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In today’s episode of Tacos of Texas, we’re talking with Aaron Peña, owner of Gimme Gimme and the mastermind behind The Fajita Lounge in San Antonio, “Where Fajitas Go To Relax.” We’re hitting the grill at this year’s showdown where competitors, sizzling fajitas, Tejano music, and a tight-knit comunidad turn a backyard party into a family reunion. We’ll also hear about Aaron’s journey overcoming cancer, and how the San Antonio community became a guiding light along the way.
The full transcript of this episode of Tacos of Texas is available on the KUT & KUTX Studio website. The transcript is also available as subtitles or captions on some podcast apps.
[00:00:00] Hey, so four years ago this date was born out of the love and care of Aaron Peña at Squeezebox and four years later we’ve been able to turn this into the hottest fiesta event in the city, Bar Nine. Judges, chefs, it’s here, it is time. We’ve talked about this, you’ve thought about this. Pedal to the metal, whatever it takes. You’re going to be judged by five different judges. We’re not going to let you know who they are. Just so we can keep it kind of chill, but you guys probably know who’s walking around by now. You’re judged on four different categories, five points each, a total max score of 20 points. All right, so the victors go to spoils. We will have three hours, be fast, be serious, have fun. Everyone gets a little bit of meat, everyone gets a bit of love. Good luck, guys.
Mando Rayo [00:00:51] What’s up, Taco World? I’m taco journalist, Mando Rayo, and welcome to the Tacos of Texas podcast, El Seis, season six, produced by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. And we’re back exploring taco culture in Texas through the eyes of the people in the Lone Star State. So grab a flour tortilla and a cacheteada de frijoles and get ready for some muy tasty taco conversations. SABORRRRRRRR In today’s episode of Tacos of Texas, we’re talking with Aaron Peña, owner of Gimi Gimi and the mastermind behind the fajitas lounge in San Antonio, where fajitas go to relax. We’re hitting the grill at this year’s showdown where competitors, sizzling fajitas, Tejano music and a tight-knit comunidad turn a backyard party into a family reunion. We’ll also hear about Aaron’s journey overcoming cancer and how the San Antonio community became a guiding light along the way. Aaron Peña is one of the founders of the Fajita Lounge in San Antonio, Texas, a fundraising cookout for hospitality workers that’s all about community building. When he was diagnosed with cancer a year ago, he decided to be vocal about it, making sure to help create awareness, especially within the Latino community where talking about your health is often still a stigma. The response from the community was big, and it helped him through the hard days of treatment. Today, Aaron is cancer-free and he celebrates his victory with a community at the Fajita Lounge Showdown. Alright Aaron, thanks for being on the show and first of all, what’s your go-to fajita?
Aaron Pena [00:02:54] My go-to, if I get that personally, is chicken. But, I mean, the beef we marinate overnight, I mean you can’t really beat that, so. But if I had to choose between the two, I go chicken.
Mando Rayo [00:03:03] Nice, nice. Are you originally from San Antonio? Tell me a little bit about your background.
Aaron Pena [00:03:07] Yeah, so I’m originally from the south side of San Antonio. Grew up here, born and raised, went to McCallum High School. Opened my first establishment here in 2016, and now we’re sitting on my third establishment that we opened in the summer of 2023.
Mando Rayo [00:03:21] Nice, nice. And you seem like a young, up-and-coming entrepreneur. What got you going? What inspires you to kind of grow the scene here in San Antonio?
Aaron Pena [00:03:31] I mean, obviously inspired by making the city better, creating stuff that I wanna see within my own city. I got my start in the service industry about 14 years ago, just kind of bar backing, bussing tables, worked my way up to a bartender, did that for years, ran a few bars and finally got my own opportunity in 2016 to do my own thing. So, you know, since then I’ve been just kind of centered around cultivating spaces that I want to be a part of and see in my city.
Mando Rayo [00:03:58] Nice. Do you think that’s something that as you were looking at developing, that you’re like, I really wish San Antonio had this.
