El Mero Taco food truck to open up a restaurant
The award-winning food truck El Mero Taco has a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
Owners Jacob and Clarissa Dries opened El Mero Taco at 8100 Macon Station Drive in Cordova Tuesday, July 16.
It’s been a dream that the couple have had for years.
“My wife was raised in Oaxaca, Mexico, while I was raised in Memphis. We feel that our food is a representation of our two cultures colliding,” Jacob said of their taco offerings.
El Mero Taco was featured on Food Network’s “Big Food Truck Tip with Andrew Zimmern” last year. The taco food truck has been nominated as “Best Food Truck” by The Commercial Appeal the past two years and is on numerous “best of ” lists in the Memphis food scene.
El Mero hopes the new brick-andmortar space in Cordova will offer area
residents a one-of-a-kind dining spot and community gathering space.
The menu will include popular food truck staples such as southern fried chicken taco and brisket quesadilla. The new menu will also include items that truck lovers have not seen before such as smoked sweet potato flautas and The Chi-cha taco, which contains in-house made Chorizo verde — thinly sliced steak, and chicharron tossed in a morita pepper sauce.
Vegetarians and vegans will also be pleased to see the same choices at the restaurant and a few new plant-friendly options.
The new space will have beer and wine as well as a cocktail menu.
According to the couple, the cocktails will marry the truck and brick-andmortar location by taking things like the watermelon agua fresca and hibiscus tea, previously offered on the food truck, and using those drinks to create seasonal cocktails.
The new restaurant will also include a grab-and-go section for items such as salsas and dips, as well as entrees for dinner.
The restaurant will feature fast casual service and have a dining room as well as an outdoor patio.
The food truck will continue to roll through Memphis as much as before.
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at jennifer.chandler @commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.
At a glance
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-thursday; 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday; 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday
El Mero Taco Where: 8100 Macon Station Drive, Suite 102, Cordova
Online: elmerotaco.com
Phone: (901) 308-1661