Editor’s note: This is part of The Know’s series, Staff Favorites. Each week, we offer our opinions on the best that Colorado has to offer for dining, shopping, entertainment, outdoor activities and more. (We’ll also let you in on some hidden gems).
Everyone falls in love with their first ski mountain, and mine was Steamboat Springs. In college, I went on a group trip there even though I didn’t know how to ski, just so I could get a free vacation. I envied my classmates who spent their time on blue runs, while I was stuck on the bunny hill, but at least the views on the greens were just as breathtaking.
Steamboat is a true mountain town — not one where you blink and miss it — with culture, traditions, longtime residents and a strong food scene. One of my best friends has a mountain home there that I’ve visited over the past years, and my brother even lived there for a couple of years.
And there’s one place we make sure to visit every time: Taco Cabo. Not only is it a great place to stop if you’re craving a handheld breakfast burrito before you hit the slopes, but it’s also the perfect stop after tubing on a summer day. You can come straight in your wet swimsuit and enjoy some affordable, authentic street tacos and margaritas on the patio that overlooks the Yampa River and Howelsen Hill. If you’ve already booked an expensive AirBnb for the weekend, this little taqueria shack by the water is worth a meal out.
In the mornings, my favorite meal is a chorizo breakfast burrito that’s grilled on the outside with fresh pico de gallo, shredded hash browns, egg and cheese for $10.75. They’re made-to-order, not the type that are made early in the morning and sit in a warming drawer all day, and the look on any new visitors’ face after their first bite is one of my favorite parts. For lunch or dinner, you can’t go wrong with any of the burritos or tacos, but I always make sure to get the Al Pastor street taco with slow roasted pork shoulder, which is cooked on a vertical rotisserie on display in the summers, pineapple and adobo for $5. Owner Kent Hall said it’s the most popular menu item.
Hall is often there greeting customers with slices of watermelon in the summers or fresh baked bread samples in the winter. He uses part of the kitchen for his baking hobby, which he started 10 years ago, and sells bolillo rolls, baguettes, country loaves and buttermilk biscuits.
“My wife said if I bought one more book on bread she would divorce me, so now I know how to get rid of her,” Hall joked.
Hall started the business as a small taco stand in 2008 after getting out of the construction industry. His wife Ilia’s family is from Mexico and taught him some tricks, but said he always dreamed of opening his own taqueria. The first day they opened, there was a line out the door, and he said business has grown immensely every year since.
“When we first opened, I thought, ‘Man, if we could just do $600 a day, that’d be amazing,’ and we blew that off the door the first day with just one table and eight chairs,” Hall said.
Taco Cabo: 729 Yampa St., Steamboat Springs; tacocabo.com
