We Speak Dining & Drinks

Atlanta’s Rreal Tacos Plants Its Flag in Downtown Tampa With Tequila Walls and Handmade Tortillas

Published

2 weeks ago

October 13, 2026

Downtown Tampa’s taco scene has a new heavyweight. Atlanta-based Rreal Tacos opened its 13th restaurant — and its first in Florida — on October 13, 2026, at 808 N. Franklin St., in the former Haiku space.

Owners and operators Damian Otero and Miguel Hernandez built the restaurant through an eight-month buildout costing more than $2.5 million, five years after opening their first location. The partners do not franchise the brand and have not taken venture capital or private equity money, and every design element is decided by the principals, down to the live mangrove trees that skirt the patio’s perimeter. Rreal Tacos employs around 1,300 people across its locations, and the Tampa restaurant created about 120 jobs.

The bar program is built around agave spirits, with floating tequila walls at the outdoor bar and an eight-tiered floating tequila wall inside at the main bar; Hernandez said the pair prefers to buy the whole catalog, from espadín to tepeztate and blanco to ultra añejo such as Clase Azul. “The idea behind all this is to save somebody a trip to Mexico,” Hernandez told the Tampa Bay Times. “We’re bringing the best of Mexico here, and we’re bringing everything.”

In the kitchen, taqueros make corn tortillas by hand in a tortilleria space, producing 6-inch tortillas filled with options such as beef and chicken birria, marinated flank steak and picanha steak, priced at $4.20 to $6.49 per taco. The menu also includes guacamole, queso blanco, salsa roja, esquite, birria pizzas and a kids menu, plus tableside guacamole service, a two-taco combo with rice and beans for $10, any drink available as a pitcher — including a 64-ounce Hennessy margarita — and gluten-free and vegetarian dishes.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to midnight daily, closing at 11 p.m. on Sundays, and it racked up nearly 200 five-star Google reviews during a three-day soft opening. A second Tampa Bay location is already in the works in downtown St. Petersburg, in the former Red Mesa Cantina building, with an opening targeted for 2027.

We Speak Dining & Drinks

Georgia Grabs Two of the South’s Three New Michelin Stars as Atlanta’s So. Fox and Gay’s Uberto Join the Guide

Published

4 days ago

October 22, 2026

We Speak Media

Georgia owned the room at the 2026 MICHELIN Guide American South ceremony. Six Georgia restaurants received new distinctions at the unveiling at The Pinnacle in Nashville on October 21 — and the state’s two new one-star restaurants, So. Fox in Atlanta and Uberto in Gay, were two of only three new stars awarded across the entire seven-state region. The third went to Dakar NOLA in New Orleans.

The second annual American South selection covers 265 restaurants across 44 cuisine types, with 22 starred restaurants, 59 Bib Gourmands and 184 Recommended restaurants in total. Georgia now counts 10 starred restaurants statewide.

So. Fox, in Atlanta’s Virginia-Highland neighborhood, is helmed by chef Myles Moody and sommelier Rachael Pack, and its name pays homage to the Southern fox, another term for the indigenous muscadine grape. Inspectors praised dishes including corn dumplings in sweet corn sauce with lump crab and a roasted apple granita, along with Carolina Gold rice with toasted shrimp and drop dumplings with nettle and confit rabbit.

Uberto operates inside the World of Quercus resort in Gay, roughly an hour south of Atlanta, where chef Ryan Smith serves a tasting menu built on fermentation and preservation, open to non-resort guests on Friday and Saturday nights. Critics highlighted his miso and Alabama blue crab chawanmushi, cold-smoked, dry-aged Rohan duck grilled over binchotan coals with carrot puree, and fig ice cream with buckwheat sponge. Smith also received Michelin’s new Mindful Voices award; Uberto sources more than 90 percent of its produce from its on-site regenerative farm, which runs entirely on solar power and uses no chemical pesticides or herbicides.

Georgia’s new Bib Gourmands are Summerland in Atlanta, chef Anne Quatrano’s cafe on Collier Road, and Tipsy Thaiger in Roswell, while Pink Lotus in Atlanta and Spring 2nd Branch in Marietta joined the Recommended list.