{"id":17129,"date":"2015-10-10T07:44:27","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T12:44:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/?p=17129"},"modified":"2015-10-10T07:44:28","modified_gmt":"2015-10-10T12:44:28","slug":"maciels-tortas-and-tacos-is-the-real-deal-saturday-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.paulryburn.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/10\/maciels-tortas-and-tacos-is-the-real-deal-saturday-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Maciel’s Tortas and Tacos is the real deal + Saturday news"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a><\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

Then Deni from the Majestic Grille tried the place and loved it. That’s a hard endorsement to ignore.<\/p>\n

Then Michael Patrick from Rizzo’s Diner agreed with what Deni said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0stacks 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The staff there was so nice. “Would you like a drink while you wait?”<\/p>\n

“Oh no, I’m fine.”<\/p>\n

“No, it’s on us,” they insisted. They handed me a cup and I poured myself a Coke.<\/p>\n

“Would you like some avocado?” they asked. Of course I would like some avocado!<\/p>\n

“Would you like some sauce?” they asked next.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

“We’ll be open 8am Saturday!
World Cup Rugby
8:30am Scotland v Samoa
10:45am Australia v Wales
2pm England v Uruguay<\/p>\n

Soccer
All the action from the UEFA 2016 Euro Qualifiers<\/p>\n

8:30pm USMNT v Mexico\u00a0
Come party with the American Outlaws in their official home in Memphis<\/p>\n

Sunday
Open at 8am
World Cup Rugby\u00a0
8:30am Italy v Romania
10:45 Ireland v France
2pm USA v Japan”<\/p>\n

Station 3: The Memphis Fire Haus reports that a Goldcrest mural is being painted under a South Main bridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Visit stjude.org\/halloween<\/a> and help the kids forget about their treatments for one day and just be normal kids celebrating a holiday.<\/p>\n

The White House is recognizing Kyle Wagenschutz<\/a>, the bike and pedestrian program manager for the City of Memphis. Over the past several years he has played a role in turning\u00a0Memphis into one of the most bike-friendly cities in the United States.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

I’ll wrap up this post with a song that has been stuck in my head lately:<\/p>\n