Lafayette Restaurant Project: LRP Redux* installment 10: Las Americas Taqueria (CLOSED)

Las Americas closed in, I believe, 2023 and has been replaced by a new taqueria.

I was gone for all of March, and then I was sick for a week after I got back, so I’m just now getting back to the restaurant project. I’m not actually sure how long this taqueria has been here, but it only started showing up on my map app in the last year or two. It is at 11 S. Public Rd., just north of Las Montañas market at S. Public Rd. and Cleveland St., and there are entrances both from the street side and from inside the market. There is a tortilleria in the market, and we often buy fresh corn tortillas there when we want some at home, but we had not ever eaten at the taqueria until this past week. We ended up trying it three times within five days, partly because we were out of groceries and partly because it is one of the closest restaurants to our house in Old Town.

On Monday night, G picked up takeout for dinner. I wanted to try the gorditas because I have always been a fan of those, so I chose one desebrada (shredded spiced beef) and one rajas con queso (roasted poblano peppers with cheese). The woman at the counter told G she thought it might take three to make a meal, so he added one chicharron (pork belly/rinds). He ordered a smothered burrito with desebrada, and we got sides of rice and beans to share. This was all very good, except that we decided that chicharron is an acquired taste that we have not acquired. The gorditas came with a spicy green salsa, and the rajas con queso filling was medium spicy as well.

We got takeout again a couple of nights later, and this time I tried the sopes (a thicker masa cake than the one used for a gordita with stuff piled on it instead of stuffed inside): one with pollo (shredded chicken) and one with barbacoa (pork). G got four tacos: asada, pastor, barbacoa, and pollo, and again we got sides of beans and rice plus a side of guacamole and several salsas. We both liked these even better than our first meal.

I wanted to try the breakfast burritos too, so on Friday my friend Deb met me at the taqueria, and we each got one to eat there: hers with bacon and mine with chorizo. These are smaller than breakfast burritos at some other local places but also inexpensive ($3.50), and we liked that they had both beans and potatoes in them as well as eggs, cheese, and our selected meat. We got a squeeze bottle of green salsa to top them with. The woman working behind the counter brought us a small bowl of chips with salsa too. We thought the chips might be house made, as they seemed very fresh. I ran out of time to ask her about it because I had to get to an appointment.

There are certainly plenty of other things to try there, so we’ll be back. It’s hard to find a menu online except for some on menu photo sites, so I’ll post photos of the takeout menu here. The one behind the counter in the taqueria has prices.

* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new places that have opened since the end of the previous round of the LRP.