Aaron Pena [00:04:09] Yeah, I mean, I think that like for me, like I put a lot of like cultural Latin influence in my spaces. So I think when I opened my first space, it was something we were lacking. The squeeze box was a place where we did like Conjunto, Norteño, Cumbia music. And at the time on that street where we’re at, which is North St. Mary’s, just wasn’t really happening. So I kind of cognitive of like what you’re creating and what the inspiration is behind it. You kind of see it come through in the concept. And then where did this idea around the Paquita Lounge. Up from. So it happened at the Squeezebox, which is the bar I’m talking about my first place. We were doing a crawfish boil and we know how that goes. They go really quick, so the crawfish runs out. We had bought a couple of bags of just skirt steak fajita and we closed the gate. We started just barbecuing. Me and my friend, Chef Jake, Chef Matt Garcia, my buddy Duran Jones was there, my lady was there. Just a few friends. And I guess people smelt the meat or the mesquite or whatever and were like kind of peeking over the fence. They were like, yo, what’s going on back there? And we’re like, this is the Pajita lounge. Kind of made like an exclusive thing, and the name and the joke stuck, and we kept doing it. It started as a pop-up, and kind of just like no pun intended, caught fire and became this thing where it became like a community gathering space. So the fajita lounge is a traveling pop- up that traditionally is hosted at a bar. This really only marketed through Instagram. So the date is always determined through, you know, whatever the holiday or whatever we’re celebrating. Maybe it’s a bar’s anniversary or as a holiday on a Monday holiday weekend. Labor Day is always a really big one for us. And we pop up at different establishments, giving away 20 or 30 pounds of fajitas for free. So that’s where we are now, four years later.
Mando Rayo [00:05:47] So for you it was like, yes, it was about, obviously, you had to come up with something that’s like, okay, let’s make some fajitas, something that easy, but it’s also like, you brought community together through that.
Aaron Pena [00:06:00] It’s really become like a community service, like we just give the food away, it’s basically essentially a non-profit, only we haven’t filed as a 501c3 yet. So you know essentially it’s just based around gathering people together around the fire, cooking really good chef driven food and giving it away and just to build community and have a good party.
Mando Rayo [00:06:17] And why is that important for you to build community?
Aaron Pena [00:06:20] I think in like this current generation, there’s not a lot of these backyard, like, you know, when I was growing up, like my family was having these kind of asadas. And I think the younger generation doesn’t really have that anymore. So it’s kind of like a field of duty for me. Like I’m like showing the younger generation this is what we grew up on. This is what listen to. This is we made in the barbecue. So, I mean, just getting everybody together. And I mean it’s a really good time.
Mando Rayo [00:06:42] Nice. So when I think about like a carne asada, you know, it’s a backyard party, music, cumbias, norteño music, but people bring in their own foods, you know, they cook out, they help out, they supervise the griller.
Mando Rayo [00:06:58] Was that like similar?
Aaron Pena [00:07:00] Totally similar. I mean, we had people bringing in packs of fajitas that they’ve marinated themselves, jalapeño poppers. It became like this donation-based concept where people were bringing in stuff just to keep the party going. So, and then of course, I think it’s become this thing that you see now with this competition where everybody wants to be a part of it. So it’s like we’ve created this little onda that people wanna join. So, it’s cool, man. We’re really, really excited. My most silly ideas are usually the best ones.
Mando Rayo [00:07:24] Yeah, I love that. Yeah, right? That’s how this happened. Nice. Tell us about the fajita lounge, the competition itself. The showdown. The show down.
Aaron Pena [00:07:34] So we started four years ago at the Squeezebox. Back then, I think we only had four or five chefs. Buddies of ours who were running their own restaurants or doing their own pop-ups. They competed for a $500 cash prize. Every year since then, it’s gotten bigger and bigger. We’ve added more chefs, more well-known establishments, a few James Beard nominees, some Michelin stars floating around the mix. Our defending champion Leche de Tigre from 2025 is back today to defend their title. And they have the Michelin nod, the James Beards nod. So. Kind of just being in this industry and knowing this community, having these really heavy hitters who are just down to put their ego down and just come to the grill and be with their community, man, that’s what it’s about. And the showdown every year has gotten bigger and bigger and I think this one’s gonna be, weather permitting will be the best one yet.
Mando Rayo [00:08:18] Nice, nice. Well, yeah, and you know, I think bringing in kind of the not only grillers, but the craftsmen. Yeah. Right to it. And it truly feels like like a lounge. It’s not just like a backyard thing, but it’s a truly a lounge, right. And so what do you think attracts people to that? Or maybe on the flip side of that, do you think people will be like, oh, man, why can’t I just be a carne asada?
