I've been pretty loyal to Taco Tuesday Uptown for the past 4-5 months, but a lovely slow day at work and a chance to work from home rarely presents itself, so I cheated. And I’ll be honest with you all, I feel dirty. Dirty like the Coke delivery truck driver who enjoys an ice cold Pepsi. Thus, the tale of my tryst follows…
Warm-o-ramma
Arrive 11:45, order guac and chips. Through some mild ordering confusion, Nite Stick ends up paying – T-Claps for Nite Stick please! Chips are a mix of corn chips and flour chips. My palate exploded from the buttery fluffy salty goodness that is a fresh, hot, flour tortilla chip. Guac was respectable, but the star of the show was SIX kinds of salsa. SIX. It was a veritable buffet of salsa. 50 shades of tomatoes and onions my friends, it was a blissful exploration of flavor. The habanero brings a Turncoat level of caliente, the arbol has roasted garlic and tomatoes, but my favorite may have been the citrus kiss of the verde.
The Main Event
I was a bit out of my element and the menu confused me at first. Perhaps I’m just a bit corto de luces. Regardless, I didn’t see the taco option, nor was there a Taco Tuesday special. Perhaps I’m spoiled by the research Turncoat puts into the Uptown menu, usually we receive a full briefing packet (I’m not sure he has a REAL job). Duvall and Nite Stick better step up their scouting game. Anyway, full price for TWO tacos was just NOT going to work, so I immediately screamed “KILL KILL” at my linemen so we could pivot to our backup play, the burrito. Spicy chorizo sounded like a tantalizing option, and oh boy… was it ever. A little salsa, beans, and sour cream cooled the fire just enough.
In retrospect I’m glad I did not order tacos. I would have ordered four, my default (also what Nite Stick ordered), but they are HUGE. Also, flour shells – I’m not a fan. I understand the superior tensile strength a flour tortilla can offer, but I just prefer the soft buttery texture of corn. And if you have to go with flour, at least toast them like 204 North does. Although I will note that Hacker got a salad which did look quite large and tasty.
Conclusions: not so sure I can endorse the tacos, but the burrito was solid. Very much a Chiptle-like fast casual ordering system, but quality was more like a Johnny Burrito. Chips stole the show, but be sure you get the flour chips and a few salsas to try!
Moleskin
- I feel like these things always go smoother on a second visit. Carrburritos seems to be an LKN favorite, as most of the pax were totally comfortable with the menu and best practices. Guess I’m a veteran now, and look forward to the next visit – I’ll know what I’m doing next time!
- Good to see Duvall “crusher of tuna” back in the wild. Did you know this guy just ran an ultra (six leg / 35 mile-ish) relay? And he already wants to do it again. I want to be like Duvall when I grow up.
- Stout is training for Huntersville Half in approx. six weeks. This will be his very first Half Marathon! Good group of guys running it this year, I look forward to seeing you all there. Hope I didn’t scare you off the event too much Stout, but I do think the course is a BIT hilly… and let’s be honest, three years in a row the weather has been crap. Does that mean we’re due for good weather this year? There’s a law of averages for these things, right?
- Kudos to Mailman for taking three buses to get to us. Three! This dude REALLY wanted some tacos today.
- Nite Stick clearly does not understand the concept of someone else having the Q, as he basically picked Carrburritos for me, immediately posted the #F3COUNTS and photo to Twitter, and incessantly nags for a #BB. Someone give this guy a MQ role somewhere, he needs to be kept busy.
- Hacker is a machine; conquers a bunch of miles for breakfast, conquers the interwebs in the morning, conquers some Carrburritos for lunch… what WILL he do with his afternoon?
- Sorry I didn’t get to talk to everyone else much, I was busy plowing through that lunch+dinner of a burrito. I may not eat again until Friday, we’ll see.
- Please take me back Uptown crew! Stellaaaaaaa!!!
- Good luck to all the Basin Run Relay participants headed out this weekend… bless all the knees and ankles and ACL’s… stay safe out there.