Taqueria Agaves brings authentic flavor to Emporia

These days, the truck is mostly stationary, as the couple dishes up delicious recipes straight from western Mexico right here on Commercial St.

The couple are the owners of the Taqueria Agaves food truck, serving Emporia some of the best of what Jalisco and Michoacán have to offer.

If you think the name Taqueria Agaves sounds familiar, you may have tried the Gonzalez specialty dishes before. They used to park the truck at the Flinthills Mall, before transitioning to the lot outside of 915 Commercial St., where the building has served as indoor seating for hungry customers since November.

“We just kind of transitioned from the lot to here,” Nancy explained.

“Especially right now with the colder weather, it’s a lot better,” Tony added. “Sometimes people just want to go to a place and spend time and eat there. So this place has worked out perfectly for us.”

The secret to their success? A blend of the old and new.

According to Nancy, Taqueria Agaves focuses on traditional and authentic recipes, with a modern twist.

“We ended up combining both our families and our family’s recipes from years ago into making what it is right now,” she said.

The truck has become a blend of the family’s traditions, mixing food and techniques from both of their cultures.

“She is from Michoacán, I’m from Jalisco,” Tony explained. “Even though it’s only around two hours apart, the foods change a lot. All the recipes, they change a lot.”

On Tony’s side, that means plenty of dishes with birria, which originated in his family’s hometown of Jalisco. Taqueria Agaves’ recipe, he explained, is as close to the original as possible.

“Originally, it’s made out of goat,” he said. “Over the years, people just do it out of beef or lamb or even pork … If you do it how it was made originally, it’s actually made in a homemade oven made out of clay and bricks and then you heat it up either with wood or propane gas.”

The meat is then marinated and cooked slowly.

“We really can’t do those same steps just because the regulations here are a lot different. You have to have a certain piece of equipment that does it for you,” Tony said. “You can’t just do it at home.”

Though the methods may be a bit different, Tony takes care to make sure that the taste is the same. While the process is very long, the flavors at the end are well worth it.

“Even though the process to make the food may take a lot longer, the taste really is there,” Nancy said. “Any meal that we hand out with tortillas are handmade tortillas. We have to go and actually make the masa, make the tortillas, as soon as they order, so it takes a little longer, but we put more work and effort into what we do.”

Their most famous dish, the quesabirra, mixes both the birria and handmade tortillas, sealed together with quality cheeses.

“We sell out completely,” Nancy said. “Everyone comes out and says ‘what’s a quesabirria’ then they try it and they come back and get more.”

Additionally, Taqueria Agaves offer dishes you cannot find elsewhere in town, like the traditional birria plate — served up with onions, cilantro and tortillas.

“The more time goes by and people know that we have it, they get to try it, I think it’s becoming a little more popular,” Tony said.

To make their own signature birria, the entire process can take around seven to eight hours.

“More than a recipe, it’s the process. It’s how you cook it,” Tony said. “It’s just taking the time and putting in the effort.”

That effort comes not only from the process but also from finding the very best ingredients — from the meat to the seasonings.

“Not every meat is made for birria,” Tony explained. “Birria meats, the best ones are actually the tougher ones, like shoulder. If your meats are too soft, since your process is so long to cook it, it cooks for so many hours it will become too soft.”

From there, Tony said he focuses on fresh ingredients to make the marinade, which they make by hand using a molcajete.

“You can get everything, even the tiniest of spices, you can make it powder,” he said. “... The marinade is where I think the magic happens, where it all comes together.”

While the birria is often a sellout, it’s not their only popular dish. Taqueria Agaves also prides itself on a dish from Nancy’s side of the family — carnitas.

“Her family is always cooking carnitas, carnitas, carnitas, which I’m pretty sure is the most typical food out there in Michoacán,” he said. “So we are kind of just mixing things together.”

For the Gonzalezes, working with food has always been a dream, beginning a generation prior in Jalisco and Michoacán.

For Tony, it started by watching his family’s love of sharing food.

“Always in my head it was to do something like this,” Tony said. “Since I was a kid — and I come from Mexico — and my parents were always business people. Always trying to sell, sell, sell.

“My parents, they have cooked all their lives,” he explained. “Even in Mexico, they used to cook to sell. They sold tacos, cheese. They made their own cheese from step one, milking the cow and the process of making cheese. We just get all the recipes from them.”

“I remember my grandparents cooking the same stuff I’m cooking now, and it’s amazing,” Tony said. “To me, what we are doing, it’s a dream come true.”

The dream did not come, however, without hard work.

The Gonzalezes have been selling food for years, out of their house and at events before they even opened the truck.

“Especially during any events on Commercial St, that’s what we did for a few years before we got a food truck,” Nancy said. “It’s been great for us.”

Nancy said when she and Tony got together, that shared dream evolved more.

“We took more steps to actually making things a reality,” Nancy said.

After opening the food truck, Tony was able to quit his job at Tyson and begin cooking full-time. Now, the couple splits the responsibilities of owning the food truck.

“She mainly does all the taking orders and then I’m in the back just cooking,” Tony said.

In fact, it has become a whole family affair.

“It’s been really great, especially now that we have a family,” Nancy said. “You’ll see [our kids] taking orders, so it’s been giving us all more time together.”

Taqueria Agaves is open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. and Fridays and Saturdays from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.