Dingo Ate My Taco is moving from trucks to a first permanent Abbotsford restaurant, with tacos, mezcal and new bar collaborations.
In 2020, Texans Katy Simkins and Paul Walcutt began serving tacos from their food truck Dingo Ate My Taco.. Melbourne chef Isaac Castellano joined the team shortly after, and the truck quickly became one of the city’s favourite taco spots.. Late last year, the trio opened Chinatown’s Taqueria Sin Nombre.. While the Hot Listed Chinatown joint is still focused on tacos, it’s a more elevated offering than what the crew built its name on.. Next
month, the team will open Dingo, a new restaurant in the former Range Brewing space on Johnston Street in Abbotsford that returns to the brand’s casual roots.. Since 2021, the team has opened its prep kitchen on St Kilda Road for service roughly once a week, but that space was never equipped to be more than an occasional eatery.. Dingo is the taco truck’s first permanent, purpose-built restaurant, and will open five days a week
for breakfast, lunch and dinner.. There’ll be birria tacos, breakfast tacos and “all the things that we’ve done for years that people associate with Dingo that we don’t have on the menu at [Taqueria Sin Nombre],” Simkins says.. The team is also preparing for the release of its own mezcal, something the trio have been working on in Oaxaca for the past few years.. Expect the Dingo mezcal as well as some “serious agaves” to
show up in a drinks list focused on Margaritas, Palomas and Mexican Martinis, a Margarita-Martini hybrid that’s especially popular in Austin.. There’ll also be a dirty horchata made in collaboration with Proud Mary, which has produced a coffee blend that highlights the cinnamon and chocolate in the horchata rather than overwhelming them.. Dingo will have two kitchens: an open kitchen for the restaurant and a prep kitchen for the food truck, replacing the St Kilda
Road one.. It’ll be the first time Dingo Ate My Taco has had an oven, meaning you can expect more desserts, including a burnt corn husk banana pudding the team tested at Taqueria Sin Nombre.. The space is inspired by Marfa, a small desert town in Texas.. “They have these crazy music festivals and this beautiful combination of Mexican and western design influences,” she says.. The interior will feature the same orangey-pink tiles found at
Sin Nombre, alongside lots of steel, leather, red stools and Coca-Cola crates.. “We want it to feel like you’re in a taqueria in Texas.” Dingo will open at 272 Johnston Street, Abbotsford this June.
Dingo Ate My Taco, Abbotsford restaurant, Taqueria Sin Nombre, mezcal launch, birria tacos, Mexican martini