NJ’s Favorite Taco Chain Plans Expansion to Philly Burbs

Tacoria’s burritos / Photograph courtesy of Tacoria

Howdy, buckaroos! And welcome back to the weekly Foobooz food news round-up. The end of summer is always a slow time in the restaurant industry. So with the season winding down, there’s just a couple quick things for us to cover this week  — including (but not limited to) deals at Hop Sing Laundromat, the return of Manayunk Restaurant Week, Tacoria’s expansion plans, and Enzo’s Day at Herman’s Coffee. So let’s get right into it, then we can all get on with our back-to-school shopping. We’ll start this week with …

Tacoria Is Coming for The Philly Suburbs

Tacoria Mexican Street Kitchen is a born-and-bred New Jersey phenomenon. Since the first one opened in New Brunswick in 2016, founders Chuck and Vishal Patel (along with their partners) have expanded multiple times, each of their 12 current fast-casual Mexican locations drawing good crowds with a mix of choose-your-own-adventure tacos and burritos, Nutella nachos, easy, unserious vibes, and promise of approachable Mexican food made fresh every day because none of the restaurants have any freezers.

In Princeton, Hoboken, Montclair, and elsewhere, Tacoria aims to be everyone’s neighborhood Mexican spot. The newest one opened earlier this month at 801 Haddonfield Road in Cherry Hill. August 9th was opening day, and they celebrated with free t-shirts and branded swag for the first customers, plus free burritos for people who downloaded their Tacoria app. And this Thursday they’re celebrating again with a community day featuring donations to the Food Bank of South Jersey, and free giveaways for the first 100 customers.

But none of that is really the point here.

The point is that with this location open just on the other side of the bridge, the Patels are now looking across the river and eyeing a continued expansion into Philly’s suburbs. In a recent interview, Vishal said that Tacoria had looked at Philly locations in the past (specifically University and Center City) but didn’t find a space they liked. Now, though, it appears the focus has shifted and they’re looking at the Main Line, Conshohocken, KOP, Willow Grove, and Doylestown, according to What Now Philly and the Philadelphia Business Journal. Matter of fact, the Biz Journal describes it even more aggressively, as the chain “attacking” the Philly suburbs. Though, honestly, if someone’s going to attack the suburbs with anything, doing it with Mission-style burritos and Nutella nachos sounds not entirely awful, ya know?

There’s no word right now on when (or where) such an expansion might take place. And it looks like a Moorestown location might be next in line anyway. But Tacoria is actively searching for locations with heavy traffic and dense populations for a Pennsylvania base of operations, so that’s something worth keeping an eye on.

In the meantime, if you’re in the mood for some Mexican street corn, fried avocado, vegan burrito bowls, or pineapple al pastor tacos, there’s always Cherry Hill. The community day/grand opening festivities kick off at 11:30 a.m. on Haddonfield Road.

Now what else is happening this week …

Hop Sing Laundromat Goes Back in Time

The bar at Hop Sing Laundromat / Photograph courtesy Hop Sing Laundromat

I was talking to Lê from Hop Sing the other night and he let me know that, with the end of summer approaching, he was going to be launching a whole new discount cocktail program starting this week.

If you recall, back at the beginning of summer, Lê rolled out a kind of birthday celebration with $10 classic cocktails on the first Thursday of every month. At the time, he wasn’t sure how long he was going to run this special — or whether or not anyone would show up. But apparently, it was successful enough that he’s now expanding it.

So, starting this Thursday, August 21st, “the world’s greatest North Korean Cocktail Bar will go back to pre-COVID schedule,” meaning that Hop Sing will be open three nights a week: Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Further, he and his team will now be running a menu of 26 cocktails every Thursday that he’s letting go for $10 each — plus tip, so be generous. And this being Hop Sing, it’s not like he’s pouring junk. Lê’s bar has consistently had one of the best wells in the city (and some truly remarkable bottles on the wall). And, in talking to him, he insisted (loudly) that I remind y’all that NONE of his cocktails are batched. Every one of them is poured, mixed, shaken, stirred, and poured by hand. Meanwhile, for Friday and Saturday services, the prices will go back to normal, but the menu will expand to over 60 cocktails — classics, old favorites, and new creations.

Speaking of those special bottles on the back bar, Lê will also be doing two-ounce pours of some of his favorites on Thursdays only. “After 14 years of collecting, I’m opening them all,” he tells me. And we’re talking some serious labels: Eagle Rare, Blantons, 12-year-old Yamazaki, and Hakushu whiskies (which, I believe, is a discontinued bottle no longer available for sale), and an Old Overholt Rye 11 year.

And that’s just the kickoff list. He’s planning on changing it up regularly. So if you’re one of those people who obsesses over great and rare liquors, maybe just block off Thursdays on your calendar right now.

