One of New York’s hottest Mexican restaurants is gearing up for a brand-new expansion.
Tacombi is a popular Mexican restaurant that was founded in 2005 by Dario Wolos, a financial services worker who started serving up tacos out of a 1963 “combi” bus that he acquired in Mexico City. Driving up and down the Yucatan peninsula, he soon settled down in the beach time of Playa del Carmen and started gutting his bus in order to outfit it with proper cooking equipment. Serving up flavorful and authentic tacos out of his new combi bus, Wolos combined the two words together and Tacombi was born.
Tacombi officially opened its first brick-and-mortar space in 2010 when Wolos moved his operation to a garage in downtown New York. Since launching over a decade ago, Tacombi now operates taquerias across the East Coast in places like New York, Washington DC, and Miami. Tacombi is also famous nationwide for its popular “Vista Hermosa” tortilla products, which are produced in-house and shipped throughout the country.
At the moment, Tacombi currently operates 11 locations across New York, and now the team is getting ready to launch location number 12. Tacombi’s latest expansion is currently slated to arrive at 139 East 12th Street, the former home of iSouvlaki, a popular Greek restaurant that shut down its 12th street operation earlier this year in order to move to a new location at 209 Seventh Street, which is currently listed as “Coming Soon” on the restaurant’s website.
The launch of Tacombi’s latest location is the first step of a new expansion plan that seeks to make Tacombi a household name across the country. In 2021, Shake Shack founder Danny Meyer made a significant investment into Tacombi through his company Enlightened Hospitality Investments. According to Bloomberg, Wolos is using this opportunity to open up 12 new shops this year, including outposts in New Jersey and Long Island. In total, Wolos estimates that Tacombi will operate 75 Tacombi locations across the country within the next five years.
At the moment, Wolos and his team are getting ready to acquire a wine, beer, and cider license for their 12th street outposts. They are currently proposing operating hours of 8:00 AM – 12:00 AM every day, seven days a week, and you can follow Tacombi on Instagram for updates on all of their new expansion plans.
