{"id":13509,"date":"2025-10-21T07:04:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/13509\/"},"modified":"2025-10-21T07:04:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T07:04:08","slug":"michelin-star-mexico-city-taco-pop-up-draws-massive-crowds-in-north-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/13509\/","title":{"rendered":"Michelin star Mexico City taco pop-up draws massive crowds in North Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 4-hour wait for a street taco doesn’t seem to be a problem for the thousands of people who are lining up each day in University Park, where the only taqueria to ever receive a coveted Michelin star has set up a temporary pop-up restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"snapshot-69.jpg<\/p>\n

CBS News Texas<\/p>\n

A car hood for a table was just fine for Chandler Smith’s dinner. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I follow Michelin food content, so that’s how I heard about it,’ said Smith. “I saw they’re having a pop-up on one of the websites. I had to come out here and get it.”<\/p>\n

A vacant restaurant space across from SMU has become the hottest dining destination in North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s where El Califa de Leon, a Mexico City taqueria that touts a Michelin star, has opened a pop-up restaurant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chef Mario Hernandez Alonso surprised by turnout<\/p>\n

Its famed chef, Mario Hernandez Alonso, has been behind the griddle each day from noon to 9 p.m. since last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Surprised? This totally surpassed our expectations,” said Hernandez Alonso. “There have been so many more people than we thought.”<\/p>\n

Diners wait hours for a taste of Mexico City<\/p>\n

Among those willing to wait hours for the famous street tacos were Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and famous Dallas restaurateur Shannon Wynne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I don’t know, it’s a long line, but everybody’s talking about it, so I figured I would just go ahead and bite the bullet and come out and try it,” said Wynne.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I waited like 4 hours,” said customer Latoya Williams. “It’s totally worth it, yes the food is delicious.”<\/p>\n

Kevin and Tiffany Thomas were in Mexico City just a few weeks ago, where they first fell in love with what’s arguably the world’s most famous taco stand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It is good, it’s authentic, they make the tortillas,” said Thomas. “They do everything fresh. It’s just great. The salsa is honestly one of my favorite parts.”<\/p>\n

\"Michel<\/p>\n

CBS News Texas<\/p>\n

Future plans may include New York \u2014 and Texas?<\/p>\n

CBS Texas asked the owner if he would consider opening a permanent location in North Texas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our idea is first to open a location in New York, Manhattan, maybe in April or March of next year, Hernandez Alonso said. “Depending on the success in New York, that will depend on which cities are considered next, and a location closer to the border.”<\/p>\n

That means you may only have 8 more days to experience a true Mexico City delicacy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 4-hour wait for a street taco doesn’t seem to be a problem for the thousands of people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13510,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[102,11207,1468,11208,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-13509","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-food-amp-drink","10":"tag-mexico","11":"tag-michelin-star","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-texas-headlines","14":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13509\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}