Real Taco Successor Prepares To Open

On Christmas Eve, Real Taco served its last helpings of Mexican food before its owners taped brown paper to the restaurant’s colorful windows and silently slipped out of the Mt. Auburn Street storefront.

Less than two months later, a new restaurant is poised to fill the Mexican food vacuum in Harvard Square. Two aspiring restaurant owners will found Felipe’s Taqueria after they receive permission from the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeals, which they expect to come at a hearing scheduled for this Thursday.

Taqueria veteran Felipe Herrera and Boston investor Tom Brush hope to jointly open Felipe’s Taqueria by mid-March, offering an authentic Mexican feel to satiate Square cravings.

“We want to create a richer experience with our food, flavors and service,” Brush said of the replacement restaurant.

And with Herrera—a central figure of the popular Anna’s Taqueria chain—at the helm of the new restaurant, diners can expect an experience similar to Anna’s in price and offerings.

Brush said that his restaurant will include both casual sit-down and carry-out dining and will offer food prepared freshly each day.

He expressed confidence in the store’s Garage location, between Dunster and JFK streets, and shrugged off the financial troubles Real Taco encountered.

“We’re very confident,” he said. “Real Taco failed because of how it was run, not any failure in the market. We were looking for a high-density neighborhood in Boston and we feel that this is a phenomenal location.”

The former owners of Real Taco could not be reached for comment.

John DiGiovanni—president of Trinity Properties, the company that owns the space—said he turned down higher offers from a phone store, hoping to keep the Garage’s theme of first-floor eateries consistent.

He said he always thought a Tex-Mex eatery would complement the other restaurants in the Garage, but he added that “Real Taco just missed the mark.”

“I think the owner just got in over his head. The food and service were below par,” DiGiovanni said, citing an unfavorable review of Real Taco that appeared in the Cambridge Chronicle.

But he said he thought Felipe’s Taqueria had a better chance at success.

“The product is right, but we need a good operator,” DiGiovanni said, expressing hopes that Brush’s organizational skills would stabilize the eatery.

Brush and Herrera met 13 years ago, when Herrera arrived from Mexico.

Herrera helped to establish all four branches of Anna’s Taqueria before finally deciding to enlist Brush’s support and strike it out on his own.

“We want to be similar to Anna’s, but with a higher level of service and more authentic fare,” Herrera said, noting that he is in the process of fine tuning his recipes.

Brush and Herrera emphasized their plans to create a more authentic Mexican feel inside the restaurant.

“Real Taco’s decor was almost like a Chuck E. Cheese’s,” Brush said of the contemporary decoration of the previous restaurant, which featured angled slashes of color, polished metal accents and a floor of photographed grass.

Brush said that despite the need for a face-lift, the space was a great investment because it is already set up with a fully functional kitchen from its Real Taco days.

The owners plan for the restaurant’s initial hours to be 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., but Herrera and Brush said they intend to apply for a license to operate until 2 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

Some students said a new Mexican restaurant would be a welcome addition to the Square.

“I’m really excited,” said Julie B. Goldman ’05. “I love Anna’s and I ate there all the time over the summer.”

But others, like Texas resident Renisha A. Nellums ’06, remained skeptical. “This far from the border. It’s not Mexican food,” she said.

“The jury will soon be out on Felipe’s,” DiGiovanni said, “but if people like Anna’s, then they should like this new restaurant.”

—Staff writer Wendy D. Widman can be reached at widman@fas.harvard.edu.