Post-Dispatch file photo
El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery
Somewhere out there is the reader who recommended I try El Toluco Taqueria & Grocery. I have lost the email. I spend hours perusing online listings and driving around town, keeping an eye out for new spots, but El Toluco had eluded me. (In my defense, it is difficult to spot from the main road.) On one of my first visits, the children of owners Fausto and Maggie Pizarro had set up a horchata stand outside, and I suspected the reader had sent me somewhere special. I am not sure what tipped me from expectation to certainty — Fausto's al pastor pork or luscious lamb barbacoa or the comically overstuffed, porky tortas — but El Toluco is now an essential stop. Reader, whoever and wherever you are, thanks.
Hours: 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday, 10 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday (restaurant closed Monday, grocery open daily)
Last year's ranking: Rest of the Best
Opened: 2016