Taco Boy opening date announced for new Biltmore Park site, new menu rolls out
ASHEVILLE - An extensive renovation project is wrapping up in time to welcome the first guests into the newest location of a popular regional taco restaurant.
Taco Boy will open for lunch and dinner service this fall at 2 Town Square Blvd., Suite 120, in Biltmore Park Town Square. After delays, the restaurant's opening date was set for Oct. 28.
Taco Boy specializes in Mexican-inspired cuisine and fresh-juice margaritas, cocktails and other beverages and treats.
Corporate Executive Chef Miguel “Migs” Franco has revamped Taco Boy’s dining menu, which the restaurant group is introducing to the Asheville market before rolling it out to other locations across the Carolinas.
Beverage Director Maty Hollingsworth, of Asheville, has crafted a menu of alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks from agua frescas to the Winter Paloma with pomegranate.
“We’re taking a deeper dive into the quality," said founder and co-owner Karalee Nielsen Fallert. "A lot of times when you’re in a high-volume environment over time things get adjusted or changed to meet that production and I really wanted to get back to the root of what we have done in years past."
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Taco Boy across the Carolinas
The Biltmore Park eatery is the latest to open for the South Carolina-based company. In 2006, Taco Boy debuted at Folly Beach, followed by locations in downtown Charleston in 2009 and Summerville in South Carolina.
In 2022, Taco Boy expanded across the North Carolina border to open in West Asheville.
In January, a new dining room will open in Charlotte.
“We’re leaning in on our training and focused on seeing our guests as paramount and making sure that when people leave they’re craving to come back,” Fallert said.
Inside Taco Boy Biltmore Park
Each restaurant’s design differs to accentuate the space and reflect its neighborhood and city while encompassing the Taco Boy brand.
Biltmore Park incorporates Mexican architecture with arches in windows and on recessed shelving, plus a long, wooden bar.
A mural hand-painted by Asheville artist Wyatt Grant sets the dining room’s tone with bright, abstract shapes that bring warmth and liveliness to the space. Grant also was commissioned for the West Asheville restaurant’s mural.
The Biltmore Park restaurant is estimated to be nearly 40% larger than its West Asheville counterpart at more than 4,500 square feet, compared to nearly 2,700 square feet. The indoor seating area is an estimated 25% larger at Biltmore Park.
The new venue’s layout includes high-top tables and booths in the dining room and at the bar, and additional seating in the sunroom and outdoor patio. Glass accordion doors may be pulled back to connect the sunroom and dining room to merge the indoor-outdoor experience.
“We ended up working with Biltmore Farms to enclose the outside where it was just a covered awning before,” Fallert said. “We have enclosed it to create that sunroom feeling with lots of plants and beautiful sunlight coming in.”
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New menu alert
Asheville customers are getting the first taste of new recipes as the city has become the beta-testing market for Taco Boy’s newest menu and in-house tortilla concept.
Last December, the West Asheville restaurant opened with the company’s first in-house tortilleria that produces heirloom corn tortillas. Biltmore Park will have its own tortilleria that invites guests to watch the process through a window.
“We have never sold as many tortillas as we do (in Asheville). In Charleston, we sell 60-70% flour tortillas and 30-40% corn tortillas,” Fallert said. “What’s exciting is when we showed people what fresh, yummy, house-made corn tortillas can do and how that shifted up there, so it’s predominantly corn tortillas.”
Due to the increased demand and volume, the corn tortilla program will be relocated to the larger Biltmore Park production space and will supply both Asheville locations with fresh tortillas daily.
In July, Franco joined the Taco Boy team and immediately began to rethink the restaurant’s menu and how it could be improved while still offering customer favorites.
Franco, who has an extensive 25-year background in Latin cuisine, aims to bring more excitement to the menu with new and improved scratch-made dishes and returning classics from appetizers to entrées to desserts.
“For the simplicity and the complexity of the ceviche is my absolute favorite,” Franco said. “But I like meat, so probably the steak is my second favorite and then the tortas are one of my favorites.”
Sauce flavors have been renewed and are now made in-house. Large dinner plate portions and smaller lunch portions are now available.
New dining menu highlights
Guacamole en Molcajete. Made-to-order guacamole is served in a mortar and uses room temperature avocados that Fallert said improve the taste.
Queso Fundidio. A traditional dish that Fallert describes as an elevated queso. The stretchy Mexican cheese blend is baked in an oven and served with fresh soft corn tortillas.
Ceviche. A mix of yellowtail, citrus, pepper blend, tomatillos, and avocados that are topped with pistachios.
Empanadas. Available as either mushroom and queso with cilantro key lime aioli or shrimp and crab served with chipotle aioli.
Al pastor taco. Said to be Fallert’s favorite, achiote spiced pork is topped with grilled pineapple, salsa verde, onions and cilantro and served in a corn tortilla or made by upgraded into a quesataco.
New desserts include fried vanilla ice cream, pistachio-sugared churros with dulce de leche, and arroz con leche.
For vegans, Be-Hive ― a plant-based chorizo ― and jackfruit ― which offers a texture like shredded chicken or pork ― may be substituted in many dishes.
The lunch menu includes tortas, burritos and enchiladas served with Mexican rice and beans.
Dinner entrées include a whole steamed snapper, Mole de Carnitas, New York Strip and enchiladas.
New drink menu highlights
The beverage menu will be the same as West Asheville with a curated list of wines, tequila, mezcal, specialty and seasonal cocktails and zero-proof drinks but Biltmore Park will offer more beers on draft.
Other beverage favorites include tamarind agua fresca, Mezcal Old Fashioned, Winter Paloma with pomegranate, and Horchata ― a popular Mexican drink made with rice, coconut milk and cinnamon.
Stop into Taco Boy Biltmore Park for $5 house margaritas on Tequila Tuesdays.
Taco Boy Biltmore Park
Where: Two Town Square Blvd., Ste. 120, Biltmore Park Town Square, Asheville.
Opening: Oct. 28
Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday.; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
Info: View the full menu at www.tacoboy.net and follow on social media @TacoBoyEats.
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Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at [email protected] or follow her on Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Taco Boy opening in Biltmore Park with new menu, in-house tortillas