Aaron Pena [00:08:44] No, I think the attraction is everything. It’s the smell, it’s the music, it is the whole vibe, you know. So I think that’s something we’ve kind of centered our marketing around and just showing people that it’s fun. It’s not serious. You know, even having eight chefs who run their own, you know, Michelin starred restaurants, if they’re down to come and do it, then anybody can be a part of it, you know. So it’s just a fun thing, man. I really enjoyed doing it. And the showdown is like, we stress out. We look forward to it every year. It gets crazy. And then right now is the part where in two hours, I’m gonna crack a beer, I’m going to be like, okay, everything’s okay. Like, yeah, yeah. Right, right, right. Yeah.
Mando Rayo [00:09:18] And today, how many competitors do we have? We have about eight? Today, eight chefs, eight.
Aaron Pena [00:09:24] Quote unquote, I’m using parentheses in my air quotes, chefs who are trained chefs, have their own restaurants. And one, we’ve never let an amateur competitor come in, but the fire department is here to compete this year. And I wanted to include them. They’re buddies of ours, stations down the street, and they cook. They’re always posting their cooking. And I was like, you know what? You guys already have fire under your ass every day you’re at work. You can handle this. Yeah. So they’re here.
Mando Rayo [00:09:49] So they’re here to cook to you. And plus in case anything happens, the fire department’s here. You got trained professionals on the spot. Nine competitors total this year. Nice, I love that. So when we’re looking at community and the competition, it’s friendly. People come out for not only the fajitas, but they come out from music too, right? And we’re right here next to, next to Gimme Gimme is a record shop.
Aaron Pena [00:10:13] Yeah, it’s our attached record store. It’s Friends of Sound Records. They’ve been in business in San Antonio for quite a few years, and they’ve been at this location for a little over a year. So there’s always that music element, and anything that I do conceptually. The Bahita Lounge, I think, is 90% based around music, having that Tejano music and cumbias, and just making it a party, so.
Mando Rayo [00:10:33] Yeah. So what if you had a playlist of here’s my first five records that we’re going to throw down.
Aaron Pena [00:10:39] We actually do have a playlist. It’s called Fajita Lounge Bangers. Oh, okay. All right, let’s go. It’s on Spotify. It’ on Spotify if you guys want to look at it. But we play a lot of Emilio Navada, like Ram Hedda, Gary Hobbs, like old school, old school Tejano. And then we mix in like the modern cumbia. Of course, you got to have Selena, you know, just to keep the party going.
Mando Rayo [00:10:57] Nice, nice. Love it, love it. I know you’ve gone through some personal illness. Do you feel comfortable sharing some of that? Yeah, yeah, I talk about it a lot.
Aaron Pena [00:11:04] Yeah, yeah, I talk about it all the time. So actually, that’s part of the reason why I picked today’s date to do this, because in three days, it’ll be a year since I found out I had cancer. So this is gonna be a party. Yeah. Might be a little bit of an emotional party, but it’s gonna be party. So it was pretty intentional with the date today, picking it because April 15th is the day I found out and I went to like the hospital, and then from then was like surgery, chemotherapy, and all that stuff, so. It’s been a hell of a year, but I’m on the good side of it right now. I’ve been cancer-free since Thanksgiving. I’ve continuously tested cancer- free, thankfully, so it’s been, you know, it’s a strange journey with this thing. A lot of ups and downs. Even getting my strength back, you now, I went straight back to work. We had the last showdown was on August 30th, and I finished chemotherapy on August 18th. So I literally came like no eyebrows, no hair, like straight out of chemotherapy. Because I was like, I gotta go back to work. I had been gone the whole summer in treatment. So the last showdown was very emotional as well. But even then I was just like, work, work work. I gotta back to the work. So now I’ve had time to sit with this whole thing and just really be thankful for it. So today is gonna be a good celebration.
Mando Rayo [00:12:18] That’s good. That’s really good to hear. It’s actually really good to hear you sharing that and talking about it, because I know that within the Latino communities, we don’t talk about our health. I know. Yeah. Or when it hits us. Yeah. It’s a stigma. It’s stigma, right? Or we keep it in secret. Yeah.
Aaron Pena [00:12:33] Yeah, and that’s the whole thing that I’ve really been so vocal about it, I mean I talk about it on the news, wherever they have me, just to let people know that like, go to the doctor. Yeah. If you feel something, if you see something, like, you know what I mean? Because it goes quick and obviously cancer doesn’t discriminate, age, race, whatever, so it’s been a sobering year but I’m really happy to be on this part of it.
