Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Spring in my Corazon de Torta

No taco fest? No problem. Find a food truck

Corazon de Torta food truck, parked three days a week at Klover dispensary
Corazon de Torta food truck, parked three days a week at Klover dispensary

It was about three years ago next weekend that I got my first taste of the Corazon de Torta food truck. It was parked towards the back of the Reader’s Tacotopia taco festival, but buzz had already reached the front gates by time I walked in. Don’t miss it, friends and colleagues warned me, Stand in line, so worth it.

They were not wrong.

Sponsored
Sponsored

There’s no taco festival this spring, for obvious reasons, and on cinco de mayo, Corazon de Torta will likewise observe its third anniversary under a pandemic cloud. But, with our outdoor spaces beginning to open up, it felt like a great time to track this truck down, and enjoy my own little taco celebration.

An unprecedented lack of line at the Mariscos truck in South Park

In one sense, food trucks are ready-made to survive the sort of restrictions we face during the current health scare. They have lower overhead costs compared to restaurants leasing by the square foot, fewer employees (if any), and they serve take-out by default. However, in practice, most food trucks count on doing business at popular gathering places — outside brewery tasting rooms, at public markets, and parked at the numerous special events our sunny city would normally be hosting every weekend this spring. Obviously, crowds have dried up everywhere by gubernatorial edict, so many food trucks have no place to go to attract customers.

Better positioned to survive are the trucks that park in the same leased location each day. But even those are experience dramatic drops in business. I’ve always had to wait ten or twenty minutes in line at the mariscos truck in the South Park Target parking lot (3030 Grape Street). Last week: no line at all.

Carne asada and al pastor street tacos from Corazon de Torta

A similar situation across the street, next to The Bottle House liquor store (3012 Grape Street, South Park). In January, the Shawarma Guys food truck that started parking there last summer was named the number one restaurant in America, according to Yelp. Overnight, I watched that truck go from serving three to six customers at a time, to being surrounded by crowds of fifteen to twenty. In April: down to a trickle. That’s got to hurt.

Maybe that changes now that more people are beginning to emerge from their homes to visit public parks and beaches. I used a few personal errands as an excuse to get myself in the vicinity of Corazon de Torta. The truck has bounced around over the years, most often doing business near brewery tasting rooms, from Societe in Kearny Mesa, down to the breweries and bars on Third Avenue, Chula Vista.

Pollo and cauliflower tacos — other than the cheese, the cauliflower taco is vegan.

Under current circumstances, Corazon de Torta has settled on two regular, weekly homes: Friday and Saturday outside of Fall Brewing Company (4542 30th Street, North Park), and Tuesday through Thursday in front of the Klover cannabis dispensary, (3500 Estudillo Street, Mission Hills). It parks both places at 11 am, and continued till 6 or 7pm.

I found it in the Klover parking lot and picked up four tacos for my one-man Tacotopia: carne asada, al pastor, cauliflower, and chicken. Say what you will about the mood-enhancers sold inside the dispensary, but there’s no doubt eating street tacos put a smile on my face. Even behind the mask.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Birdwatching bonanza, earliest sunset of the year, bulb planting time

Venus shines its brightest
Next Article

The greatest symphonist of them all

Havergal Brian wrote over 30 of them
Corazon de Torta food truck, parked three days a week at Klover dispensary
Corazon de Torta food truck, parked three days a week at Klover dispensary

It was about three years ago next weekend that I got my first taste of the Corazon de Torta food truck. It was parked towards the back of the Reader’s Tacotopia taco festival, but buzz had already reached the front gates by time I walked in. Don’t miss it, friends and colleagues warned me, Stand in line, so worth it.

They were not wrong.

Sponsored
Sponsored

There’s no taco festival this spring, for obvious reasons, and on cinco de mayo, Corazon de Torta will likewise observe its third anniversary under a pandemic cloud. But, with our outdoor spaces beginning to open up, it felt like a great time to track this truck down, and enjoy my own little taco celebration.

An unprecedented lack of line at the Mariscos truck in South Park

In one sense, food trucks are ready-made to survive the sort of restrictions we face during the current health scare. They have lower overhead costs compared to restaurants leasing by the square foot, fewer employees (if any), and they serve take-out by default. However, in practice, most food trucks count on doing business at popular gathering places — outside brewery tasting rooms, at public markets, and parked at the numerous special events our sunny city would normally be hosting every weekend this spring. Obviously, crowds have dried up everywhere by gubernatorial edict, so many food trucks have no place to go to attract customers.

Better positioned to survive are the trucks that park in the same leased location each day. But even those are experience dramatic drops in business. I’ve always had to wait ten or twenty minutes in line at the mariscos truck in the South Park Target parking lot (3030 Grape Street). Last week: no line at all.

Carne asada and al pastor street tacos from Corazon de Torta

A similar situation across the street, next to The Bottle House liquor store (3012 Grape Street, South Park). In January, the Shawarma Guys food truck that started parking there last summer was named the number one restaurant in America, according to Yelp. Overnight, I watched that truck go from serving three to six customers at a time, to being surrounded by crowds of fifteen to twenty. In April: down to a trickle. That’s got to hurt.

Maybe that changes now that more people are beginning to emerge from their homes to visit public parks and beaches. I used a few personal errands as an excuse to get myself in the vicinity of Corazon de Torta. The truck has bounced around over the years, most often doing business near brewery tasting rooms, from Societe in Kearny Mesa, down to the breweries and bars on Third Avenue, Chula Vista.

Pollo and cauliflower tacos — other than the cheese, the cauliflower taco is vegan.

Under current circumstances, Corazon de Torta has settled on two regular, weekly homes: Friday and Saturday outside of Fall Brewing Company (4542 30th Street, North Park), and Tuesday through Thursday in front of the Klover cannabis dispensary, (3500 Estudillo Street, Mission Hills). It parks both places at 11 am, and continued till 6 or 7pm.

I found it in the Klover parking lot and picked up four tacos for my one-man Tacotopia: carne asada, al pastor, cauliflower, and chicken. Say what you will about the mood-enhancers sold inside the dispensary, but there’s no doubt eating street tacos put a smile on my face. Even behind the mask.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Gonzo Report: Bob Long played piano for Tina Turner and Ray Charles

And he got the crowd shaking at InZane Brewery
Next Article

Aaron Bleiweiss: has guitar, has traveled

Seattle native takes Twists and Turns to assemble local all-stars
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader