{"id":407814,"date":"2026-08-16T03:28:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T03:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/407814\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T03:28:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T03:28:30","slug":"austin-restaurant-pacos-tacos-to-close-after-16-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/407814\/","title":{"rendered":"Austin restaurant Paco’s Tacos to close after 16 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New York Times included four Texas restaurants on its list of \u201c41 of the Greatest Mexican Restaurants Across the United States<\/a>.\u201d Published Thursday, August 13, the Texas restaurants on the list are:<\/p>\n

James Beard Award-winning food writers Brett Anderson and Bill Esparza did most of the writing. The duo \u201cvisited dozens of Mexicans restaurants across the country over the course of a year\u201d to compile the list, the Times explains<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis list is not an attempt to rank the best Mexican restaurants,\u201d the duo write. \u201cIt is, rather, a mosaic of great places to eat, from food trucks to corner restaurants to tasting-menu counters. We hope it tells an expansive story about Mexican cooking in America today \u2014 a dynamic cuisine all its own, and as American as any food.\u201d<\/p>\n

Operated by Edgar Rico and Sara Mardanbigi, Nixta has drawn lines of Austinites eager for its creative spin on tacos, which includes Asian ingredients such as fish sauce and furikake, as well as a dessert that nods to Mardanbigi\u2019s Persian heritage. Pop-ups further explore Persian cuisine and other creative journey’s outside of the restaurant’s day-to-day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reservations-only tasting menu, served Thursday through Saturday, further showcases the couple\u2019s stunning creativity and ambition,\u201d writer Priya Krishna notes. \u201cBut most of the time Nixta remains what it always has been: a counter taquer\u00eda of the utmost excellence.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Texas Monthly\u2019s No. 1 ranked barbecue joint<\/a>, Burnt Bean Co. in Seguin is already well known for its smoked meats, but the Times also hails its Mexican cuisine, which includes its signature Sunday morning menu with menudo, barbacoa tacos, and brisket huevos rancheros. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could call it Tex-Mex barbecue, but it\u2019s just how barbecue is eaten in a state whose Mexican border is more than 1,200 miles long,\u201d Anderson writes<\/p>\n

Anderson hails Garcia\u2019s, a Houston restaurant founded in 1962, for its consistency, affordability, and pioneering combination of smoked brisket tacos.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarcia\u2019s is what an idealized American diner looks like in this part of the country: housemade salsas, tortillas instead of toast and plates of nourishing food at prices that explain why some customers visit multiple times a day,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

The article credits Hugo\u2019s, also in Houston, for introducing the city\u2019s diners to a deeper understanding of the breadth of Mexican cuisine. <\/p>\n

\u201cAged into a fine-dining lion in the cradle of Tex-Mex, Hugo\u2019s still features longtime staples like banana leaf-wrapped cabrito, grilled octopus and saut\u00e9ed chapulines, not to mention mezcals and Mexican wine,\u201d Anderson writes.<\/p>\n

Of course, knowing that the list isn\u2019t a ranking makes it easier to understand the decision to pick Hugo\u2019s as Houston\u2019s representative \u2014 both for its historical significance and continued excellence. If Anderson and Esparza had decided to seek out a newer option, they could have considered restaurants such as, Michelin-starred Mexican tasting menu concept Tatem\u00f3<\/a>; Modern Mexican-American restaurant Belly of the Beast, which is led by James Beard Award-winning chef Thomas Bille<\/a>; Maximo, which is led by James Beard Award-winning chef Adrian Torres<\/a>; or Casaema, the breakfast and lunch concept that earned a spot on the Times\u2019 list<\/a> of its favorite dishes of 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New York Times included four Texas restaurants on its list of \u201c41 of the Greatest Mexican Restaurants…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407815,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,3587,3570,3090],"class_list":["post-407814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-mexican-cuisine","tag-tacos","tag-tex-mex"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407814","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=407814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407814\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}