Designer tacos deserve their own designers. And Puesto officially has one in Thomas Schoos.
The L.A.-based interior designer is waging some sort of artistic imperialism on San Diego, with his pretty inspiring work (colorful paintings afflicted with giantism, lovely apocalyptic raw materials, dangling wires that look dangerous and/or sadomasochistic) at Searsucker, Herringbone, the upcoming Bottega Americano and now both Puestos.
Puesto La Jolla showcases his work starting today, their soft opening. Brothers Eric and Alan Adler, plus cousin Isi Lombrozo, have basically amped up their original taco shop to be more like their full-service designer restaurant downtown at The Headquarters. That means chef-partner Luisteen Gonzales has another showroom to play with.
They annexed the 1,000 square-foot space next door. It’s got 15-foot ceilings with rather enormous skylights. They put in a bar (seating for 10) that’ll serve the same Mexican-inspired cocktails (created by Queen-Connor-Ward Collective) from The Headquarters’ location, plus wines from Baja’s Valle de Guadalupe. There’s a full sit-down dining room that features more ambitious menu items like the ceviche verde, various moles and the short rib barbacoa. They also have a patio. Because Mexican food should not be eaten indoors.
It looks real neat. Excellent San Diego graffiti artist Chor Boogie just went ape on the walls. Actually, he went penguin. Bloated penguins.
The original taco shop space will be open 11AM-4PM. The new full-service space will go from 11AM-10PM. They’ll also be doing lunch every Sunday from 11AM-3PM.
Get a taco. Pair it with mezcal. Contemplate how the inability to fly might lead to weight problems in the penguin community.
Puesto La Jolla. Realm of the chubby penguin.
Sam Wells
