Photos by George Mahe
Photo by Pat Eby
Taco Circus' original location at 4258 Shiller Place
Two taco-based restaurants in metro St. Louis have announced their final days of service: Taco Circus (4940 Southwest) and Club Taco (200 N. Kirkwood) will close November 20 and 21, respectively. Both announcements were made on the restaurants’ social media.
Taco Circus had its beginnings in 2015 in a quirky corner boîte a few blocks from Bevo Mill, where chef-owner Christian Ethridge and Kevin White served up Austin-style tacos at low prices. It was bright and brash. The décor was whimsical. The original fast-casual joint was a circus...that also happened to serve small but excellent tacos. (Ethridge called it “controlled chaos in a small space”)
Photo by George Mahe
In 2019, Ethridge took the proverbial show on the road and relocated to the former Three Flags Tavern space in Southwest Garden, which allowed for an expanded menu, a bar program, and table service. The address also boasted a tiered, tree-shaded patio—which was overshadowed by the pandemic that idled the restaurant six months after the move.
In last week’s announcement, Ethridge took responsibility for the closure, which came as somewhat of a surprise, after his recent appearance on Fox 2’s Studio STL, where he touted Circus Tacos’ array of quality ingredient–based, Tex-Mex breakfast, lunch, and dinner fare.
The post announcing the closure said, in part, “There are many ways for restaurants to fail, and only a couple of ways that they end up working... given the way I handled the variables, I could not make it work.”
"First, my pivot was piss poor," he says, referring to his decisions after March 2020. "My kitchen was three times smaller than what it needed to be to do proper take out, delivery, and catering, which other places were doing. I lost critical team members–long story–which left me with no infrastructure.
"We had a flood in March, a lightning strike in June, and a bigger flood in July, which shut us down completely for six weeks." Plans to expand the kitchen had been drawn up, he says, but he was too busy making repairs to make that happen.
In the post, Ethridge admitted that the restaurant should have closed a year ago. “Could I save it?” he wrote, “maybe, but the smart decision now is to move on."
Courtesy Taco Circus
Al pastor taco from Taco Circus
The chef-owner wrapped up the post, stating, “Let’s get these employees paid.” But due to a staffing shortage, Taco Circus had to close Monday, but Ethridge says he intends to keep Taco Circus open from 4–10 p.m. through this Saturday, November 20.
Still, all is not lost for the Taco Circus fans. This summer, Ethridge opened a satellite counter, Taco Circus @ Trops, inside Tropical Liqueurs in The Grove, which he hopes will remain open.
Going forward, Ethridge says he will likely take a line cook's job over the winter "just to start thinking clearly again." He still owns the former Taco Circus building on Shiller Place, so doing a concept there is a possibility. "But with jalapeños and iceberg lettuce both costing $60 a case, it probably won't be tacos," he says.
Photo by George Mahe
The walk-up food/bar window at Club Taco
In Kirkwood, the rise and fall of Club Taco was a curious one. The restaurant opened in May 2016 in a corner building in Kirkwood that was formerly occupied by Petra. Chef-owner Gerard LaRuffa served a whopping 30 cleverly named taco varieties (seven made with seafood). With 30 seats inside and 75 on a street-facing patio, as well as a convenient order and pickup window, the high-visibility corner became a high-energy hotspot.
Three years later, when Mission Taco Joint announced that it would be moving into the 12,000-square-foot former Kirkwood Brewing space next door, LaRuffa took the high road. “Competition brings synergy and increased traffic,” he told SLM at the time, referencing the ‘rising tide raises all boats’ mantra. “I’m always looking for ways to increase our food quality, service, and appearance… Having a formidable new neighbor is one way to make that happen.”
In this article, LaRuffa said, “Hopefully now our corner becomes known as ‘taco corner,' and people come from all over to check it out.” And that's exactly what happened. "We ended up feeding off Mission's long waits and they fed off of ours," he told SLM today.
Club Taco survived, even thrived, until this week. A Monday post on social media stated that despite having survived “labor shortages, supply chain issues, and a HUGE plumbing issue” (referencing a sewer problem that sidelined the restaurant for weeks), after trying to work out a lease extension, the restaurant was not able to negotiate a deal. Despite having just installed several igloos on its patio, Club Taco’s last day of service is this Sunday, November 20.
Courtesy Club Taco
Tacos and sides from Club Taco
Similar to Taco Circus, there was a glimmer of light regarding the closure—and future—of Club Taco. Having thanked the past and present staff, LaRuffa signed off by writing that he hopes they “will rejoin the team, wherever we land, whenever that happens.”
Reached by phone this afternoon, LaRuffa told SLM that despite the physical exhaustion and mental fatigue, he had renewed energy after reading the comments on social media, "hundreds of them," he says, "all in support of what we've been doing and how we've gone about it.
"I'm even more motivated to find a new place now," he adds. "I'd like to stay in Kirkwood, but reading all those comments opened my eyes to all the places we could go."
