Maciel’s Tortas and Tacos has been open at 45 S. Main between Union and Monroe for less than two weeks. The first time I passed by the unassuming storefront, I thought, “Another restaurant that I’ll never try that will remain open for about four months and then close, just like everything else on this block not named DeJaVu.”
Then Deni from the Majestic Grille tried the place and loved it. That’s a hard endorsement to ignore.
Then Michael Patrick from Rizzo’s Diner agreed with what Deni said.
Then my favorite pair of librarian glasses told me, “I’ve eaten there three times already.” Maciel’s had been open less than a week at that point.
About 8:15 yesterday evening, I got knocked out of the Blind Bear/Wifflestock charity poker tournament for Ronald McDonald House. I made a classic poker blunder: I was a medium-sized stack who got involved in an all-in confrontation against a stack of similar size. That’s generally a no-no in tournament poker (obviously, if you’re holding two Aces or another premium hand, exceptions can be made). If you get all-in, you want to be a small stack fighting for your life, or a big stack bullying the stacks smaller than you. Anyway, I found myself free for the rest of the evening unexpectedly early – and hungry. Remembering that Maciel’s stays open until 10 Friday and Saturday nights (8 Monday-Thursday), I walked up there.
I was curious about the fried tacos. They explained that the shell is fried, making it hard, as opposed to their regular tacos which are soft tacos. You could get 3 fried tacos, mix-or-match, for $10, and I decided on that option, getting two frijoles tacos (on the left in the photo above) and one pollo taco. Since I live a block from Maciel’s I decided to get it to go and have dinner in the comfort of my own home.
The staff there was so nice. “Would you like a drink while you wait?”
“Oh no, I’m fine.”
“No, it’s on us,” they insisted. They handed me a cup and I poured myself a Coke.
“Would you like some avocado?” they asked. Of course I would like some avocado!
“Would you like some sauce?” they asked next.
“Whatever is the hottest sauce you have, I would like that,” I replied, and they poured some into a cup. They also gave me two cups of green sauce. They put the three tacos in a container along with rice and beans.
That was some of the best Mexican food I have had in my life, and I understand what my restaurant friends talk about when they said this is AUTHENTIC Mexican. It absolutely is. It not only reminds me of the places I ate when I lived in San Diego… it’s BETTER. Highest possible recommendation for you to visit this place as soon as you can.
All right, let’s get on to the news in this already-long post. One of the marketing authors I follow on Twitter has a new article called “Your Blog Post Is Too Long.” He was probably talking to me, but who cares, it’s not like I monetize this thing. If you’re still reading this, thanks for sticking with me.
The Brass Door will be showing rugby and soccer all weekend. Here’s the lineup, swiped from their Facebook page with “football” changed to “soccer” because I’m an American:
“We’ll be open 8am Saturday!
World Cup Rugby
8:30am Scotland v Samoa
10:45am Australia v Wales
2pm England v Uruguay
Soccer
All the action from the UEFA 2016 Euro Qualifiers
8:30pm USMNT v Mexico
Come party with the American Outlaws in their official home in Memphis
Sunday
Open at 8am
World Cup Rugby
8:30am Italy v Romania
10:45 Ireland v France
2pm USA v Japan”
Station 3: The Memphis Fire Haus reports that a Goldcrest mural is being painted under a South Main bridge.
Visit stjude.org/halloween and help the kids forget about their treatments for one day and just be normal kids celebrating a holiday.
The White House is recognizing Kyle Wagenschutz, the bike and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. Over the past several years he has played a role in turning Memphis into one of the most bike-friendly cities in the United States.
Jimmy Ogle’s free 10-hour tour of Downtown is today. Meet at Beale Street Landing at 10:10 if you want to join the fun.
The Blind Bear and Wifflestock raised $1890 for the Ronald McDonald House last night at the poker tournament. That is about double what I expected and everyone did a super job. The structure of the tournament was, $20 got you 3000 chips with starting blinds at 25/50. If you got knocked out you could rebuy through the end of the sixth round (1000/2000). There was a $10 add-on for 3000 extra chips at the start of the tournament, and another $10 add on for 3000 chips at the end of rebuys as the seventh level, 2000/4000, began.
Okay, a couple of comments on the add-ons for poker newbies. You have to think not in terms of how many chips you have, but how many chips you have relative to the blinds. The $10 add-on at the beginning was a fantastic bargain, giving you 120 big blinds starting off.
On the other hand, if you got the 3000-chip add-on at the beginning of the 2000/4000 level, I hope you were thinking “This is a chance to donate 10 extra dollars to the Ronald McDonald House,” not “this extra zero point seven five big blinds is going to make a significant difference where I finish in this tournament.”
I’ll wrap up this post with a song that has been stuck in my head lately:
“Fade to Grey” (1981) by Visage is not my usual taste in music, but I cannot argue that it is years ahead of its time. I discovered this song upon learning that frontman Steve Strange, one of the leaders of the New Romantic movement, passed away on February 12 of this year.
It looks like it’s going to be a beautiful day, although it’s starting out a bit chilly. My first two stops will be the normal ones – brunch with Bloom at Bardog then Mary’s bar at Blind Bear – but I can definitely see myself getting outside, maybe at the Fire Haus this afternoon. If anyone wants to join, hit me up on text or Facebook.