There’s a solid chance that most of you reading this have no idea how good you have it.
There is so much top-notch Mexican food in Southern and Central California that it kind of becomes a fact of life. Any town big enough to have more than one restaurant is going to have at least a pretty decent taco stand, and larger cities are all required to host a taqueria or two capable of stopping even the most jaded taco eater dead in his or her tracks with overwhelming deliciousness, or else I’m pretty sure the city’s charter gets revoked.
And why not? You have to try pretty hard to mess up something as simple and wonderful as a tortilla folded around some seasoned meat and diced onion and cilantro. But outside of the Southwest, people botch that job all the time.
I grew up in California but lived in Oregon from 2013 to 2018. It wasn’t even that far away, but it was far enough for a certain blandness to whitewash and overtake the flavor from our beloved tacos. I’m sure there were exceptions, but I found the general rule in Oregon to be that all Mexican food was dependably mediocre. They had phenomenal brunch and more water than you could fill a reservoir with, but good salsa? Not so much.
When we moved back to California and settled in Lompoc, the first mission after finding a place to rent for my wife and me was to find our go-to taco spot. The first place we went was great. The second place knocked the socks right off our feet, and for weeks, we ate there whenever that taco craving came upon us.
But then my wife, who works for the city of Lompoc and has access to a database of every commercial food operation in town, had a beautiful realization: What if another place made even better tacos, but we didn’t even know? There was no way to be sure until we tried every last one, and so began our tasty journey.
I talked a lot about science way up there in the headline, but I’ve got to admit that what we did wasn’t really that. We did limit ourselves to ordering only classic carne asada tacos so we could compare apples to apples, and after several months, we eventually tried a taco from every single Mexican restaurant in town.
But, we’re only human. Sometimes we were more hungry than at other times. Some of the tacos we tried early on might have been great but kind of lost their shock value over time. It’s hard to say, and it’s all subjective anyway. We tried to be fair, though. In all honesty, Floriano’s probably should’ve cracked the top five but didn’t for some reason. Science is weird that way.*
After we had tried every place once, we picked the five restaurants that really made an impression on us—Angela’s, La Market Favorita, Burrito Loco, Mariscos La Rancherita, and Super Grill—and ordered two tacos from each place all in the same night. My daughter unwrapped the food and set it on numbered plates at home so that we wouldn’t know which taco came from where, and we ranked them blindly.
It was the best night of my life.
Super Grill was our clear favorite, with Mariscos La Rancherita in Mission Hills as the runner-up. When I told Jose Alberto Trejo, owner and founder of Super Grill, that we’d deemed his tacos as the best in Lompoc, he didn’t seem too surprised.
“Not just Lompoc,” he said. “All of Santa Barbara County. This is my passion.”
Trejo started in the food industry at 16 years old as a dishwasher. Twelve years ago, he and his cousin opened a catering business and food truck where they made a name for themselves grilling tacos for the Lompoc swap meet.
For the last three years, Trejo has run the brick-and-mortar location on H Street. He said he gets his meat and tortillas from the best local sources and makes his signature tomatillo salsa the same way his mother did when he was growing up.
“We keep it fresh,” he said. “That’s the key.”
Trejo won my little contest with his carne asada, but he said his lengua (tongue) tacos and his mar y tiera (shrimp and beef) are his specialties. Dude makes a mean al pastor as well.
So there you have it. Super Grill makes the best tacos in town, hands down. Go eat some already.
*Real science isn’t weird. It’s very logical, and climate change is real.
Nick Powell is hungry for good breakfast joints. Send bunches of brunches to npowell@santamariasun.com.
Powell’s Picks
• I talked about Stefono’s Sapori D’ Italia last week and mentioned not trying the Italian beef sandwich. I went back for it this week and loved it. It’s like a Philly cheesesteak hooked up with a saucy French dip and left the bastard cheese-less to fend for itself and develop some streetwise attitude in Chicago. Taste this love child for yourself at 2340 Professional Parkway in Santa Maria (tucked behind a medical/office plaza).
• Aside from ’90s era Will Smith, nothing is more fresh than raw oysters and sushi. Private chef Jamie Poe is bringing both to Riverbench Vineyard and Winery for pairings with crisp, sparkling wine and scenic views. Oysters, sushi, and wine will be available à la carte at 6020 Foxen Canyon Road on Sunday, May 26, from noon to 3 p.m.
• Not everyone can afford fancy wine and oysters and might even be struggling to stock the pantry. The Food Share Because We Care program at Lompoc’s Allan Hancock College bookstore allows all Hancock students to pick up free produce and non-perishable food items every Thursday. Stop by 1 Hancock Drive in Lompoc during regular business hours to stock up.
Contributing writer Nick Powell is fresher than ’90s era shrimp. Send fresh picks and hot tips to npowell@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 23-30, 2019.