Taco Bus Brandon Opening Date Set, 'Foodies' Made It Happen

It's the "foodies" of Brandon who convinced chef and restaurateur Rene Valenzuela that the Greater Brandon area would be a great place to open a fifth Taco Bus location.

"We have a lot of Brandon customers who go to our other locations and they always ask us, in emails and on Facebook, 'When are you coming to Brandon?' " Valenzuela said, in a telephone interview July 22. "And every time we bring a food truck to Brandon, they get real excited and people really like us being there."

Well, wishes do come true and the date is set, for the Monday, July 29 opening of Taco Bus Brandon, at 301 South Falkenburg Road, Tampa, just north of State Road 60, or Adamo Drive.

True, it's a Tampa mailing address, but folks in these parts know it as the Greater Brandon area, with Hillsborough County Animal Services, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Brandon campus of Hillsborough Community College and the Brandon Ice Sports Forum nearby — on or just off Falkenburg Road.

"I love the fact that we're one block away from I-75," Valenzuela said, about a trek that runs about 1 mile. "And we're also about one block away from State Road 60, Adamo Drive. For people living in Brandon, Valrico and Lithia, these are the roads that are very much on the way to run errands and on the way [to and] home from work."

Valenzuela calls it a "gateway" location and is looking forward to adding Taco Bus Brandon to his lineup of eateries, in St. Petersburg, downtown Tampa, at Hillsborough and Nebraska and near the University of South Florida.

"Everything we do is with the focus on fresh food, full of enzymes, fiber and vitamins," he said, noting ingredients such as cilantro, carrots, tomatoes, onion and cabbage.  

"You can have meat or you can have [a] vegetarian [dish] and hang out together at Taco Bus," Valenzuela said. "Tofu taco, steak, and we're famous for our butternut squash tostada."

The chef noted as well the offering of "aquas frescas" — Spanish for "fresh water" — featuring such things as pineapple, water and sugar and, when in season, watermelon, water and sugar.

"It's better than soda," he said.

For Valenzuela, food has been a lifelong passion.

"Ever since I was in high school, and even before, I used to have a small taco stand in the streets of Mexico," he said. "Then after that, during college and after I graduated, I had a sit-down restaurant in Mexico."

After moving to America and settling in the Tampa Bay area, Valenzuela said he "couldn't afford a real restaurant, so he had a stand at the corner of Hillsborough and Armenia, at night, on a corner."

Twelve years ago he opened his first Taco Bus, converting a school bus into a kitchen.

At Taco Bus Brandon, all orders will be taken from a converted school bus attached to the building. Food will be delivered there as well, with the option of eating elsewhere or at the restaurant, with outdoor patio and indoor dining options.

"I am at a loss of words to tell you how happy we are," bringing the "biggest Taco Bus that we have" to Brandon, Valenzuela said. "The whole Taco Bus team has been working very hard to bring about some really good food in a very interesting place that we'll have open 24 hours a day on the weekend. We're very happy to bring that service to the community."

Taco Bus Brandon at 301 South Falkenburg Ave., in the Greater Brandon area of Tampa, will be open Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Taco Bus will be open 24 hours daily.

For more on the Taco Bus story, locations and menu offerings, visit Taco Bus online. Let us know what you think about Taco Bus in the comment box below.