Now Playing:

When your family knows you’re doing 365 Days of Tacos in San Antonio, your Christmas presents take on a certain flavor: Taco socks, taco mugs, taco dog toys.

Even taco poetry magnets for the fridge: Onion-power-giant. Guacamole-sensation. Atomic-taco-mouth.

This is the poetry of San Antonio in 2017, the year I traveled 6,000 miles to eat 1,387 tacos.

And the nation took notice. National Public Radio, Esquire magazine, Mashable.com and People Magazine all did pieces. And they all wondered if we really have 365 places to eat tacos. We do, with at least another year’s worth in reserve.

The trail ends here, for now. It’s time to take the measure of the year, with San Antonio’s Top 25 Taco Places. Click through the slideshow above to learn about the best places for tacos in San Antonio, and keep reading below for a buffet of smaller categories.

After that? It seems like any town in Texas with more than 50 people has at least 50 barbecue shops. So in 2018, my Taste team colleague Chuck Blount and I will drill deep into San Antonio’s barbecue scene with a new weekly series, 52 Weeks of BBQ.

Back to Gallery San Antonio’s Top 25 Taco Places 25 1 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 2 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 3 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /Staff file photo 4 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 5 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 6 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 7 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 8 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 9 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 10 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 11 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 12 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /Staff file photo 13 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /Staff file photo 14 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 15 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 16 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /Staff file photo 17 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 18 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 19 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /Staff file photo 20 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 21 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 22 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 23 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 24 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News 25 of 25 Photo: Mike Sutter /San Antonio Express-News

















































Follow us at ExpressNews.com/BBQ starting Jan. 5, or stay tuned Sundays in the Taste section.

But first, let’s talk about the people, the places and the stories behind 365 Days of Tacos. Because it’s not just about tacos. It never was.

Read More

Like the day I watched a priest lay hands on a customer as they prayed outside the Little Taco Factory, and I wondered if they knew something I didn’t. Or the time I sat next to a guy in a rhinestone jumpsuit at the all-night cirque du olé called Mi Tierra. The sign said, “Mexican Elvis.”

Then there was the Wednesday I ate liver and onions, beef sweetbreads, pig’s feet and blood sausage — all at the same shop.

On a Thursday night, a tattooed canvas of a man threatened me at a taco truck outside a male strip club. On a Friday night on the West Side, a karaoke guy rigged a P.A. loud enough to part your hair. Through it all, the order bell never stopped ringing. Tacos don’t care about karaoke.

When you argue about the best taco cities — and you do, a lot — remember that it’s the people who make the difference, not their addresses.

Fernando Santafe opened Mi Ranchito so he’d have a place to play guitar with his friends. The cafe didn’t last, but his flamenco guitar still rings in my memory.

Claudia Ayon went from a taco truck to opening Claudia’s Restaurant in the space of four months. Roberto Alfaro runs a late-night al pastor shop called Tacos Beto’s and still shepherds a taquería in Monterrey, Mexico.

Mexico City-born Eduardo Gonzalez was making street-style tacos at Que Taco when he thanked the Express-News for showing what immigrants bring to our food culture. “Especially in this charged political climate,” was how he put it.

I’ve learned some things along the way. I’ve learned that you can call anything in a tortilla a taco in the same way you can call any political scandal a “gate.” But that doesn’t make it right.

I’ve also learned hundreds of taco shops in San Antonio open at dawn and close after lunch, keeping time with the work cycles of their customers. And I’ve learned that I could use my hands to count the places that don’t make their tortillas by hand in San Antonio.

Relive the year in tacos any time at ExpressNews.com/tacos .

After 365 Days of Tacos, I’ll leave it to the fridge magnets to write the last line: satisfy-the-tortilla-dream.

msutter@express-news.net | Twitter: @fedmanwalking