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Popular Austin food truck Cuantos Tacos will now be found at a new location after moving to the Arbor Food Park at 1108 East 12th Street in Central East Austin from its previous address of 2967 Manor Road. It will debut at the new spot starting tomorrow, Thursday, June 25 at 5 p.m.
Cuantos owner Luis “Beto” Robledo opened the truck in September 2019, focusing on Mexico City-style tacos and quesadillas made with nixtamalized corn tortillas. Fillings spanned suadro, achete, buche, carnitas, longaniza, and mushrooms, with specials such as mollejitas (gizzards) and lengua. The truck often sells out of food, too.
Robledo’s family is from Matamoros, a city in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. For Cuantos’s opening day, it’ll offer lengua and matamoros taco specials, the latter a nod to his family, consisting of bistec made with onions, cilantro, queso fresco, and avocado.
Cuantos had to move from Manor Road, a location at auto-repair shop Fast Eddie’s, because Robledo’s landlord Edward Banks (aka Mr. Eddie) was told by the property owner that the land is being sold and he had to vacate the premises by June 20. This was despite the shop already being in the middle of a lease and Banks saving up to eventually buy the property, as reported by Fox 7. Banks will still offer mechanic services, and he is open to the idea of reopening the shop somewhere else.
Robledo shared Banks’s story on social media when he explained why the truck was moving. “This situation has really ignited me into getting more involved in helping people that are born and raised in Austin,” he wrote, “or have come to make Austin their home for good, to have a better opportunity to getting accessible education on how to go about creating a business (especially in food service).”
Cuantos’s new East 12th Street location will feature seating, parking, and shade. It’ll eventually house Cuantos’s second, larger truck featuring a trompo, which means al pastor tacos is a future menu item.
When Cuantos’s bigger truck does make its debut, Robledo plans on moving the original smaller truck into a new location. He’s currently in the middle of working something out with forthcoming southeast Austin brewery Meanwhile Brewing at 3901 Promontory Point Drive whenever it does open.
Cuantos’s hours on East 12th Street will be from 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Its neighbors at the Arbor Food Park are coffee truck El Tigre and Baja-style taco truck Rosarito.
- Cuantos Tacos [Instagram]
- Cuantos Tacos [Facebook]
