FOOD TRUCKS OF NAPA COUNTY
Tacos La Esperanza: Baja-style tacos and meals at your fingertips
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JENNIFER HUFFMAN jhuffman@napanews.com
ou won’t have to go far for some of Napa’s best Baja-style tacos and food. Just make a stop at Tacos La Esperanza. Parked almost in front of Matthew’s Mattress, at 1551 Soscol Ave., the food truck is open 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m., 365 days-a-year. “It doesn’t matter what holiday,”—he’s open, said owner Rene Gonzalez Jr. “We gotta stay loyal to our customers.”
shrimp torta comes on a fluffy “bun” that got a little soggy on the way home, but that didn’t stop us from eating every bite.
BACK STORY: Gonzalez has operated Tacos La Esperanza on the 1500 block of Soscol Avenue for more than a dozen years. The food business is in his blood. It began with Gonzalez’s great-grandmother’s restaurant in the Mexican state of Ensenada – the birthplace of the recipe for the Baja-style fish WHO’S MAKING YOUR FOOD? tacos that his truck serves today. His father Gonzalez himself. “I’m the boss.” and his uncles have run food trucks all over the Bay Area since the 1970s, according to WHAT YOU’RE EATING: Gonzalez. Even his 75-year-old grandfather Tacos, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, aguas still slings tacos out of his truck in Oakland. frescas and chips and salsa. Fill with your choice of asada (steak), pollo (chicken), carni- DON’T LEAVE WITHOUT TRYING: tas (fried pork), pastor (spicy pork), camaron The Ensenada fish tacos. (shrimp), pescado (fish), lengua (beef tounge) “It’s a traditional recipe from my homeor birria (spicy shredded beef ). town,” said Gonzalez. On a recent visit, two diners tried a varied selection of foods from La Esperanza includ- PRICE RANGE: ing an al pastor taco, a shrimp taco, a fish Tacos start at $2.50. The most expensive taco, carne asada taco, quesabirria taco and item is a big shrimp burrito: it’s $18. a shrimp torta. The shrimp taco, a favorite, was pleasantly HIS PRIME PARKING SPOT: sweet but also acidic. A carne asada taco Soscol Avenue is a great location, he noted. wasn’t too dry and had a wonderful balanced “We’re close to downtown, the Westin, the flavor. River Terrace Inn, the Oxbow… More than The quesabirria featured a crunchy corn 50% of our customers are tourists.” tortilla with the shredded meat and a spicy sauce inside. Lightly battered fish with an ON THE DOWN LOW: aoli-type sauce was another winner. The Unlike many food trucks, Gonzalez hardly 12 | DISTINCTIVE PROPERTIES
Photos by Jennifer Huffman, Register
Rene Gonzalez Jr., is the owner of Napa food truck Tacos La Esperanza. They have been found on the 1500 block of Soscol Avenue for more than a dozen years. Tacos La Esperanza has a menu with items that range from just a few dollars up to about $18.
promotes his business on social media. He doesn’t have to. His customers come from all over, including Vallejo, Fairfield and tourists from out of state and even out of the country. “We keep it old school,” and customers find him by word of mouth, said Gonzalez. “It’s better that way.” WORD TO THE WISE: “You can get a beef burrito anywhere,” Gonzalez said. La Esperanza makes a quesabirria, which is birria-style cooked beef folded into a tortilla with spices. Or try a steak and shrimp burrito, he advised. You can reach reporter Jennifer Huffman at 256-2218 or jhuffman@napanews.com SEPTEMBER 2021
