Guero's Taco Bar in Austin, Texas - Home of Famous People Sightings

Guero's Taco Bar, in Austin, Texas, is one place you might want to hang if you are in search of famous people visiting Austin. It's central location to the downtown area and to the trendy South Congress retail and condo district, makes this a popular water hole for people like Matthew McConaughey, Sandra Bullock, Quentin Taratino, and Bill Clinton. Guero's Taco Bar is close to many of the music and film venues used by the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) in March each year. When he is in town, Bill Clinton usually orders his favorite, El Presidente, a combination plate including one chicken taco, one beef taco, a tamale, and guacamole.

I first went to Guero's in 1986, when they opened in a tiny location with 10 tables in a sleepy neighborhood of South Austin. At that time, it was self-serve and the best place to get Sunday morning breakfast within walking distance of our house. In 1995, they moved into an old feed and seed building on South Congress. There are still really good things to say about Guero's, although they may have grown too big and too popular to keep up the five-star reputation they had in the old days. I still think it is a fun place to go if you want to sit outside on the patio, sip on the excellent margaritas, and listen to live music from different local artists. Every Thursday, the locals have a street fair of arts and crafts in the grassy area right next to Guero's that they also sometimes use to cater private parties.

As far as food goes, Guero's is best known for their self-serve salsa bar and their fish tacos. Both are very good. My favorite thing to eat at Guero's is the tacos al pastor plate ($7.69). My exact order is pork tacos al pastor, with cheese, with avocado, on homemade corn tortillas, with refried beans and rice. The cook uses gooey white Mexican cheese, and their homemade corn and flour tortillas are to die for. They also make a really good queso flameado appetizer ($6.10) with the gooey cheese, mushrooms, and beef or chicken fajita meat. The tortilla soup ($4.29) is about as good as it gets.