Taste Taco Bar on South Street makes its debut today with 2,000 free tacos and 1,000 free margaritas
The soon-to-open Taste Taco Bar is shutting down the 300 block of South Street from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on May 5 for a block party and they will be giving out thousands of free tacos and margaritas.
Kevin Dolce, 35, the cofounder of Hi-Def Hospitality, will not let Cinco de Mayo pass him by before distributing a taco and margarita largesse from his soon-to-open Taste Taco Bar.
Dolce’s team is shutting down the 300 block of South Street from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday for a block party. They will be giving out beef and chicken tacos dressed in green tomato sauce, a Mexican cheese and mozzarella blend, onions, tomatoes, and hot sauces, on corn tortillas. Two are allotted per person and they will be full-size tacos. “The giveaway tacos won’t be as gourmet as what will be on the restaurant menu but we wanted to pay homage to it being Taco Tuesday and Cinco de Mayo," said Dolce.
Taste Taco Bar took over the former Jon’s Bar & Grill (beneath the Larry Fine mural) last year, but construction delays pushed an originally anticipated 2025 opening to this year. It will have 60 seats spanning a bar, dining room, and patio. Its indoor space will not be open on Tuesday, but rather, the tacos will be distributed from the Taste Cheesesteak Bar food truck, which will be parked outside of the restaurant.
A sponsorship from Kevin Hart’s tequila brand Gran Coramino will also permit them to hand out 1,000 free 12-ounce margaritas (also made with lime margaritas mix and simple syrup). That’s “one or two per person, depending on how many people show up,” said Dolce.
The Taste Taco Bar concept is an offshoot of Taste Cheesesteak Bar in Logan Square. The hospitality group also owns and operates Savú in the Gayborhood, is working on opening a branch of Taste Cheesesteak Bar in Charlotte, N.C., and is also planning on opening a brunch concept called Finish Your Champagne on Delaware Avenue this summer.
Taste Taco Bar’s official opening won’t be for another two weeks, but Dolce is treating the taco and margarita giveaway as a “huge branding push to let everyone know we’re coming to South Street,” and that this will be a revitalization of South Street, which was once Philly’s melting pot.
“We’re bringing the culture back to South Street,” said Dolce.
