Last night brought back an unexpected happy memory from my childhood.
I grew up in the Kingwood area of Little Rock. In the early 1980s, when we wanted something good to eat, we’d go to “the top of the hill.” That was the section of Cantrell Road bounded by North McKinley Street to the east, stretching through the intersection at Mississippi Avenue all the way west to Foxcroft Road.
The top of the hill was lined with restaurants. Whatever type of food you were hungry for, you’d likely find it on that stretch of Cantrell.
Including Mexican. Specifically, Taco Kid at the corner of Cantrell and Kingsrow.
Now, Taco Kid wasn’t the BEST Mexican restaurant in Little Rock. That honor went to Casa Bonita several miles to the south, with its strolling guitar player and prize room for kids and its all-you-can-eat deluxe dinners.
But Taco Kid was quite good. It appealed to a younger audience. Taco Kid had a rockin’ jukebox. “Burn Rubber” by The Gap Band and “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel are two songs I distinctly remember hearing for the first time there.
Taco Kid also appealed to the younger crowd by serving (as the local arts & entertainment paper put it) big ol’ plates of brown-and-yellow food at reasonable prices. For $3.95 you could get a beef enchilada in red sauce, a cheese enchilada in chili con carne, a taco, rice, and beans.
The REAL reason to go to Taco Kid, though, was what you ate while waiting for your dinner to come out: Tasty cheese dip, golden in color. There were no bits of peppers or onions or tomatoes in the cheese dip; it didn’t need them. The “chips” for dipping were nothing but taco shells cut in half. Totally unpretentious. Also, totally delicious.
Taco Kid closed around 1985, probably the victim of fast-food chain Taco Bell which had entered the Little Rock market. Ever since then, I’ve tried to find cheese dip that approximates Taco Kid’s.
I sure haven’t found it in Memphis. Not until yesterday.
The problem is that most Mexican restaurants in the Memphis metro are owned by actual Mexicans. They serve cheese dip as they knew it growing up – white queso, bland and flavorless. To get any kind of yellow cheese dip, I have to go to chain restaurants like On the Border, and their stuff doesn’t hold a candle to my memories of Taco Kid.
I think it’s that Memphis is too far removed from Texas, yellow queso being more of a Tex-Mex thing. Little Rock is two hours closer to Texas, so Tex-Mex food is more prevalent there. I bet there’s excellent yellow queso everywhere in Dallas or Houston or San Antonio – but I have no interest in visiting those cities because they’re in Texas, and therefore they suck.
So anyway, last night was my friend Neal’s 60th birthday party at Pretty Taco. Pretty Taco is a relatively new Mexican restaurant at the corner of Front and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. They’re known for many different types of tacos and for staying open late with a nightclub vibe on the weekends.
I didn’t get to try any of the on-menu items last night. Being the host with the most that Neal is, he arranged for a build-your-own taco bar to ensure no guest would go hungry.
I had just had 3 sliders at Bardog. Also, I had on a Lansky sport shirt that you have to hand-wash. “If a taco breaks apart and gets on this shirt, that’s going to be a total pain to wash out,” I thought.
So I decided to skip the tacos and just eat some chips and cheese dip.
The queso was a lovely shade of golden yellow.
I took a bite.
That FLAVOR!!! I was instantly taken back 40 years. I can’t say for sure that was the exact recipe Taco Kid used, but it’s really close. DO NOT MISS OUT on the cheese dip there!!!
There was a lot to love about Pretty Taco. It’s a big, open space with floor-to-ceiling windows looking out upon Downtown. Halsey Werlein, for years the GM at Silly Goose, operates Pretty Taco. I’ve been told a lot of the Taco’s crowd are people who hung out at the Goose prior to the pandemic. That seems pretty consistent with the people I saw there last night. Fun crowd, indeed.
Thanks to Neal for the invite, and to my newly-married friends Luke and Sheryll for letting me hang out with them for much of the evening. The atmosphere reminded me of a really awesome high school prom.
On to the rest of the news…
The DM has a look back at Edge Motorfest, which happened yesterday.
It’s National Red Wine Day.
A man was assaulted on the east end of the Beale Street entertainment district at about 3:00 this morning. He’s in Regional One in critical condition.
Three men were caught with burglary tools on the fourth floor of the Parking Can Be Fun garage Friday just after midnight. Police also found a gun and some weed.
The next total eclipse of the sun will be on April 8. The Eclipse Company has everything you need to know.
Elmwood Cemetery will show the movie Psycho at 6 PM Friday. Tickets are $15.
The Metal Museum will hold Repair Days Thursday through Sunday. Bring your metal items for the museum’s metalsmiths to restore.
There will be a beginner cha cha class at Fourth Bluff on Saturday from 6 to 7 PM.
That’s it for today. Probably back tomorrow with more news.