Mando Rayo [00:12:55] No, that’s good. It’s really great to hear and it’s also inspiring to not only see a young Latino doing his own businesses, but also tackling all these these hardships, these barriers, these adversities, and then bringing the community together.
Aaron Pena [00:13:10] Yeah, that’s what got me through the whole thing, even going back to when I first found out, just having my community with me. So it’s important to keep that going as I obviously get better.
Mando Rayo [00:13:21] To grow and do what I’m gonna do. And how did the community show up for you when you first thought, oh man.
Aaron Pena [00:13:26] We had a fajita lounge, we had a benefit, and it was nuts. I mean, it was, I’ve never given out so many hugs in one day. It was really crazy. The support was insane. I had, I mean 20 chefs from all around the city cooking and helping and everybody just volunteered and it got me through treatment, literally. Like literally, you know, the craziest thing about having cancer is the bill. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. So without that, I don’t know where the hell I would have been, to be honest. It was just, you know, community sport and that kind of hardship is everything.
Mando Rayo [00:13:59] Right. Well, you know, you do feel the vibe as soon as you come in here. I saw a lot of familiar faces. Yeah, absolutely. You know, Jose and Arne Taggs. And so you see all these people, even that come in from outside of San Antonio, absolutely, to come celebrate this. You know like that’s a pretty big impact.
Aaron Pena [00:14:18] Yeah, it’s crazy and it’s still like shocking to me because like I said, it was a silly idea, but it’s fun and people love it and we love it. Having Arnie here is crazy. It’s our second time having him. We had him, he cooked with us in January and it was just like, we clicked. Like, that’s our feel, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s like immediate, like I love them immediately. Jose Rolat was here, he was our judge last year for the third annual. He’s back as a judge again, we love Jose. So this thing has brought us in connection with a lot of good people and I’m just very thankful for that.
Mando Rayo [00:14:47] I love that. What do you hope for the turnout for today?
Aaron Pena [00:14:51] I hope it’s madness. I hope everybody gets like 20 tacos each and everybody has a lot of drinks and we dance and we have fun. Nice, nice.
Mando Rayo [00:15:01] And do you want to continue it on or?
Aaron Pena [00:15:02] Yeah, we’re going to keep doing it. It’ll be, obviously, the pop-up will remain. We do it now, like, almost quarterly. We like to do it on the Sundays where there’s a holiday the next day so we can have a good time.
Mando Rayo [00:15:12] Yeah, yeah
Aaron Pena [00:15:15] And like MLKJ, President’s Day, exactly, everybody hungry. So we do the pop-up still, but we’ll continue to show down every year. Hopefully it grows. Maybe next year we get so big that we can’t do it at my bars anymore. We’ll go to a park or something. I don’t know.
Mando Rayo [00:15:30] I’m tired of hosting. You have to send the early bird crew to save you the spot if you go to the park, right? Yeah, I brak. That’s the thing. Yeah, the night before I braked. Nice. Love it. Anything else you’d like to share?
Aaron Pena [00:15:42] No, I don’t think so, no, we got it. Yeah, thank you, Monty.
Mando Rayo [00:15:43] Sounds good, yeah. Awesome. Okay it’s a Sunday Tardeada at the Fajita Lounge in San Antonio Texas. That’s right we’re here for the showdown. We have nine competitors showing off their best fajita skills. We got colgados, we got over the grill, smoking, we got burritos over there, lots of salsa and and aguacate over there. So we are here to learn more about what’s you know what makes the fajita lounge a lounge and and see who wins top prize as well right So I’ll be tasting a couple of things here and there. Hey baby, que paso? I thought I was the only taco. Nah, you’re not. I’m a taco too. Arnie, you are the judge here for the fajita lounge showdown. One of the judges. One of a judge. So tell me, what do you expect on a good fajita?
