Bennett: Heavenly odors of grilled meat, plus Templeton the mascot, at Tio Flaco’s
In Hermosillo, the biggest city in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, the air perpetually smells of grilled meat. Or, more specifically, it smells of the perfume-y aroma of burning mesquite wood as it envelops large flanks of beef, cooking cuts from the country’s best cows, which have been raised there for centuries in the arid landscape.
Every time I drive down Magnolia Street near Tio Flaco’s in Fountain Valley, I am taken back to the barbecue heaven that is Hermosillo, the meat capital of Mexico. The familiar smell of charred mesquite is a permanent emanation from the year-old taqueria, which, as far as I know, is the only one in Orange County permitted to grill over wood.
Enter and the scent gets stronger, wafting through the air from behind the smoke-coated panes of hot glass that separates Tio Flaco’s groundbreaking grill from the dining area. If you’re lucky enough, it lodges in your hair and clothes for the remainder of the day.
Grilling over an open wood fire is the preferred method for preparing carne asada in northern Mexico, and it makes a heck of a flavor difference. Order a taco or mulita filled with the stuff at Tio Flaco’s and you’ll get carne asada that isn’t composed of dry, overcooked nubs like at most taco trucks. Instead of offering tasteless meat that resembles mulch, the restaurant takes its quality cuts straight from the grill to the nearby cutting board, where they get hacked up with a cleaver, chopping them down to bite size while tenderizing away the crispier bits.
Sadly, this process has become somewhat of a lost art on our side of the border, where strict fire codes and health regulations prevent its widespread use. L.A. only has two restaurants serving this regional delight — Sonoratown and Salazar — both of which opened in the last year. Fountain Valley lifers Caesar Ruiz and Steven Dabic opened Tio Flaco’s in July 2015.
Ruiz first had the idea to open a taqueria here after being unable to find tacos like the ones he grew accustomed to eating while on work trips in Tijuana. There, at streetside walk-ins like Taqueria Franc, wood-grilled meat is the norm, and tacos come on handmade tortillas with a mop-top of guacamole before being wrapped in a square of parchment paper.
Tio Flaco’s, which is named after Ruiz’s late Argentine uncle, doesn’t veer too far from tradition. A smear of silky guacamole goes down first instead of sitting on top, but the tortillas are still pressed to order, the carne asada is grilled using smoky mesquite and your taco order comes lined up on a paper plate, each hand-held morsel cradled in a piece of white parchment paper.
It should be said that for all its authenticity, Tio Flaco’s definitely exists with its gringo audience in mind.
In addition to the aromatic carne asada, there are more familiar protein options like shredded chicken, pork carnitas and savory al pastor, all delicious in their own right but cooked on the flat plancha, not over open fire. The minimal lineup of offerings also includes bases like taco salads and mulitas, the latter of which the menu refers to as a “taco sandwich.”
The salsa bar includes five different options that claim to range from mild to “crazy hot” but really go from avocado puree to tomatillo puree (it’s OK, the meat doesn’t need much). While you eat, an endearingly terrible soundtrack of ‘90s radio — think Spice Girls, Nelly, Destiny’s Child — plays.
And then there’s Templeton, the restaurant’s mascot and a sure sign that Ruiz and Dabic aren’t taking their very serious effort to bring a Tijuana taqueria to O.C. too seriously. While the carne asada might be doing things the old fashioned way, Templeton is a totally original character, a business representative built for the social media generation.
First of all, Templeton is a green octopus. Except that he’s really a person dressed as a green octopus and is drawn in all instances as having human legs and arms. Secondly, he’s hilarious. In a series of clever custom commercials posted to Tio Flaco’s Instagram over the past two years, a man dressed in a green octopus costume leads Fountain Valley police on a wild car chase, smashes TVs in the parking lot while surrounded by cheering children (a la Crazy Gideon) and stars in his own remake of “Back to the Future” (“Back to the Flacos”).
Keeping tongue in cheek amid interesting political times, Tio Flaco’s owners had yard signs printed that say “Templeton for Prime Minister” and recently posted a video of a “fake news” segment showing multiple people dressed as Templeton marching down Magnolia demanding more of the restaurant’s signature dessert, churro chips.
Watching the Instagram post from the comfort of my couch, all I could think was “How is Templeton craving churro chips with all that mesquite smoke in the air?”
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SARAH BENNETT is a freelance journalist covering food, drink, music, culture and more. She is the former food editor at L.A. Weekly and a founding editor of Beer Paper L.A. Follow her on Twitter @thesarahbennett.