Uno Mas Taco brings uno mas take on Mexican cuisine to Starkville

A new street taco joint is making its way to Starkville.

Uno Mas Tacos and Tequila is a modern Mexican taqueria and agave bar with locations in Oxford and Madison that looks to open on 106 Maxwell Street where STAGGERIN Sports Grill used to be.

Cole Herring is the General Manager for the incoming Uno Mas Starkville location, and he gave a rundown on what the new restaurant will bring to town.

“It’s pretty much a street-style taco place; it’s kind of a collaboration of your traditional style with the new modern style. If you’ve ever been out to Texas, you’ll see a lot of places like this, so we decided to bring it over here,” said Herring. “The owner [Jose Garcia] and his family run the Papito’s and La Terraza restaurants around the state, so he wanted to branch out and do his own thing by bringing this style to Mississippi; we’ve just kind of made it our own and we’ve tried putting our own Mississippi characteristic and style in it as well.”

When asked about the items that Uno Mas serves on its menu, Herring best described it as modern take on the traditional.

“We try to do as much as we can to handcraft all of our food items. All of our tortillas are made fresh that morning, all of our meat is as fresh as fresh can get, all of the produce is locally sourced, but it’s very traditional style,” said Herring. “You got your carne asada, your al pastor; we don’t branch out very far from that, we just wanted to bring it home. We do

branch out a little bit on some things, we got brussels sprout nachos which is something different we try to do to get into that vegetarian style that we’re really big on. So, we do vegetarian tamales and whatever we can do to bring it to this generation in 2021.”

Like the tacos and nachos, Herring said that Uno Mas strives for the same quality of fresh, locally based products for their drinks.

“As for cocktails, it’s the same thing. Locally sourced, try to get it as fresh as we can. Limes, lemons, oranges and grapefruits are juiced every morning. I try to stay away from any corn syrup mixers if I can,” said Herring. “We use 100 percent blue agave tequila, so it’s all really, really good stuff. Our house tequila is Lunazul Tequila, which is a really good brand; it’s one of the only distilleries in Mexico that distills for their own label, which is pretty cool. A lot of places don’t do that anymore. We also do a lot of stuff, like Wonderbird gin. I know we’re a Mexican place, so gin wouldn’t really sell well, but we try to support local business with Cathead, Wonderbird, and other places.”

In terms of when the doors will open, Herring said that should be sometime within the month of February.

“We’re looking to open around the first to the middle of February, as of right now. Things are changing with COVID, getting certain things shipped in is a little difficult, at the moment. But as of right now, it’s around that time frame,” Herring said.

Herring also added how excited he is to open up the new Uno Mas location in Starkville in the Cotton District.

“We’re excited to come to Starkville. We’ve been open for just over a year in Oxford, and everyone seems to love it up there. So, we decided to stick with the college towns and try to bring a little extra something to these small towns and have some fun with it,” said Herring. “We really enjoy what we do and I’m excited to be open here in the Cotton District, it’s a great location in a great city with great people.”