Speaker 4 [00:16:44] For me it needs to be a skirt steak. It also needs to be juicy, moist, and tender. You know, I mean we all know skirt steaks inside are kind of tough, so there’s a little bit of work to do to make them tender, right? Yeah. Of course they’re chefs, most of these guys are chefs, so they have liberty to do whatever they want. Right. And they’re allowed to put anything they want, any condom or whatever, but I’m trying to, in my head it’s like the fajita is still the star. So I want to taste fajita when I taste the food. Nice, nice. When I get the plate or the taco, you better have a lot of fajita in there. Yeah, right, right. I like big fat fajita tacos. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Mando Rayo [00:17:18] Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s good. I love that. But you know like fajitas is like an everyday thing now, right? So you can get them at Chili’s, get them anywhere, but it’s rooted in Texas, right, in northern Mexico and Texas.
Speaker 4 [00:17:29] Correct. Fajitas was one of those throwaway meats, right? And they used to give them to the cowboys, the vaqueros, when they were driving cattle up north to Kansas to the feed lots and stuff. They figured out how to make them good and tender out there on the ring. They would cook them, grill them, and they would eat them. And so I think it was in the early 70s or whatever when they became really popular here. In Austin it was Tony Falcon and Ninfaz up in Houston but she’s from the valley so I’m not saying the bike that came from the Valley, the pain came from The Valley.
Speaker 5 [00:18:03] Alright, thank you, RD. Love you, bro.
Mando Rayo [00:18:07] All right, we’re here with Chef Mara Sefni. It’s hot, it’s sizzling. Tell us what you’re serving up for us today.
Speaker 6 [00:18:13] We have flour tortillas with a charred green onion, crema, beef belly, and then a cilantro chimichurri with curly green onions, cucumber, and a charged lemon.
Mando Rayo [00:18:28] Why do you think you’re just going to stand out above above like maybe a traditional fajita?
Speaker 6 [00:18:33] It’s really fresh and clean, bright. It’s bright.
Mando Rayo [00:18:36] I see that you’re doing it like a nautisco.
Speaker 6 [00:18:37] Yeah, we pre-grilled it, so it has some grilled flavor, and then finish it off on the peaceful.
Mando Rayo [00:18:44] Nice, nice. Love it, love it. Well, good luck and can’t wait to try it. Thank you. All right, all right, we’re here with
Speaker 7 [00:18:54] Chef Kirk, tell us what’s going on here. Well, Liz and Francisco came up with this clever and amazing idea of doing a trompo. And they’ve asked me, hey, join our team. How can I not? Very clever ideas. A love story of a tromp of Mexico meets Northern Texas. And that’s what they’re having, a little racheta action, trompe style with carboncito over here.
Speaker 8 [00:19:17] Together and it’s a prime fajita and we marinated it with our knees oh then we add a layer of like onion so it caramelized in between a little bit of those if you can see all the fat on the outside is gonna get all crispy and beautiful and then the inside still gonna be on the medium
Mando Rayo [00:19:39] Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 8 [00:19:40] Hopefully this tacos burcados were not good!
Mando Rayo [00:19:41] I can’t wait to try it
Speaker 8 [00:19:42] And our tortillas are homemade bacon frittata. Oh yeah.
Speaker 9 [00:19:49] So my name is Joe Alderete. I’m a firefighter with the City of San Antonio for over 20 years. All of us here are firefighters that are at either Fire Station 7 or Fire Station 28. You hear all these anecdotes and stories about firemen cooking. Well, I’ve cooked with some of these guys for over twenty years. And you’re up against like some major chefs, right? So…
Mando Rayo [00:20:08] What’s gonna stand out for y’all?
Speaker 9 [00:20:09] So I believe our fajitas are gonna be the best ones that are gonna stand apart, right? We got them marinated, tenderized, from Burgheim Meat Market. We buy them religiously at the firehouse.
Mando Rayo [00:20:20] Nice nice well I can’t wait to try it and you know doing a great job for the community thank you not only when you’re off but when you are on. That’s it man I appreciate it. Thank you brother. Thanks for your time. Okay. Be good. All right we’re here with the reigning champions Leche de Tigre. Yes sir. Tell me your name brother. Chef Santi. Chef Santi Orale. So you won last year and now how are you gonna keep the momentum going?
Speaker 10 [00:20:46] Not gonna lie, even as defending champions, you get a little bit nervous sometimes. You know, we’re gonna do the same way we do it every single day at our restaurant, and it’s just putting our heart in our hand with every single stroke as we cook throughout. We did source out to some local farmers for both of our produce and both beef. So, you know, you are entrusting the great state of Texas to provide the great stuff that it’s so good at providing. We have some great beef from the Dallas area, and a lot of manzana peppers from Texas as well. Oh, nice!
