Downtown’s Taqueria Local Is Now Serving All-Day Tacos and Booze

Downtown’s new Mexican cafe Taqueria Local has arrived with an assortment of tacos, towering nachos, grilled Mexican street corn, and margaritas, with hours that cater to both the surrounding 9-to-5 crowd and late-night diners.

The new 60-seat fast-casual eatery, located inside the shuttered Eatsa space at 1627 K Street NW, comes from nightlife guru Antonis Karagounis, who runs Echostage, Decades, Barcode, Ultrabar, Soundcheck, and L8.

Hours out of the gate are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, with breakfast service arriving later this spring.

Partners Arman Amirshahi and Karagounis tapped their longtime chef Giovanni Orellana to run Taqueria’s kitchen. A native of El Salvador, Orellana has cooked locally at Ceviche, Lima, Pesce, Posto, and most recently, Barcode, where his weekly taco special was a top seller.

Diners can wash it all down with aguas frescas, bottled Mexican sodas, flavored margaritas, beer, and wine.

One taco comes with spicy Mexican sausage, diced potato, avocado and sour cream on a non-GMO, gluten-free corn tortilla, while a vegetarian variety features roasted red beet, microgreens, feta, pepitas and chipotle aioli. There’s also a seafood-stacked tostadas trio with ahi tuna ceviche, mango habanero shrimp, and crabmeat avocado, as well as tortilla soup and a handful of desserts.

Alejandro Ventura/Taqueria Local

The taco shop plans to give back a portion of diners’ tabs, with 1 percent of yearly revenue going to early childhood education center Centronía (where Orellana’s son went to school), along with other local initiatives.

Status: Certified open. 1627 K Street NW; website.