Más Tacos Por Favor! La Taqueria Expands to Darien

Left to right: chorizo + potato, crispy cod, carnitas, chicken tinga. All on homemade blue corn tortillas.

A little more than two years ago, Dennis Lake opened his fast casual, but gourmet approach to a taqueria right at the top of Greenwich Avenue. Now he’s taken his homemade blue corn tortilla tacos, Mexican side dishes, and margaritas to Darien’s The Corbin District with a second location of La Taqueria.

But don’t call it a franchise. Maybe don’t even ask him if that’s the plan, even if it does lend extremely well to damn near every city and town. Instead, Lake would likely prefer you call it a well thought out expansion.

Darien is a similar aesthetic to Greenwich except for…

THIS BAR! The reason for all the Aldez Tequila is simple. Lake tried it and loved it. He’s the top spot in Connecticut when it comes to serving the Aldez brand.

“I hate that word! ‘Franchised,’” Lake says. “It’s such a dirty word. I always thought franchising was made for people who don’t have creativity. They might not have will, but they have money to invest into whatever they think the next big thing is. I have love. Love for food, for this project, and I still love being in the kitchen, even though I know that as an owner, too, I can’t be in the back the entire time.”

Lake, though, is following the model of his popular Greenwich location in Darien. It’s extremely takeout friendly (and he’ll soon be on third party delivery apps), but if you’d like to dine in, all you’ve got to do is order at the counter by the entrance, they’ll give you a number sign, and your food will be ready soon thereafter.

Chef/owner Dennis Lake

What La Taqueria newbies should expect from the menu is exactly that worked in Greenwich; beautiful, often colorful tacos with fresh ingredients on homemade tortillas made from Tortilleria Nixtamal’s blue corn masa. But this isn’t simply choosing chicken, pork, or beef. La Taqueria has about a dozen different tacos to choose from like a Cali style crispy cod (my personal favorite), cochinita pibil, chorizo con papa, chicken tinga, beef short rib that’s wrapped and slow roasted in banana leaves, two veggie tacos (one is cactus and cheese, the other is wild mushroom), and more.

Guacamole is available spicy or as is

If you’re sticking to tacos (or a burrito), precursors are fresh slapped guac with fresh fried and well salted chips, street corn, fried then grilled chipotle BBQ wings, and two homemade soups, tortilla with roasted tomato and pasilla chiles and the other being green pozole with chicken.

Lake did tease that coming soon for both Darien and Greenwich are a couple of large format entrées meant for sharing between 2-3 people. “Chamorro is a classic Mexican dish that I’m a fan of,” he says. “It’s pork shank that I’ll lie down on the plate with rice and beans and a stack of tortillas. And I want to do a fish, an oven baked red snapper, butterflied and cooked whole with tortillas, pickled onions, and a few different salsas.”

Should you need something heftier, there’s a grilled chicken burrito packed with guac, lettuce, cheese, achiote rice and beans. Salsa and crema is served on the side.

There is one big difference between the two La Taqueria locations, however. While the food in Darien mirrors Greenwich, the bar does not. It’s bigger and the cocktail list isn’t just margaritas and two ounce tequila pours. The sequel has all the margs, all the tequila, plus a G+T, a Mexican twist on a classic New Orleans sidecar, a tequila mojito, a refreshing mule, and a smooth sipping tequila old fashioned.

Manager Phil Cunha mixes up a fresh watermelon juice margarita. Other margs are classic (Aldez Blanco, agave, fresh lime), a refreshing grapefruit paloma, Skinny (blanco, lime, cucumber, seltzer), hibiscus, and spicy pineapple.

Aside from six different margaritas and those five La Taqueria additions, the bar is well stocked with Aldez Tequilas and Mezcal, plus their Aczu Gin, and high end agave spirits by Clase Azul, Don Julio, and Tears of Llorona Extra Anejo.

Yes, I do always take my tres leches cake paired alongside a Mexican Old Fashioned (Aldez Reposado, Italicus, bitters, agave).

Vanilla bean flan if you’re keeping it light or require a second dessert.

“I knew if I was coming to Darien that I would need a spot with a bigger bar, and everyone told me that beforehand, so I knew we did the right thing when the first two people that walked in on opening day immediately ordered margaritas,” Lake says. “I have a small bar in Greenwich—you’ve seen it—it’s intimate, like 5-6 people. The bar in Greenwich gave me the opportunity to practice in preparation for Darien. What I would do in the kitchen with food, I did that with drinks at the bar there.”

La Taqueria’s tacos and tequila bar await you in Darien. But a franchise? No way. Even if Lake always aspired to having more than one spot when he opened in 2020. But before any more possible locations, he’s focused on bringing the same creativity and quality to Darien that he has instilled in Greenwich.

1077 Boston Post Road; Darien
(behind Scena Wine Bar)
203.202.9399; taqueriact.com