Mando Rayo [00:21:14] Oh, nice, nice. Well, I already see the line forming. You guys got a name. Coming here just feels like a big community.
Speaker 10 [00:21:23] It is, you know like before we were involved you know just like everyone else we were like kind of touched by this great uh like event uh you know something as simple when somebody goes hey bring some meat I’ll cook it for you and we can cook the community and then it starts becoming a little like snowball effect it’s really neat you know it’s almost like getting a little get together and knowing that there’s never gonna be be missing good times or good music man it’s Take a run.
Mando Rayo [00:21:50] It’s a great recipe, it’s a good recipe. Okay, thank you so much. Thank you guys. Alright mi gente, we’re here at the Fajita Lounge with the homie, Enrique Lozano, Chico Town. Represent. Yeah, 915. That’s right, that’s right. So, okay, tell us about the set up, what’s going on and what’s gonna be the standout for you.
Speaker 11 [00:22:14] So honestly, we’re doing what we’re known for back home in the 915 El Paso, we do colgados, which basically is like a Argentinian style cooking, but we made it very much norteño, so like north of Mexico, you know? And so yeah, what we do is we basically hang meat, vegetables, we got the classic fajita, you now, the skirt steak, we’ve got that, we got some ribs in the back, we got all kinds of vegetables, I mean, we even put flowers and stuff to make it look pretty. Some grilled avocado and honestly like we just want to like I guess stand out with like the way the way of the presentation and the way that the food tastes we’re using an oak and mesquite you know it’s a really smoky flavor and more than anything just you’re not trying to make some delicious food
Mando Rayo [00:22:58] Yeah, perfect. Well, I can’t wait brother. Thank you. Yeah, good luck. Okay, Aaron, man, it is wild out here.
Aaron Pena [00:23:07] Yeah, it’s good.
Mando Rayo [00:23:08] What do you think so far?
Aaron Pena [00:23:09] I mean it’s great, I mean we expected a capacity crowd, we’re thankful for the turnout. People are vibing, the vibe is strong, the food looks delicious, smells great, so we’re ecstatic, man. This is, with the weather holding up, I mean, it’s what we want.
Speaker 5 [00:23:20] That’s what we want. That’s we want it, right? Yeah, yeah. We’re thankful.
Mando Rayo [00:23:25] Yeah, I feel like, you know, like everybody has like some smoke on there. A little rain and smoke. Oh, yeah, yeah. Even the guy in the business suit out there. But nobody cares. Yeah, nobody cares! Everybody’s happy. I love it. I love, I love. Well, you, know, I just want to say just thank you and congratulations. Thank you, Manda. I appreciate that. You know, I know, like I think the big winner, it’s not going to be the champion, but it’s about how you bring community together. That’s what it’s about.
Aaron Pena [00:23:49] I mean, you know, the champion’s gonna get some cash, they’re gonna have a lot of fun, but I mean this is, for me, walking around, looking at all the happy people, having a good time, that’s what it’s about, it’s all about that, you now, so. All right, well, thanks for,
Mando Rayo [00:23:59] Alright, well thanks for having us. Of course man, always a pleasure. Alright.
Aaron Pena [00:24:02] See you soon. Yeah. Thank you.
Mando Rayo [00:24:05] Oh my god, those frijoles look so good. They are. Yeah? They look good.
Speaker 12 [00:24:10] I heard, I saw them. This is my second time coming to the fajita lounge. Okay. The first time it was like the best. It was amazing. So when we were hungry and we’re like, let’s let’s, we gotta go on support. Yeah. Yeah. So we were like excited all day for it and we were ready, ready to come and eat. Nice.
Mando Rayo [00:24:28] So you think this is like part of the culture of San Antonio, like how everybody comes together.
Speaker 12 [00:24:34] For sure, look, Tejano capital of the world, we’re spinning Tejana music, like, it’s all about the cultura, the people, the food, like, you know, why not? And then the heart of downtown, so, yeah.
Mando Rayo [00:24:46] Nice, nice. And then you’re doing a botana, what is this, a frijoles?
Speaker 12 [00:24:51] It was some chadu beans. These are amazing. They got some kilo basa sausage. So hey Eat while we’re waiting
Mando Rayo [00:25:03] Love it, love it. Well thank you so much, we appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. What’s up behind there? We’re here, we go way back. Way back! What brings you out here and like what does community mean to you in regards to like what you hear, what you smell, todo.
