Food Truck Phenomenon: Tex's Tacos

In the past couple of months, the food truck phenomenon in Atlanta has gone gang-busters. Between the Midtown Mile at Woodruff Plaza on Thursdays, and other smaller gatherings in Atlantic Station and Inman Park throughout the week, food trucks featuring fare ranging from tacos to cupcakes to kabobs are flooding the streets. The Atlanta Street Food Coalition has become a community movement, a unifying cause, to "campaign for safe, affordable, and legal street food in Atlanta." 

Participating vendors, of which there are almost 20, come from all over Atlanta. Meet: Tex's Tacos — a recent addition to Atlanta's food truck scene with a home base in the heart of Buckhead.

While they claim they’re not “reinventing the wheel,” Mac Helms and Harrison Jones, owners/chefs of Tex’s Tacos, have managed to offer a new spin on standard Tex-Mex cuisine — “Nueva Texicana” — and they nailed it. With a storefront located on Roswell Road across from Irby Avenue, they are also taking their product mobile.

Tex’s has been open for under a month, but the food was superb as was the service. I obviously plan to try everything on the menu, but so far I especially recommend the following:

• Carne Asada taco — perfectly seasoned and cooked beef with grilled onions, cilantro, guac and queso fresco
• Al Pastor quesadilla with pork. The Al Pastor is unlike anything I’ve ever had: slow-roasted pork marinated in chillies and pineapple topped with onions, pineapple, fresh cilantro and queso fresco. The cheese was melted to gooey perfection wherein it was more of a glue for the ingredients than an extra ingredient itself. It was seriously awesome.
• Chips, salsa, and guac: the chips are the amazing kind like Rio Bravo used to have — paper thin and super fresh. (I am seriously having a hard time letting go of Rio Bravo even though it’s been closed for over a decade…maybe Tex’s can help???)

Mac and Harrison worked on the recipes for months and have pretty much got it figured out… I’m waiting on those cheese fries, fellas. They will frequently offer late night fare on the weekends from their storefront (which is great — there is definitely a noted lack of such spots in Buckhead), yet their food is light and fresh enough to seek out for a midweek lunch.

Follow them on Twitter to find out truck locations. They often join a Korean taco truck, Yumbii, at the Prominence Building on Piedmont on Tuesdays, and are at Midtown Mile on Thursdays. Friday lunch and dinner is served at the home base. Everything is $5 or under and they accept cash and credit cards.