Food truck turned cult restaurant Ricos Tacos to open at The Norfolk in Redfern after Chippendale closure
After closing its Chippendale venue in August, food truck turned cult restaurant Ricos Tacos will have new permanent digs in nearby Redfern.
Confidential
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Almost a month since it closed, the fate of cult taqueria Rico’s Tacos can be revealed.
Chef Toby Wilson’s beloved taco truck turned permanent Mexican restaurant at Chippendale will have a new home in Redfern’s The Norfolk.
Wilson has gone into partnership with hospitality disrupter Public, who has acquired the taqueria. However Wilson will remain at the helm of the restaurant and creative.
The two-level venue, set to open in September, will still have it’s rotating taco of the week and the famous twice-fried hash brown with chipotle salt and salsa roja.
“There will be a bigger menu because there is a bigger kitchen, but 80 per cent is stuff you’ve seen us do before,” Wilson said.
“The big thing for us is the experience will change. Now Ricos is somewhere you can you can be for hours, not 20 minutes.
“And we be able to offer mescals and be an entertainment venue,” Wilson said.
It’s another big acquisition for the Jon Adgemis-owned Public, after going into partnership with leading hospitality figures the Maybe Group (of Australia’s top bar fame, Maybe Sammy) earlier this year.
Public also opened its first Victorian venue with celebrity chef Guy Grossi last week. The group transformed the 154-year-old Clifton Hotel and welcomed Grossi’s restaurant and aperitivo bar, Puttanesca.
In a statement, Adgemis said the partnership with Ricos Tacos is no exception to the way Public collaborate.
“It’s our intent to bring the community and locals on board to create experiences meaningful and missing in the area. Redfern is an important location for us to invest in further as we have with the success of La Salut, and I am confident Ricos Tacos at The Norfolk will compete the precinct,” Adgemis said.
The partnership highlights the exponential growth of Rico’s, which Wilson, who was working at The George Hotel in Waterloo, started during Covid.
“After lockdown number one, when it was confirmed The George wasn’t reopening, I was thinking what do next I was contemplating going out on my own or work for someone. In the meantime, I thought let’s just cook tacos in a carpark,” he recounts.
Originally starting as a roving food truck with locations at Gelato Messina Rosebery, Rocker and Grifter Brewery, Wilson turned his production kitchen into bricks and mortar venue in Chippendale during Covid.
“The idea was it was going to be on a week-to-week basis and super flexible. I never intended on this being a long-term project, it just happened, but it seems silly not to carry on momentum,” he said.
In July, Wilson announced he was closing the Chippendale location of Ricos Tacos to much fan disappointment.
On a statement on Instagram he said “while we will miss our sunny little corner, greener pastures await.”
Wilson said “he was not surprised, in the least arrogant way” of the reaction from fans.
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