A taquero carves meat from the trompo at Tacos La Cuadra’s Northgate location.
After I arrive at Tacos La Cuadra within the TJ Maxx parking zone close to Northgate at 8pm on Saturday evening, the road is already 40 folks deep. On the close to finish of the tent, a large trompo rotates, laden with the telltale red-tinged pork for tacos al pastor. A workforce of three strikes clients by means of the road effectively, averaging lower than a minute for every individual in entrance of me.
One taquero carves the meat from the vertical spit, making an attempt the masterful flick of pineapple from the entire fruit on the high of the trompo immediately into grease-dipped tortillas. Largely, he fails. A second mans the flattop for griddled meals like quesadillas, wraps the burritos, and fills tacos with the steam-table choice of further meats. Lastly, a girl takes orders and accepts cash—money, Venmo, Zelle, or Money App.
I move the time chatting with the couple standing behind me. They, too, had seen the pictures and movies throughout social media exhibiting that Seattle lastly has a Mexico Metropolis–type late-night al pastor stand, the type that pepper Los Angeles. They, too, had at first thought it was truly in a distinct location, a few mile and a half west alongside Northgate Method, in entrance of an O’Reilly Auto Elements retailer. That, it turned out, was an unrelated store.
Although the sandwich board in entrance of their tent says they’ve been round since 1996, La Cuadra started bobbing up after darkish within the Seattle space this spring—as evidenced by each the breathless TikTok movies and report of well being division closures. (No less than three this summer time, although two have been only for missing a allow. The third included extra regarding points, together with lack of scorching water and refrigeration.) As of final week, La Cuadra operated in six completely different places, starting from Sumner to Shoreline.
Tacos La Cuadra attracts lengthy traces for its late-night al pastor tacos.
The fast proliferation and clearly casual nature of the stand meant that the identify, La Cuadra, is commonly handled as secondary to the outline, as in, “OMG, have you ever tried the brand new late-night al pastor tacos?!” That description, nonetheless, turned out to use to different locations, too. Final week, La Cuadra posted a screenshot on Instagram of Apple Maps, which, like Google Maps, marked a Tacos La Cuadra location on the nook of Aurora and Northgate Method as La Cuadra. The overlaid textual content merely stated, “This isn’t us.” Whereas they’ve six places, this seventh spot was not them.
It is a straightforward mistake to make, although the imposter opens a little bit later—they have been nonetheless establishing after I handed by on my approach to La Cuadra on Saturday night. However after I returned later within the night, the arrange was practically equivalent: one taquero deftly slicing pork from the trompo, a second on the flattop and steam desk, and a 3rd individual as cashier. The chilly buffet of taco toppings included an identical purple onion and orange pepper salsa, the usual cilantro and onion, a pico de gallo, and trio of blended salsas. Right here, the cost was money solely, or, with reluctance, Zelle.
The al pastor tacos exterior O’Reilly Auto Elements on Aurora aren’t the famed Tacos La Cuadra.
The tacos at each locations ran $3 a pop, although La Cuadra’s have been a bit greater and tasted rather less of the gasoline powering the flames as they licked on the meat. La Cuadra is, at minimal, serving a number of the greatest al pastor within the metropolis. At each locations, the al pastor, carved recent from the trompo, and the condiment bars might go cabeza-a-cabeza with all however the very best locations in LA. The tortillas, softened within the grease dripped from the meat and griddled, stayed pliant and hugged the skinny slices of pork. The opposite meats, at each locations, went straight from steam desk to taco, giving them no benefit over variations at eating places.
The one different distinction between the 2 was the dearth of an indication of any kind on the second spot. After I requested if the stand had a reputation, the taquero shrugged and shook his head. I used to be relieved they didn’t appear to be overtly claiming to be La Cuadra; I might have been upset in such nefarious goings on. As an alternative, it appears far more believable that, given the thought of a late-night tacos al pastor stand is hardly unique or distinctive to La Cuadra, some well-meaning Seattleites noticed one and assumed it needed to be associated to the others they noticed on social media.
In different phrases, it seems solely potential that Seattle is crawling, slowly and haltingly, away from its lengthy historical past of missing each moderately good al pastor tacos and respectable meals open previous 11pm.
La Cuadra’s six stands open at 7pm Tuesday by means of Sunday, and shut at midnight Tuesday by means of Thursday and at 1am Friday by means of Sunday.