Speaker 13 [00:25:19] Yeah, so I first heard about the Viejita Lounge like less than a year ago and I’ve lived here over 20 years, but I thought what was really cool is that it brings a lot of different segments of San Antonio here. They really also tie it. To the local community and you meet total strangers and you start networking and talking to them and also there’s always like well right now there’s not but there’s always Tejano music and I think they also try to keep that alive right and people in a good mood they want to have some good food some good music so I think that’s important too that we’re bringing that kind of music to more folks that may not go to the Tejana nightclubs or hear the Tejan music.
Mando Rayo [00:25:51] Love it, love it, and all, you know, through a good carne asada, good paquita.
Speaker 13 [00:25:55] Yeah, exactly! They go hand in hand. A good beer, a good carne asada, a good fajita, and a good music.
Mando Rayo [00:26:02] Perfect okay we’re here for the fajitas but you know what I’m not a judge so we tried a couple and you know to me like I went to Naco Taco with chef Francisco Estrada and Lisette Martinez with special guest chef Kirk you’ve seen them on the podcast in season five I took a bite and it was like oh my god I’m eating a fresh fajita taco on the beach with palmeras, limes, and tenderness, cebollas, orange kind of like the sauteed orange cebolla and aguacate jalapeño salsa and guess what? I’m not allergic to avocado anymore because i tried it and nothing happened all right next i hit up leche de tigre and you know the reigning champs for a reason they have the norteño thing going super tender and uh the salsa manzano and what stood out for me definitely is the queso menonita. Shout out to the region of Chihuahua, El Paso, Home Turf. That taco hit just perfect for me because it all blended together and it’s like a hearty, cheesy, greasy taco. Boom.
Speaker 14 [00:27:33] So third place, I went to this place last night for the first time. It was Chingon. This is Marisco’s place. It had some of the best sushi I’ve ever had. It’s weird. But everything was so good. The ceviche was fresh. Third place winner is Awazul. Alright, the second place winner, this is actually crazy because we’ve never let amateurs compete, so the San Antonio Fire Department has won second place! Congratulations, boys. All right. Number one, first place. You guys ready? The fourth annual Fahita Lama Showdown champion, and still champion. Come on.
Speaker 15 [00:28:26] Let’s have a Disney!
Mando Rayo [00:28:48] San Antonio, man, you never disappoint. Coming here is like coming to, you know, my Tio’s backyard and everybody has a drink in hand, a taco in hand and lots of familia time. It doesn’t matter if like you know each other, you don’t. It all kind of comes together through community and uh that’s kind of what you see here at the fajita lounge and um you know that yes there is a competition but and yes there is a composition and and with all the competitors but the overall winner like i said before talking to Aaron the overall winter is community and San Antonio you know how to do community well and with that I want to shout out, you know, some of my favorite fajitas in Texas, in all of Texas. Well, there’s lots, you know, definitely Naco Taco is, you know, one of the competitors here, James Beard, nominee. So they were amazing. They did a trompo de fajita, which is like, I don’t know if it’s the first time I see it. Definitely if you’re in the Houston area, Nimpas. You gotta go to Nimpass, classic, classic Tex-Mex and fajitas, you can’t go wrong there. And then finally, if you are in Austin, Mats and Rancho have been around since the 1950s. And so you gotta go there. I don’t know if they use a skirt steak anymore, but it’s still pretty solid. Still pretty solid, so shout out to those places. In the next próximo, tacos of Texas, taco cousins, empanadas, pupusas, y más. Let’s explore how cultures across Latin America and beyond have their own version of a handheld masa-filled goodness.
Louisa Van Assche [00:30:45] The Tacos of Texas podcast is presented by Identity Productions in partnership with KUT and KUTX Studios. Our host and producer is Mando, El Taco journalist, Rayo. Our audio is mixed by Nicholas Worden. Our video production is taken care of by Dennis Burnett. Our wonderful interns are Quetzal and Diego Rayo, and our story and line producer is me, Luisa Min Van Asse. Music was created by Peligrosa in Austin, Texas. And King Benny Productions located in the Quinto Barrio of Houston.
This transcript was transcribed by AI, and lightly edited by a human. Accuracy may vary. This text may be revised in the future.
