you get with that kind of cooking.”→
What began as a ghost kitchen grew into a very popular ghost kitchen, and then again into Martin’s first brick and mortar eatery. A longtime Columbus chef, he had been longing to return to the kitchen after leaving the culinary world for a nine to five.
“Four years ago when I started doing sales it took me about six months to realize I wasn’t made to do this for the rest of my life,” he said. “I’m a passionate creator, and even on my busiest days doing sales I felt bored.”
Martin chose instead to launch House Taco, bringing new life–and continuing a long history of on-site dining–to the Ohio Statehouse.
“The furthest back we have record of the Capital Cafe existing is the 1960’s,” said Mike Rupert, communications manager of the Capital Square Review and Advisory Board. “But even before then there were always refreshment stands and the like.”
Today, it’s just as common to see a state senator sitting down with tacos as it is a regular citizen opting for a pickup order. And while Martin is working on streamlining a cashless payment system with easy pickup and delivery options for online orders, House Taco can also fit more than 100 diners in its unique, historical Statehouse dining room that feels like it’s been plucked from a century ago.
↓ Three of their signature tacos
It’s become a strange–and undeniably special–place where Columbus citizens can mingle with lawmakers, and legislators can come together over one of the only truly bipartisan things we have left: tacos.
THEY HAVE OUR VOTE.
