Interview T.O. taqueria trailblazer Andrew Richmond

In the span of six months, La Carnita has become one of Toronto’s most talked-about taco shops. Too bad you can’t get your daily fix of it. Not yet, anyways. Headed up by co-founder and head chef Andrew Richmond, La Carnita has been popping up at events across town, earning it the longest lines at last summer’s Food Truck Eats series, and gathering its own gourmand cult following.

Combining one-of-a-kind art pieces, live DJs, and, of course, mouth-watering Mexican food into one singular, taco-centric eating experience, La Carnita enjoys these temporary shops—including one on January 6 at SPiN Toronto—but is currently working on something a little more permanent. The A.V. Club spoke with Richmond about the half-legal operations, the soon-to-be restaurant, and the latest gig, catering to indie-rock royalty.

The A.V. Club: How did La Carnita come about?

Andrew Richmond: La Carnita started out of a design studio with me and Amin Todai, who’s the CEO of OneMethod. We’ve been talking about doing food for a long time now and wanted to test the idea through a pop-up in our design studio. That went really well, which led to another one, which led to another one, and it just kind of snowballed from there.

AVC: Why tacos?

AR: I’ve been in the digital creative industry for 15 years and my last job, living outside of Toronto, took me to the Silicon Valley just outside of San Francisco where I was working for a big tech client. And at nighttime and on weekends, I would travel into San Francisco and we would eat in the Mission District, which is renowned for its Latin cuisine and street foods, and there are tons of taquerias everywhere; I was eating all sorts of tacos. But I don’t see it anywhere in Toronto and it was getting frustrating. Yes, there’s some good people doing good food that’s taco-related, but I couldn’t find a taqueria that I would want to go to all the time. That was the focus when starting La Carnita at the beginning of the summer, [to] concept-test and then build a foundation for us to open a restaurant.

AVC: What’s the update on the restaurant?

AR: It’s happening; it’s just finding that location. It’s not something that can happen overnight, so we’re just working on the details and a couple of deals so hopefully soon we can make it happen. We all started this because we wanted to make a taqueria. Everything that surrounds that will just be part of the La Carnita experience. So art will be integrated into it somehow, and music will be really important… Hopefully that will also translate into our bricks and mortar location.

AVC: What is it about pop-up shops that appeal to you?

AR: The beauty of work in pop-ups is that it’s a blank canvas and you can pretty much apply creativity to it through visuals, flavours, contrast, and textures. I really, really love making tacos because it’s such an interesting medium to work with.

AVC: Do you think there’s a sense of good timing between you and the recent surge of interest in food trucks and pop-ups in Toronto?

AR: The pop-up thing is really popping off, mind the pun. I’ve noticed other people doing it and I think it’s amazing. My wife actually does the Underground Food Market and she says that I was the inspiration for doing it because I had a choice, to become a chef or a designer. I chose designer, but I’ve always cooked and wanted to take it more seriously. And she’s seen me wrestle with that so that’s why she started it. I think there’s a cool food evolution right now, in terms of indie-style stuff happening and people just kind of going for it and putting themselves out there and seeing what people think. By no means do I want to take away from people who went to school for this, because they obviously can do things that people who might not have that experience [can’t] do, but at the same time, it’s just really beautiful to see people putting themselves out there.

AVC: Where did the idea of pairing the food with art come from?

AR: We joke about it starting because of legal issues. Obviously the way we started—with pop-up events—was completely illegal. But the way we worked around that was that you were coming to an art show. You go to art shows all the time and there’s food and wine, but instead of cheese and crackers there were tacos. People were coming in and buying a piece of art and they got some tacos to walk away with; it was just our way of working around things.

AVC: But it’s actually become a part of La Carnita now.

AR: It has! It’s now ingrained itself into what we do and we embrace it.

AVC: La Carnita recently catered to The National, Neko Case, and Wye Oak at the Air Canada Centre. How did you land that?

AR: Someone just cold-called us. I think it was [because] they had heard of us on CBC. The concert promoter actually called us about a different show and catering to a different band, and that didn’t work out. But three weeks ago she was like, “Okay, The National are going to be here, Neko Case and Wye Oak are opening and we need you to cater to 60 people backstage, can you do that?” and we came to an agreement and just rolled from there. We made sure we also had a piece of art that spoke to the event. It was interesting, catering out of the bowels of the Air Canada Centre.

AVC: How were the bands?

AR: They were really cool! A couple of people were challenging because of their dietary restrictions but overall, I think we got pretty creative. We’re using ingredients that they might not ever expect to see at a backstage catering scenario. I think they all appreciated someone putting a lot more attention to the experience. And there’s also the piece of art—it ended up showing up on the main screen at the ACC. That was cool.

AVC: Would you want to cater to more musicians and backstage events?

AR: Sure. It was a really cool experience, but is that our end goal? No. It’s interesting that we’re being asked to do private events and that we’re being asked to cater. It’s fun!

AVC: If you could cater to any artist, who would it be?

AR: I have no idea! I like so many different kinds of music that it’s hard to pick! [Pause] A Tribe Called Quest.