Taco + Piña​​ Opens For Cinco De Mayo Amid Coronavirus

ARLINGTON, VA — Chef Graham Bartlett's dream of launching Taco + Piña, a new taco restaurant in Shirlington, did not originally include opening in the midst of a pandemic. But, with the arrival of the new coronavirus, that all changed.

"We started on the project probably about a year and a half ago," Bartlett said. "The design and the construction took about eight months. We took our time doing that and we had it all ready to open when everything happened about a month ago. It was actually quite the timing, I guess you could say."

Bartlett, a protege of D.C. restauranteur Richard Sandoval, decided the best thing to do was take a few weeks off to reassess and let the emotions of the situation subside. It also give him a chance to see how some of his friends in the restaurant community were responding to the pandemic.

"We talked to a lot of the vendors," he said. "They gave us a lot of insight. Unfortunately, we did have the luxury of learning from other people's, not mistakes if you will, but figuring things out as they went, saying, 'What works and what doesn't? How can we make this something that is acceptably safe for the community, for our staff, from physical and psychological elements?'"

So, when Taco + Piña opens its doors Tuesday at the Village at Shirlington (4041 Campbell Ave.) for Cinco de Mayo, it will be offering food to its customers for contactless pickup and delivery. Customers can place orders online.

"We already had built-in a pretty good component of being a take-out spot," Bartlett said. "We didn't really have to recharge so much on the elements of dominion and the divine, all those things that a lot of other people had to deal with, unfortunately. We're already inherently there in our business model. We did want to make sure that we spent a lot of time switching gears and focusing on how to make it safe and friendly and all those things. That's all we really spent the last couple of weeks doing."

Bartlett has done a bit of everything in the restaurant world, from fine dining, cooking in hotels in Mexico and all over the U.S. Taco + Piña is the culmination of his years of experience cooking and putting food on a plate that's accessible and approachable in a casual setting.

"I really wanted to make it something that's not pretentious, tongue in cheek, and kind of make fun of ourselves," he said. "We put a lot of emphasis even into the packaging. I did not go out and buy the cheapest to-go box, you know what I mean? ... We're going to put all this effort and making really fresh food, great product and everything, and the last thing I wanted was it to look sloppy once you take it out the door."

But it's the food that goes into that packaging where Bartlett's experience and creativity get a chance to shine. Many of the marinades and salsa they use are traditionally based,

"We use very authentic ingredients — achiote, a base of onions and garlic chilies, lots of fresh chilies, like six different dried chilies — we use in different forms, all those things," he said. "But then we also bring it to a modern presentation, mix it up, throw in some other ingredients here and there. It's something that you can't find anywhere else."

Aside from the satisfaction of finally getting Taco + Piña's doors open after such a long time, Bartlett is also pleased to be bringing the restaurant to Arlington. He'd searched all over the D.C. area to find a place that would be a good fit for the restaurant he was envisioning. He loved the neighborhood feel of Shirlington. As soon as he saw there was space available, he snatched it up.

"There's such a diverse demographic here," he said. "They have really great expectations. They have high expectations, which is good. I wouldn't want to settle for a place that accepts something a little bit more mediocre."

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This is one in a series of articles Patch is writing about small businesses in the area dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. Small business owners can also add their the name of their business to our list of open businesses in Arlington.