Mission Taco Joint's new Kirkwood location opens today

Situated in the former Kirkwood Station Brewing Co., at 105 E. Jefferson, the 12,000-foot space is Mission’s biggest, most ambitious location to date.

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In March, the owners of Mission Taco Joint were putting the final touches on their seventh location, in Kirkwood. As it turned out, seven wasn’t a lucky number for brothers Adam and Jason Tilford; the coronavirus pandemic delayed the restaurant's opening until today. (Mission’s KC location opened several weeks ago, and the other St. Louis metro locations—in the Central West End, Delmar Loop, Soulard, and St. Charles—reopened earlier this week.)

Situated in the former Kirkwood Station Brewing Co. space, at 105 E. Jefferson, the 12,000-foot space is Mission’s biggest, most ambitious location to date. As the company grew, it began taxing its tortilla-making commissary. So when the brothers found a building large enough for a restaurant and a tortilla production line, they inked a lease.

The building was so big, there was also room for a video arcade, built with windows that overlook a $500,000 Casa Herrera tortilla machine that can cook, cool, and sort up to 10,000 tortillas per hour, enough to supply present and future Mission Taco Joint locations and allow the company to sell taco chips wholesale in 20-pound boxes.

“We think a big market exists here for chips made fresh, from locally grown corn,” says Adam. (The commissary in Webster is still used to make flour tortillas, sauces, drink mixes, and supply the food truck. It also means that the new production facility can remain gluten-free.)

The building is split between a 120-seat restaurant on one side and the arcade/tortilla factory on the other. Sidewalk seating runs the length of the building as well, and there’s a 60-person ancillary room, bringing the total number of seats to 240, which the Tilfords admit they may not be able to utilize for some time. “But when everything does open up,” Adam says, “that room can be used for everything from general seating or a taco bar party to more upscale, plated dinners like we did at Milagro.”

Most notable is the temporary departure from a full-service model to a fast-casual model, dubbed Mission Taco Lite, which had been adopted in all Mission locations and features an abbreviated menu and limited hours. A host seats incoming guests, but orders are placed at a counter to staffers stationed behind plexi partitions. (“People are going around it to order, so it’s an educational work in progress,” says Adam).

Any requests or additional drink orders are handled as before, by servers assigned to each table. “For everyone’s safety, we wanted to be as contactless as possible,” says Adam, “and try to offer the same level of hospitality, hence having a welcoming host.”

Another part of the new model is that Mission adds a 20 percent service charge to all orders, a pivot designed to mitigate the wage disparity that's common in many restaurants (the service charge monies are divided among front and back of house employees). The charge is in lieu of gratuity, Adam explains, but an additional amount can always be added. “People tend to tip that percentage or more anyway, so most don’t see it as that big of a deal.” 

The Kirkwood location features a mural/sculpture showing the front of an actual locomotive emerging from a tunnel that might as well be tagged, “Take Insta photos here.” The whimsical piece is signed by its creators, artist “Poblano Peat” Wollaeger and “Tequila Tom” Niemeier (of SPACE Architecture + Design, who spearheaded the rest of the buildout).

At present, the bar is for drink service only. There are several stand-up tables in the bar area but no stools, and high-top tables with seats are screened off by a colorful wood-slat partition that continues overhead, leading back to the bar.

The dining room offers a variety of seating: a bank of socially spaced two-tops on one wall and four-top booths line another, with family-sized tables in between. The wooden-joisted ceiling is high and wide open. For those uneasy about indoor dining, there’s no feeling of confinement. Some tables have been removed, of course, but the consensus is that the space feels comfortable rather than cavernous.

Mission Taco has legions of devotees: some come for the beer selection (12 taps in Kirkwood, plus cans and bottles) and riffs on margaritas, others for the escapist vibe, but all of them praise Mission’s food. In Kirkwood, expect the same offerings as the other locations, a selection bookended by carne asada fries for starters and churros for dessert.

The arcade area is not yet open to the public, but will be as soon as the owners feel its safe. In the interim, guests may only ogle the six pinball games (“we wanted the most popular ones and found them” says Adam), the Skee-Ball, the 15 retro arcade games, and the 2020 version of  Golden Tee).  

Within the arcade is a separate bar and a walk-up window, a sandbox for bar manager Kyle Harlan to experiment with cocktails and chef Jason to tinker with new, hand-held, street food-style food items. 

Game tournaments and leagues will take place in the arcade when it makes sense to do so, says Adam, who adds that the room will also be reservable for private parties. "Having tacos, margaritas, and arcade games under one roof sounds like a pretty good time to me," he says.

Mission Taco Joint - Kirkwood

105 E. Jefferson, St Louis, Missouri 63122

314-666-5757

Visit Website

Mon-Thu 4 p.m. - 10 p.m.; Fri-Sun: 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

Inexpensive

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