SF-born taco chain Tacolicious — which now has three locations in the city as well as two in the South Bay, a spinoff called TacoLab in Mexico's San Miguel de Allende, and a Ferry Building market stall on Thursdays — is expanding once more with Tacolicious Chico at 685 Market Street.
The 425-square-foot taco shop will be a counter-service operation, as Eater reports, with a couple of tables outside and no seating inside. It's aiming for an October opening.
Inspired by taco shops in Mexico City, the menu will focus on tacos de guisados, i.e. tacos filled with hearty braises and stews. Tacolicious co-owner Sara Deseran tells Eater that she and husband/co-owner Joe Hargrave have been regularly traveling to Mexico City for the past decade, and they've "been inspired by the likes of Tacos Gus (which has sadly closed) as well as Tacos Hola."
Tacolicious was actually born downtown, out of that Ferry Building stand, which Hargrave used as inspiration to pivot away from his former restaurant Laiola on Chestnut Street, which became Tacolicious's first brick-and-mortar location in early 2010. By November 2011, Hargrave and Deseran were opening a second location in the Mission along with an attached tequila bar (Mosto), and they followed with a third location in North Beach in 2013, as well as two more in Palo Alto and San Jose. The San Miguel de Allende outpost began with a pop-up in 2012, and TacoLab is now down the street from the town's famous cathedral, Parroquia de San Miguel Archangel.
The Ferry Plaza stand is doing a summer guest chef series, with new-fangled tacos changing each week. Today's chef was Shawn Naputi from Prebuchu, and next week it will be Kasem Saengsawang from Farmhouse Thai. On August 29, there should be lines for International Smoke-inspired tacos from Ayesha Curry and Michael Mina.