Every day is Taco Tuesday at a new restaurant in Harbor Town. Inches Taco Shop opened its doors in July as Mud Island’s newest attraction, welcoming customers with fresh tortillas and keeping the tequila flowing. The brains behind the operation are Jose Perez and Jeffrey Smith, friends since 2015. With plenty of front- and back-of-house restaurant experience between them, the two cooked up the idea to open a place together. But that became more of an odyssey than the pair had imagined.
They purchased space in Harbor Town back in August 2019, and soon, signs advertising their brand-new Mexican restaurant began popping up around Mud Island. But permit delays, and then Covid, pushed back the grand opening significantly.
Late this summer, Inches Taco Shop opened its doors for the first time. Inside the spacious interior, diners can peer into the kitchen where the cooks grill fresh meat; the scent of cilantro and onions hangs in the air. Or they can decamp to a tidy, pleasant patio that overlooks the peaceful street. Back inside, several flashy-looking bottles of tequila are lined up behind the bar. You might not recognize all the brands, and that’s just a hint of Perez and Smith’s vision for the shop.
“This restaurant is a personal endeavor for me,” says Perez. “We’re serving food that is authentic to my hometown of Guanajuato in Mexico. That means we’ll be preparing more traditional meats, in terms of the marination process, and serving everything from chicken, to pork, to beef, along with veggie options. We’ll marinate all our meat for 24 hours each night before we cook it up for customers, to bring in that extra flavor. Everything will be fresh, no frozen food or anything.”
Inches’ menu boasts plenty of traditional Mexican ingredients; expect to savor plenty of chiles and corn, coupled with the fresh citrusy taste of coriander seed, commonly found in everything from a marinade to a crucial ingredient in a salsa. Everything from tacos to burritos to chimichangas is based around fresh meat and vegetables.
Inches Taco Shop
Jose and Jeffrey
Inches Taco Shop co-owners Jeffrey Smith and Jose Perez
For my first choice, I decided to check out the regular tacos. I was a bit wary of the slightly higher prices at first ($4 per taco), but when my food emerged, I saw that each taco was enormous. That, according to Perez, is thanks to Guanajuato.
“That’s just how we do it there,” he says. “Guanajuato is known for large dishes, so while our space is a bit small, we stay as close to that as we can.” And as another nod to his hometown, every entree and chips basket is made using blue corn tortillas. The basket of chips I enjoyed was layered with a balanced helping of red peppery seasoning. It’s not overbearing, like some of the spicy blue corn chips you can buy at the store, but rather a nice little kick to whet the appetite.
I started with the callejón de girasol tacos, the shop’s veggie option. I immediately detected a hint of sweetness competing with a dash of sour citrus, two tastes that melded together amid the soft and warm blanket of the fresh blue corn tortilla. The accompanying sweet potatoes and savory black beans smoothed out the slightly crunchier cauliflower, with a cashew drizzle on top providing a rich, umami finish.
“It’s important that we stay authentic, but on the other hand, I’ll admit there are some things we’ve had to garnish our dishes with because we’re in the United States.” — co-owner Jeffrey Smith
Afterwards, I turned my attention to a newer section of the menu designed for birria lovers. Birria is a traditional slow-cooked Mexican stew, built here around braised beef in a consommé broth with diced potatoes, garbanzo beans, carrots, and topped with cilantro and onions. I again ordered mine in taco format, served at my table with three absolutely heaping helpings of the finely marinated beef.
The ingredients come together in a flavorfully explosive way, cutting a bit of chili spice with lime, and emboldening it all with a vast profile of tastes: a bit spicy, a bit sweet, a bit smoky, and a little tangy too. It’s perhaps the star of Inches’ show at the moment, and I’d say the perfect starting point for carnivores. The birria can be served inside burritos and chimichangas, too, and expect the same level of quality throughout.
Just as the authentic menu presents slightly different takes on Mexican cuisine than what we’re used to here in the States, Smith and Perez are taking a different tack with their bar program too. As with the fresh ingredients, they’re prioritizing quality over quantity with their drink selections. That means a limited selection of liquor and beer, but you won’t find any “bottom-shelf” options here.
“We’ve got four flavors of margaritas here that we use with good-quality tequila,” says Smith. “There are also a variety of dark bourbon whiskeys, a gin, and a couple of rums. I think the cheapest thing we have is Tito’s. Again, we really wanted to focus on the quality here, so we’re prioritizing some good tequilas which some of our diners might not be familiar with.”
To be clear, Inches Taco Shop isn’t here to serve TexMex cuisine. So don’t traipse in expecting some of the usual comfort food we’re used to in the States.
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Inches Taco Shop
Inches Taco Spread
Inches Taco Shop serves authentic Mexican cuisine from co-owner Jose Perez’s hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico. At the Harbor Town restaurant, expect to dine on plenty of fresh, slow-cooked meats and blue corn tortillas.
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Inches Taco Shop
InchesTaco Mango Jicama Salad
The mango jícama salad topped with chicken.
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Inches Nachos
Nachos with blue corn chips are the perfect entry point to try out Inches’ authentic Mexican fare.
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Inches Taco Shop
Inches Taco Churro Bites
Churro bites make for a quick and easy after-dinner treat.
“It’s important that we stay authentic,” says Smith, “but on the other hand, I’ll admit there are some things we’ve had to garnish our dishes with because we’re in the United States. We did begrudgingly add a queso option. As for salsa, we don’t use anything out of a jar. We make our own custom mango salsa, which is really good, but has a really intensive prep process. And at happy hour, we do a sampler of all our dips for $5, so that’s a good chance for people to try them.”
On my way out the door, I had another lingering question that had stuck with me throughout my meal. And if other diners are like me, they might be asking themselves where the name “Inches” came from. Several-inch-long tacos? Something to do with the square footage of the space? An inside joke? It’s none of the above, says Perez.
I react in surprise when he tells me it’s based on the Spanish word pinche, which had some not-so-nice connotations when I’d heard it growing up in Santa Fe, New Mexico. “It’s not like that at all in Mexico,” laughs Perez. “It’s one of those slang words that got lost in translation. We use inches, or pinches a lot in daily conversation as a way to describe something in an exaggerated or emphasized way. It’s not offensive; in the context of the restaurant, like saying pinches tacos, it would be like saying, ‘freakin’ tacos.’”
“The original Spanish word also refers to a kitchen helper, or something like a sous chef,” adds Smith. “But at the end of the day, we’re the ‘freakin’ taco shop!’”
Inches Taco Shop is open for dinner 4–9 p.m., Tuesday–Saturday. 111 Harbor Town Square. 901-457-5463. inchestacoshop.com.
