High taxes forcing owner of Maria’s Taco Xpress to close
New owner buying building; workers may revive eatery.
Longtime South Austin favorite Maria’s Taco Xpress will close in the coming months. Owner Maria Corbalan is under contract with an unnamed buyer to sell the property at 2529 S. Lamar Blvd.
Corbalan cites high property taxes and a slowing of business in recent years as reasons for shutting down. The taxes were about $50,000 last year, according to the Travis Central Appraisal District, with the property appraised at more than $2.2 million in 2016, up from about $760,000 in 2012.
“All of my employees make quite a great salary,” said Corbalan, who added that she hasn’t been able to pay herself a salary since April 2016. “Every day that I am open costs me money. The water is to my neck.”
Corbalan says she doesn’t know the new owner’s plans, but she isn’t selling the business she established in 1996, instead choosing to allow her employees to possibly carry on under the same name in a new and unannounced location.
“I’m not selling the name, because perhaps my employees will be able to continue the business. That would be my gift to them,” Corbalan said.
Though the unannounced sale price will far exceed the $250,000 Corbalan paid for the property in 2006, the gregarious owner, who affectionately calls many of her customers “honey,” would prefer not to sell.
“I’m sad. I don’t want to say goodbye to my baby,” Corbalan said. “The appreciation for my guys and customers, and the sadness are beyond belief.”
Corbalan said she’s looking at April 1 as a possible closing date and, in true Taco Xpress fashion, the restaurant will throw a huge party with live music after South by Southwest.
Maria’s has always been more than a taco stand, serving as something of a de facto community center, a home for fundraisers, live music, political meet-ups and the groovy, music-filled “Hippie Church” on Sundays.
The restaurant is one of the few remaining pieces of “Old South Austin” (along with businesses such as Saxon Pub, Matt’s El Rancho and the Broken Spoke), and it drew the support of the community when a wave of change hit South Lamar a decade ago. Corbalan closed the original Taco Xpress in 2005 to make way for a Walgreens, but the pharmacy ponied up for a new space, allowing Taco Xpress to move about 100 feet to its current building in 2006.