Driving home from work one day, Cheryl Vargas was craving a new flavor. The owner of Oak Park’s Studio928 has lived in the Brookfield and La Grange area for more than a decade.
She noticed the Aztec warrior painted on the windows of the restaurant at 9200 Ogden Ave. in Brookfield offering passersby a taco.
“I’m like, I need to try a new Mexican restaurant, and I like to try new things. So, I stumbled across it and just drove in here,” Vargas said. “That’s how I found Taco Azteca.”
Inside the relaxed space customers order at the register and take a seat. Food from the extensive menu of Mexican and a few American favorites is brought to the table.
The first time Vargas chose rice and beans only. Her typical first test for flavor. Then she decided to get quesabirria. She had tried it from a food truck once before and thought it was good.
“I’m like, wow, this thing, this is amazing!” Vargas said.
Quesabirria has made its way onto local menus over the past 10 years – an Instagram star for its combination of quesadilla fixings with birria, a style of gently stewed meat. The recipe originated in Tijuana, but the birria process comes from Jalisco. In Mexico the protein is goat, but in the U.S. it’s usually a beef.
Tortillas are dipped in oil. Cheese is melted and crisped on the same grill, before the two are joined together. Birria meat goes on next, then onions and cilantro, if you so desire. The filled tortilla is bent into a taco-shape, and the exterior is grilled again and served with a beef broth to dip in. The liquid has some spicy heat but doesn’t overwhelm other flavors.
“What makes it excellent is the crunchiness and the texture of the taco itself,” Vargas said. “And then the meat, it’s stewed until it’s really tender. And it’s just great taste.”
Taco Azteca opened in 2019. The whole Yepez family pitches in. Eduardo Yepez owned a carniceria, a butcher shop, in Mexico. His wife, Marta, keeps things moving in the back of the store. Their son, Uri, translated for his father for this interview.
“I’ve always been a businessman,” Eduardo Yepez said. “When we got here, my dream was to open a restaurant. That seemed easier than opening a butcher shop.”
“He said, ‘I’m specifico,’ meaning he always tries to find the best quality,” Uri Yepez translated.
This attention to detail is something that Cheryl Vargas noticed right away.
“I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I was not constantly spitting out terrible things from my meat. And it’s obviously because he has the background as the butcher, right? Because I mean, there’s nothing bad in there that you’re going to eat. It’s all going to be wonderful,” she said.
The modest-sized restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Chilaquiles is a popular item on the breakfast menu. Fried tortilla chips are simmered in salsa, then covered with garnishes, like onion, cilantro, crema, and cheese. That’s topped with any style egg you prefer. It’s best eaten on the spot because the combination of some chips maintaining their crispness and others becoming soft and chewy is the essence of this dish.
A favorite on the lunch and dinner menu is enchiladas.
“I like the chicken. I like the cheese,” Uri Yepez said.
“Yes, yes, yes. They’re all good,” Vargas added.
The Yepez family feels that what makes their offerings stand out is both the quality of the ingredients and the care they put into the preparation.
“The timing for it, the prepping is very important. Like the barbacoa, it can take up to eight hours getting cooked,” Eduardo Yepez said. “And it has to be on low flame. We don’t got to rush. We got to try to find the time to make it and do it right.”
Get in on the flavor
9200 Ogden Ave., Brookfield
Hours: Sun – Thur 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Fri – Sat 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
