After three years in a Singleton Avenue location where the main feature is literally a hole in the wall -- where money is exchanged for sublime Monterrey-style street tacos and quesadillas -- Trompo is moving into a bright new spot in Bishop Arts.
Owner Luis Olvera expects the new Trompo to open later this month at Bishop Avenue and Tenth Street, between Black Swan Yoga and a suite of new offices, and about a block away from Macellaio, Salaryman and the new Cafe Paradiso complex in the booming center of Bishop Arts.
Olvera was eager to preview the new restaurant, and its expanded new menu, on Thursday night, though the place was still under construction. And no wonder: It's a big step up from the Singleton Avenue location, a blank orange stucco cube with bars on the windows and nothing much around it.
"I tried to move for three years and had several projects fail," Olvera says. "The other location is not a representation of myself, of my vision. This one will be."
The new Trompo will still be casual: You'll walk up and order at an outdoor window, then choose a seat -- finally, Trompo will have seats -- at picnic tables beneath the graceful branches of towering birch trees. "The prettiest patio in Bishop Arts," Olvera says. There will also be a small dining room with picture-frame windows and a mural by Mexico City artist Claudio Limón.
But most exciting: Trompo's famously limited selection of tacos and quesadillas will be expanded to include new dishes, brunch, wild game pop-ups and more. The regular menu will feature a weekly special taco and Trompo Burger Sliders, with a black brioche-style bun topped with a beef patty, slices of trompo pork, salami, mozzarella and avocado.
"It was inspired by flavors of Monterrey and Northern Mexico," Olvera says of the burger, though I doubt you'll find many brioche buns made with activated charcoal there.
Olvera will also serve brunch for the first time, from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturday and Sunday, offering Mexican breakfast tacos filled with guisos, or stewed meats, such as beef, pork and maybe chicken, plus a vegetarian version and salsas.
He is also considering a version of the typical eggy breakfast taco, with soft-cooked huevos rancheros scooped directly from the pan and onto a tortilla. Corn tortillas and the black hamburger buns will be made in-house, with flour tortillas to follow shortly, he said. And the selection of Mexican sodas and other soft drinks will be joined by seasonal aguas frescas starting with tamarindo, and horchata.
Of course, the original menu of $2 street tacos and $4 quesadillas will still be at the heart of it, a menu that earned Trompo a spot on Bon Appetit's list of the 50 best new restaurants in America back in 2016. "Some of the best tacos we've had all year," the magazine raved, including the namesake pork taco, with meat cooked on a vertical spit called a trompo, seasoned with savory, bright red paprika and embellished with cilantro, onions and a splash of the excellent house-made salsas.
The kitchen will be outfitted with the same equipment: the gas-fired trompo spit, a griddle and no fryers ("We don't fry anything," Olvera says). And the space is actually just a little larger -- about 1,500 square feet, plus the patio -- compared with the old 1,200.
But the move has clearly put Olvera in an expansive frame of mind.
Once things get moving, he plans to do wild game pop-ups, both at the new Trompo and at other locations in Bishop Arts, and he is already working on his first collaborative dinner, with Revolver Taco's Regino Rojas, a project they dreamed up on a road trip through Mexico this summer, featuring an octopus trompo and "cool things with ceviches."
Olvera also plans an outdoor food cart selling elotes and paletas, and eventually, a beer and wine list.
"I'm so excited," he says, handing out his new menu, printed on stiff paper about the size of a recipe card. "After three years, I have a menu. A real menu!"
And one where prices will increase by only 10 cents per taco and 25 cents for quesadillas.
Details: The new Trompo is planned to open in September at 407 W. 10th Street, Dallas (park in the lot across Bishop Avenue and walk over to Trompo). The current location will remain open until then at 839 Singleton Blvd., Dallas. 972-809-7950; octrompo.com.
