If there’s one thing you need from your taco joints, it’s...
Bacon guacamole.
Oh right, and tacos.
And spiked horchata. And...
Anyway, this is Tinga, the bigger, boozier Santa Monica outpost of the young La Brea legend that’s—among other things—not afraid to mix some avocado with some bacon, now open.
Quick refresher: Tinga is on La Brea. It’s pretty tiny and has tacos. It’s delicious. This concludes our refresher.
And now: oh man, do you have some things to see. Because the owners have headed to Santa Monica and taken over Renee’s (RIP room filled with creepy dolls). Now it’s a funky, eclectic sprawl of braised short rib tacos and grilled cumin-and-garlic-rubbed pork tacos. Also: flat iron steak burritos. Guac mixed up with Nueske applewood-smoked bacon. Even some vegan falafel tacos. (Hey, it’s Santa Monica.)
So what you’ll do is, come here around sundown with a bunch of friends before you go out. Work your way through the various rooms—mismatched chairs here, red floors there—to the courtyard. Start ordering tacos by the dozen. But then... something will happen. The evening will start drawing out. You’ll begin befriending people at adjacent tables, sometime shortly after you’ve started ordering rounds of rum-spiked horchata and tequila Negronis.
You’ll... maybe not make it to wherever else you were going.
Bacon guacamole.
Oh right, and tacos.
And spiked horchata. And...
Anyway, this is Tinga, the bigger, boozier Santa Monica outpost of the young La Brea legend that’s—among other things—not afraid to mix some avocado with some bacon, now open.
Quick refresher: Tinga is on La Brea. It’s pretty tiny and has tacos. It’s delicious. This concludes our refresher.
And now: oh man, do you have some things to see. Because the owners have headed to Santa Monica and taken over Renee’s (RIP room filled with creepy dolls). Now it’s a funky, eclectic sprawl of braised short rib tacos and grilled cumin-and-garlic-rubbed pork tacos. Also: flat iron steak burritos. Guac mixed up with Nueske applewood-smoked bacon. Even some vegan falafel tacos. (Hey, it’s Santa Monica.)
So what you’ll do is, come here around sundown with a bunch of friends before you go out. Work your way through the various rooms—mismatched chairs here, red floors there—to the courtyard. Start ordering tacos by the dozen. But then... something will happen. The evening will start drawing out. You’ll begin befriending people at adjacent tables, sometime shortly after you’ve started ordering rounds of rum-spiked horchata and tequila Negronis.
You’ll... maybe not make it to wherever else you were going.
