‘Taco Aunt’ origin story requires fascination
Tio’s Tacos translates to “Uncle’s Tacos,” as I noted in my recent column on the Riverside restaurant. That prompts reader Roger Kessinger to bring up Taco Tia, the local chain whose name means “Taco Aunt.”
Uncle’s Tacos at least means something, since owner Martín Sanchez’ nickname is Uncle, given to him in childhood because he was a leader. But Taco Aunt?
No aunt was involved, and Taco Aunt wasn’t the original choice, as Gustavo Arellano wrote in “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America.”
When Glen Bell was
preparing to open a Mexican restaurant on San Bernardino’s Baseline Street in 1954, an art student conceptualized a justMexican-enough look and suggested as a name La Tapatía, a reference to women from Guadalajara.
“Bell’s business partner vetoed the suggestion, arguing it was too ethnic, and suggested the nonsense Taco-Tia (‘Taco Aunt’), which he felt was easier to pronounce,” Arellano wrote.
Taco-Tia it became, and later Taco Tia, no hyphen.
Bell, whose name may be familiar, had had a couple of previous burger restaurants that sold tacos as well, starting with Bell’s Burgers, directly south of San Bernardino’s Mitla Cafe.
Bell famously learned the taco basics from Mitla: fried shells with beef, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. He began selling his version in late 1951, using pre-fried shells to speed things up, across the street at Bell’s Burgers. It’s now an Amapola Rico Taco, by the way, and Mitla is still in business.
After success with a couple of other burger stands that also sold tacos, Bell got the courage to drop the burgers and specialize in Mexican food with Taco-Tia, Arellano wrote. The peripatetic Bell soon left to start El Taco and then Der Wienerschnitzel, turning the latter over to a former Taco-Tia employee, John Galardi.
Tortilla tourney
While we’re on the subject of Mexican food — and why do we ever leave