Drive up and down SW 29th Street, as slow as you need to without backing up traffic, and pick at random one of the countless taco shops lining the Capitol Hill drag. If you’re lucky, you’ll hit Taqueria La Tropicana, 1028 SW 29th St., on your first or ninth try. Yes, this place is a delicious, guacamole-slathered unicorn, but as far as I’ve found, there’s really no losing in the game of South Side, Hole-in-the-Wall Roulette.
The menu was in Spanish, which was one of the self-imposed prerequisites for my quest. I ordered something called Tacos de Papas, and it turns out “papas” means “potatoes.” The plate was a promising platter of golden brown, crispy tacos fried into pockets of potato, queso fresco (white, crumbly cheese) and shredded lettuce, drizzled with sour cream and topped with about five gigantic wedges of avocado, a couple of slices of tomato and a pile of cut-up jalapeños. The tacos were good-sized, there were five on the plate, and they paired perfectly with my medio litro bottle of Mexican Coke.
There are about 10 different types of tacos on tap, ranging in price from $1.50 to $2 apiece. “Lengua” and “tripa” were pretty easy to decipher, and I’d never eaten tongue or tripe before, so I sprung for one of each. Both were open-faced, corn-tortilla street tacos buried in chopped onion and cilantro (optional). I was apprehensive about eating tongue, but it looked and tasted like simply extra tender beef, which technically it was. The tripe was a bit crunchy and included what can only be described as “white meat tubes” that were pretty good as long as I pretended they were calamari. The brownish bits tasted like gravy and somehow reminded me of chicken livers, which I intend as an endorsement, but do with that information what you will.
Full disclosure: I ate seven tacos. And with each new thing I tried proving to be more delicious than the last, it was a shock that the place was completely deserted except for one man in the corner who wasn’t eating, just watching a Spanish-language soap opera with wacky sound effects and a nonsensical cartoon horse that popped up in segues between scenes. I didn’t try to make sense of the show; the biggest head-scratcher was the absence of customers. That is, until I later discovered that, visiting at 7 p.m., I was early. Taqueria La Tropicana, an unassuming, family-friendly taco shop, is inexplicably open until 1 a.m. most nights and 4 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Googling around, I later discovered that this place is listed as a night club. Yes, I’ll be going back to Taqueria La Tropicana to slake my late-night taco imperatives, and possibly get into whatever else is going on there after midnight (fingers crossed for more soap operas).
The menu is fleshed out like you’d expect: carne asada, coctel de camaron (shrimp cocktail), sopes, enchiladas, bistec (steak) ranchero, and more. What may be unexpected is the absence of alcohol. While other taquerias on this stretch of road will let you down a Modelo with your tacos, Taqueria La Tropicana offers a rainbow of Jarritos instead.
If you don’t speak Spanish, don’t let that deter you. The staff was friendly and patient with my mostly unilingual vocabulary, and the cheerful guy behind the counter pretty much rocked the language of Shakespeare and Chaucer even if our conversation did get blocked by the barrier a couple of times.
There are some great tacos on the north side, but if it’s never occurred to you to try finding authentic Mexican food on SW 29th Street, this is me politely shouting into your ear through cupped hands. I frankly can’t wait to return to Taqueria La Tropicana. Not only are the prices significantly less than what you’d pay a few dozen blocks north, but there’s also inherent value in experiencing parts of town that you might not see every day.
