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Reviews Lively cadence beats at El Rincon Del Taco By Larry Knowles Tijuana--El Rincon Del Taco, a hole-in-the-wall taco joint in Tijuana’s bustling La Linea neighborhood, sits between a juice bar and a betting hall. Flanked by virtue and vice, El Rincon occupies a precarious middle ground and may well serve as a paradigm for Tijuana itself.
And like Tijuana, the shop exudes the same liveliness and
devil-may-care attitude that draws twenty-six million tourists a year to
the largest border town in Mexico.
Take the staff, for example. These guys are loose. The joint
is overstaffed by about two-hundred percent, so there’s plenty of time
for these guys to pursue their avocation. The chef, staring out at passers-by, bangs out a cadence with
his butcher’s knife. A waiter belts out Mexican pop about four registers off key;
a key chain with a photo of, presumably, his infant daughter dangles from
his belt loop. A couple of employees jab each other and wrestle by the cash
register. They saunter about the thoroughfare in front of the shop,
relishing the August sun. “Passe les! Passe les! PASSE LES!” one cries
sporadically, his voice rising above an aural tapestry of tinny music,
pedestrian banter, and sizzling food. The only woman working at El Rincon, thirty-something with a
healthy complexion and big brown eyes, looks impassively at the antics
going on around her. She stays in the corner, quietly flapping tortillas
onto the hot grill. For all the jocularity at El Rincon Del Taco do, it’s tough
to get much info out of these guys. Accordian-rich latin music plays on the radio. “What kind
of music is this?” I ask an old timer in the back. “Spanish music,” he responds. “Ah,” I nod. “But, what kind of music? Salsa,
mariachi, country?” “No, just Spanish.” |
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