Best bites: Dining out in Dallas-Fort Worth October 17

by Teresa Gubbins

iPhone, iPod, iTacos. Can you tell that the folks behind this new taco place on Coit Road in Richardson have a techie background? Owner Tom Radecki, 36, was a big gamer back in the day -- so much so that he opened Shadow Lan, a sophisticated gaming spot on Coit, five years ago. But Radecki is also an entrepreneurial sort; and so, when the Quizno's next door to Shadow Lan shut down, he opened the kind of restaurant he himself would frequent.

"My goal was to bring something to the market that was completely affordable -- yet we’re making everything there," he says.

Aside from the low prices ($2.49-$4.99, seen on the very user-friendly Web site), iTaco does a different kind of taco, one Radecki experienced while living in El Paso, where he went to college. The approach is called "ahogados" ("drowned"); the tacos come smothered in sauce and cheese, which produces an extremely homey, almost soupy experience.

"The idea wasn't to sell a million different TexMex items -- I wanted it to be unique," he says. "Unique doesn’t mean everybody is going to like the product. But you want to separate yourself."

The menu is compact: tacos, chicken breast, salad, tortilla soup, vegetarian beans, waffle fries, and -- bratwurst, in a hot-dog bun with pickles and chopped onions, to reflect Radecki's Polish heritage.

"At the end of the day, we wanted to create a menu where you don’t have a lot of items but you do have something everyone can like," he says.

Tacos to the West

Tacos are a hot topic in Fort Worth ever since the opening of the trendy-ish Yucatan Taco Stand. Now there'll be even more to talk about with Don Taco Fresh Mex Grill, opened by the folks who own Los Molcajetes and Mi Pueblo Cocina de Mexico (which has two branches in North Richland Hills).

Don Taco, which opened in September in the Heritage Trace Plaza across from Alliance Town Center, in north Fort Worth, is similar to Taco Cabana in that it's loosely fast-food, with Tex-Mex basics and a full liquor license. Tacos are available with carnitas, brisket, chicken, fajitas, and al pastor, starting at $1.99 and running to $5.50 for a platter with rice and beans. You can get them crisp or soft, with flour tortillas or corn. Margaritas come in three flavors -- swirl, mango, and strawberry -- as well as traditional, $3 for plain or $3.50 flavored.

"All of our other restaurants had lunch specials, so we took those and put them on this menu, and then added tacos," says owner Simon Chavez. "This is something we've been talking about for two to three years; our goal is to open more than one."

Taco takeoff

Meanwhile, Caroline Galvan-Rodriguez -- wife of Mico (Mi Cocina, Taco Diner, etc.), sister to Eddie (who co-owns Casa Milagro) -- is launching her own new concept called El Taco Mundo, with the first branch under construction in far-west Fort Worth, towards Weatherford. ... And Tin Star has opened a couple of new branches around town including NorthPark, in downtown Dallas (in the Bank of America building), and behind the Galleria.