Over the past several years, fans of local farmers’ markets and food festivals have likely noticed the longest lines forming at one particular food stall with a catchy-but-messy-sounding name: Taco Drip STL.
On Tuesday, owner Stephanie Boyd opened a takeout-only, brick-and-mortar restaurant at 1920 Carr Street in the Carr Square neighborhood—and more is in the works at the Saint Louis Galleria.
Find the best food in St. Louis
Subscribe to the St. Louis Dining In and Dining Out newsletters to stay up-to-date on the local restaurant and culinary scene.
This weekend, Taco Drip STL will also be at Paint Louis, the long-running graffiti and music festival held on the downtown riverfront.
Before you go, though, get to know the story behind the birria taco brand.
The Concept
Taco Drip STL was a pandemic project that stemmed from the popularity of the tacos that Boyd, who’s also known as “Chef Stef,” originally sold off her front porch—hence the tagline “off-the-porch original STL birria tacos.”
Despite facing a host of challenges (including experiencing homelessness for 10 months and relying on borrowed kitchens and hotel stays), Boyd and her two sons, who help her operate the business to this day, continued to work the fair and festival circuit to ever increasing crowds. Having a brick-and-mortar home base allows for more deliveries and catering opportunities, both integral parts of any current restaurant business plan.
For a time, the business served several versions of its popular birria tacos at a counter inside the recently shuttered Open Concept bar in The Grove. As first reported by Sauce magazine, the new brick-and-mortar in Carr Square adds a new option in the city.
Boyd also says the new arrangement allows her to scale the company’s expansion. Part of the growth plan includes a location at the Saint Louis Galleria, which resulted from a pitch made to Brookfield Properties, the mall’s management company. One of Brookfield’s conditions, according to Boyd, was that Taco Drip STL must operate from an existing brick-and-mortar location, which it now does.
The Menu
Birria tacos (or their cheesy counterpart, quesabirria tacos) are the dippable, dunkable delicacy popularized 15 years ago in Tijuana, Mexico. Originally made with slow-cooked goat meat stuffed into broth-seasoned, flat-grilled taco shells, the standard stuffing morphed to a braised beef mix north of the border. The signature constant was the side of consomé (stewing broth) for dipping. The novelty swept the country and shows no signs of subsiding.
At Taco Drip STL, variations include chicken, shrimp, jackfruit, steak, and veggie. Mozzarella cheese does double textural duty, as a melting component and adding a caramelized crunch.
Other menu options include riffs on the birria theme, such as a “quesoria” (an oversized, birria-stuffed quesadilla); birria-topped fries; “notorious loaded drippin’ nachos”; crispy “birri-tos” (burritos); a three-layer deep-dish birria pizza that takes an hour to cook; and a birria ramen bowl.
Such creativity extends to Taco Drip’s catering menu. An all-you-can-eat option—called the Pull-Up Full-Service Pop-Up—with unlimited made-to-order steak, chicken, or shrimp birria tacos for three hours for up to 150 guests at a cost of $1,500. A more limited option—dubbed Pop & Sell—is $800. For smaller gatherings, taco trays are available in various sizes, from 20 tacos ($75 and feeds six) to 75 tacos ($250 and feeds 25).
For those who might think that a more logical name for the business would be “Taco Dip,” Boyd says “drip“ is more expressive and just as memorable, noting the word also means fashionable or cool. “An outfit can be drip,” she says, “or a pair of shoes or a song.” Or a plate of tacos.
