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Señor El Taquero: The Late Late Show

If you’ve been to Señor El Taquero (435 Broadway, downtown, 619-550-5451), it was probably after you got out of some Gaslamp bar around 2:00 a.m. and needed solid food, like, now.

“Say one o’clock Friday night, the line outside’s way along Broadway,” says Esquivel, the taquero guy. Right now, it’s pretty much just me. Even though life out by the Ffth and Broadway bus stop is really popping with loud conversation.

Thomas Lee Barbat waits outside Sr. El Taquero

Inside, an oasis of peace.

Sarapes and an altar decorate one wall

How many times I’ve caught the bus here, and never noticed this li’l place? Yet Esquivel says it’s been open two years.

Esquivel

Esquivel’s carving pork off the harpooned tower of meat that’s sizzling in front of burners. Adobado taco. Pawk, $1.79. He loads it with onions, guac, cilantro, the usual, and dang, but it’s good.

My half-eaten adobado

I eat it at a table with the name “Oasis” written into it. If you look at the way-big wall photo of an Arabian oasis, you could be there...

...except for the noise outside.

Whatever, it’s jes’ what I need to make it through the bus ride, and okay, it’s a kinda scuzzy stretch of Broadway, but inside’s clean, and the value can’t be beat.

Specially if you look at what you could pay in all those fancy conventioneer traps down in the Gaslamp.

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Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice

If you’ve been to Señor El Taquero (435 Broadway, downtown, 619-550-5451), it was probably after you got out of some Gaslamp bar around 2:00 a.m. and needed solid food, like, now.

“Say one o’clock Friday night, the line outside’s way along Broadway,” says Esquivel, the taquero guy. Right now, it’s pretty much just me. Even though life out by the Ffth and Broadway bus stop is really popping with loud conversation.

Thomas Lee Barbat waits outside Sr. El Taquero

Inside, an oasis of peace.

Sarapes and an altar decorate one wall

How many times I’ve caught the bus here, and never noticed this li’l place? Yet Esquivel says it’s been open two years.

Esquivel

Esquivel’s carving pork off the harpooned tower of meat that’s sizzling in front of burners. Adobado taco. Pawk, $1.79. He loads it with onions, guac, cilantro, the usual, and dang, but it’s good.

My half-eaten adobado

I eat it at a table with the name “Oasis” written into it. If you look at the way-big wall photo of an Arabian oasis, you could be there...

...except for the noise outside.

Whatever, it’s jes’ what I need to make it through the bus ride, and okay, it’s a kinda scuzzy stretch of Broadway, but inside’s clean, and the value can’t be beat.

Specially if you look at what you could pay in all those fancy conventioneer traps down in the Gaslamp.

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In the lost cinema of the barrio
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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
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