With all of the Thanksgiving hustle and bustle last week, the announced closing of Taqueros probably did not garner much attention. But considering the number of diners (or lack thereof) at Taqueros in the last few months, I don't know if anything short of a front page posting on nola.com would have caused a reaction from the dining public.
The Folk Singer and I stopped in for our first and only meal at Taqueros on a Friday night in October. We were the only people in the cavernous restaurant from 6:30 till 7:30, when two other tables filled up. Our dinner was below average from start to finish, save for one shining moment. We began with stale tostadas served with guacamole laced with so much lime juice that it had obviously been used both as a preservative and a means of resurrecting avocados that had been hibernating in the refrigerator far too long. Tacos filled with dry shredded pork were the lowlights of the entree round. The highlight of the meal was the pipian sauce ladled atop chile rellenos stuffed with shrimp and cheese. When deciding what to order, the waitress had advocated this homely sauce made of pumpkin seeds and jalapeno. She did not steer us wrong, as the smooth light green sauce had both depth of flavor and vibrancy.
Restaurants come and restaurants go. After taking a number of runs at keeping Taqueros opened, it looks like Chef Peters has finally threw in the towel. My question is this: Why? Admittedly, I never ate at the first iteration of Taqueros in Kenner, but I have never heard anything but great things about the food there. So did Chef Peters bite off more than he could handle with the huge space on St. Charles Avenue? Did he lose focus as to what his diners enjoyed about the restaurant (like the free salsa bar mentioned in the comments to one of the above linked stories)? Did the food never reach the excellence of its Kenner roots?
Or are people simply not willing to pay top dollar for Mexican food? Has the proliferation of the taco truck made it near impossible to serve chicken mole for $24?
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