This strip-mall taco shop was already a local favorite. But when the 2008 recession hit the neighborhood of Bonita hard, the family that runs it offered their fish taco for 99 cents. Word got out, lines spread past the nail salon, snaked around the little strip mall. Families were fed, neighbors communed and commiserated in the parking lot. People remember things like that. Twenty years later, TJ Oyster Bar is legend.
When the family hit their own hard times, Monica Jazo’s mom Alicia took the reins. “It was my escape, this little hole in the wall,” Alicia says. “We worked day and night. It was hard, but I had my family. At the end of the day, when we were tired, we’d grab our beer and celebrate.”
Now they’ve got three spots. Two generations of the family run them together with longtime staff. Monica handles marketing, her brother Yvan helms the kitchen, mom comes in and sweeps and cleans, visits with longtime regulars. “So many generations now,” says Monica. “Little kids I saw coming in here when I was young are coming in with their own kids now—which is how I know I’m getting old.”
Get a table order of the smoked tuna fries—the TJ Oyster branch of the loaded-fry religion. The aguachile (Sonoran-style ceviche in a lime bath) is another winner. And a tamarind michelada for cleansing.
