Dominic Armato
Audio By Carbonatix
When the opening crew at Tacos Veganos arrived at the Avondale location on Saturday morning, they found an unsettling, unexpected delivery: A flap of pig’s skin hung from the front door handle.
The team quickly took pictures and sent them to the restaurant’s group chat. Once they figured out what the flabby pink deposit blocking the door was, they knocked it off the handle and got to work. So did owner Jose Bojorquez, who checked the vegan restaurant’s security cameras. Amid the replay of the night, he watched a man walk up to the restaurant in the wee hours.
“Who’s going to walk up to a restaurant at 3 a.m. with a piece of pork skin?” he wondered on Monday afternoon. “It’s just weird.”
Tacos Veganos has two Valley locations that serve plant-based tacos. The restaurant first opened on Indian School Road in Phoenix, and later added the Avondale restaurant at McDowell and Dysart roads. The taqueria is a three-time winner of Phoenix New Times’ award for Best Vegan Mexican Food. Tacos Veganos is also among New Times’ best taco shops because of its pleasing plant-based options for tacos, burritos and plates, including beer-battered fried cauliflower or jackfruit birria.
‘Trying to connect the dots’
The pig skin isn’t the first time Tacos Veganos has been the victim of animal-based vandalism. Someone has also egged the restaurant’s food truck, which Bojorquez parks in the Avondale shopping center’s lot.
He’s not certain whether the same person is behind these incidents, and he isn’t sure what’s motivating them to express their displeasure by hucking eggs and hanging meat. Could the specificity of pig skin mean the person works at a restaurant or butcher shop, he wondered?
“I’m trying to connect the dots,” Bojorquez says.
What’s clear to the owner is that these acts are rattling his staff. Bojorquez contacted Avondale Police about what his cooks found Saturday. Though the man who left the pork on the door may have trespassed, there’s little they can do unless he’s identified, police told the taqueria owner. New Times has contacted Avondale Police for comment.
Bojorquez and his team decided to share what happened, posting a photo of the skin draped around the door in posts on Instagram and Facebook.
“We’re not just a local restaurant, we’re a part of the community. That’s why we thought to share it so our community can see that,” he says.
Fellow restaurant owners and fans have posted in support of the taqueria.
“They’re just mad because they can’t season food like you,” Estero Beach Tacos shared. “Sorry this happened to you.”
State Sen. Analise Ortiz weighed in, writing, “Live and let live!”
Others exchanged eye-roll emojis at the notion of bullying a restaurant for serving vegan food.
“Imagine feeling threatened by people who cook delicious vegetables for a living,” one user posted.
The Tacos Veganos team has printed a screengrab of the alleged pork perp in case he visits the restaurant again. Bojorquez is upset by the Saturday incident but also confident in his mission to bring more plant-based food to customers.
“It tells me I’m doing something good, I guess,” he says. “It’s disappointing, honestly, but what else can we do but keep moving forward, keep our head up?”
Tacos Veganos
3301 E. Indian School Road
1579 N. Dysart Road, Suite H, Avondale