Eating and Drinking for a Good Cause

Herman’s Coffee / Photograph courtesy of Herman’s Coffee

This Friday, August 22nd, is going to be “Enzo’s Day” at Herman’s Coffee. And if you’ve ever wanted to get out there, drink some coffee, eat some bagels, and maybe have a glass of wine for a very good cause, this is your chance.

A little over a year and a half ago, owners Matt Falco’s and Amy Strauss’s baby Enzo passed away. Now, on his birthday, they throw a party at Herman’s in his honor. I’ll let Amy explain:

“Vincenzo ‘Enzo’ Luciano Falco was with us for two wonderful months, spending all of his life at @childrensphila. We are blessed to have the time we did with him and want to continue to honor his legacy by helping others in similar situations. Enzo would have been 2 years old this year and it’ll be our 2nd annual Enzo’s Day.”

For Enzo’s Day, 22 percent of all sales will be donated to the Down syndrome clinic at CHOP. And this year, Matt and Amy have a whole bunch of friends from the industry coming to help out. The Clean Plate Club food truck will be on-site from 9 a.m. ’til noon. Okie Dokie Donuts will be serving a special Enzo’s Day donut from 8 a.m. until they sell out. Brass Monkey bakery and Pretzel Day Pretzels will be serving starting at 9:30 a.m., and Cocco’s Gelato will be selling special gelato pints all day. Freelance Pizza drops by at 3 p.m. Mighty Bread will be selling tomato pies and snacks starting at 4 p.m. There’ll be limited-edition tote bags from Logan DeCarme, and a special happy hour from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. with wine and cocktail samples, by-the-glass options, and bottles for sale.

Plus — and this is maybe the sweetest part of the entire thing — there’ll be a card-making station set up all day long so that anyone who likes can make a card for babies in the NICU at CHOP.

Amy explains: “This is extra special to us because one day during our stay, Enzo received a bunch of cards from kids we did not know and it brought some much-needed joy to the day. We’d love to pay that forward with a little help from our friends.”

Look, there’s nothing about this that isn’t sad, but there’s also nothing about this that isn’t beautiful. Coming together like this as a community, trying to help out others in a bad place, celebrating a life that was no less meaningful just because it was short — there’s nothing about this that I don’t love.

“They say you can’t have grief without the love,” Amy says, “so that’s where I focus my energy. On the love for my son. The love for the time we had, versus the time we did not. On the love that I want to share in his honor, versus the sadness that is sure as hell there, but I don’t allow it to dim my light. I’m sure Enzo would want us all to keep shining.”

All the details about Enzo’s Day can be found here. And if you can’t make it down to Herman’s to celebrate in person, there’s a donation page set up so you can help from a distance.

Now who has room for some leftovers?

The Leftovers

Dubai chocolate doughnuts / Photograph courtesy of Neff

You guys know what Dubai chocolate is, right? It’s basically a very specific type of chocolate bar, made with milk chocolate and filled with kataif, which is shredded filo pastry mixed with pistachio and tahini cream. It’s one of those things (like the cronut before it) made huge by influencers.

Anyway, Federal Donuts has been working over the summer with Asher’s Chocolates, and as the grand finale for their four-part series of collab donuts, they’re doing a limited-edition Dubai Chocolate doughnut that’ll be available for just five days (August 20th to the 24th). It’s basically a Federal Donuts spiced cake donut, layered with Asher’s milk chocolate glaze, a crunchy kataifi and pistachio crumble, then a pistachio drizzle.

“The goal [of the Asher’s collaboration] was always to surprise people with flavors they had never seen from us before while keeping it fun and true to our style,” according to Jeff Benjamin, FedNuts CEO. “The Dubai Chocolate donut is the perfect curtain call.”

If you’re down, you can get yours starting tomorrow at all Philly area Federal Donuts & Chicken locations. But be quick, because something tells me these are going to sell out fast.

After a five-year hiatus, it looks like Manayunk Restaurant Week is coming back.

There’ll be 20-odd restaurants participating this year, offering special prix-fixe menus for lunch and/or dinner, with prices ranging from $15 to $45. They’ve also got a barbecue chicken dinner (with strawberry shortcake for dessert) at the PHS pop-up garden. The deals start September 8th and run through the 14th. You can find more details (and make reservations) here.

Finally this week, if looking a little further into September, the South Philly Food Co-Op is hosting “Harvest Jawn” on Sunday, September 21st. It’ll be happening on Juniper Street, between Snyder and Mckean, from noon to 4 p.m., and there’ll be food trucks, a craft fair, a bounce house, live music and a pie-eating contest. Who doesn’t love a pie-eating contest?

Details (and registration for the pie eating contest) can be found here. Looks like a good time for everyone.