After eight years serving delicious quesadillas, baja fish tacos and more home-cooked Mexican staples, a downtown taqueria on Soi Sukhumvit 18 has announced it will close due to loss of revenue during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The owners of Tacos & Salsa announced that they were forced to close the restaurant after being dealt serious hurt by the loss of business, which made its high rent unsustainable. It’s one of the latest in a number of places that have been unable to survive nearly two months of limited or no operation.
Its last day will be May 20, the owners said today.
“It is with great sadness that we announce we will be closing down our shop on Sukhumvit Soi 18 after 8 wonderful years but will continue to do delivery,” the restaurant recently announced online. “We are a small family run restaurant and have been trying to stay afloat, but the high cost of rent, and relying only on our delivery service has left us with no choice but to close down our beloved location.”
Owners Lisa, Bo and Tar opened Tacos & Salsa eight years ago inside a shophouse on Soi Sukhumvit 18. It specialized in home-cooked food and also hosted special events such as Cinco De Mayo parties, Mexican barbecue hangouts and a tequila-soaked Margarita Day.
The restaurant has also actively supported the LGBT community with occasional meetups and trivia nights.
“Some of the best memories are improvised nights that just seemed to happen at Tacos and Salsa, where our customers enjoyed their food, many margaritas and we all ended up singing and dancing together with our Mexican singer. Things got wild at times,” said Lisa, who traveled from Mexico City years ago to find a new home in Bangkok.
Bangkok’s restaurants have been closed to all but delivery and takeaway service since March. This week saw some reopen under a raft of rules and restrictions.
“For now we will miss our BBQ parties, many of which ended up looking like block parties after they poured on to the streets, in the good old Bangkok way. Hopefully we can do that again in the future,” Lisa told Coconuts Bangkok.
But it’s not all sad news. Lisa said the business will continue in a delivery-only capacity for now with hope of reopening in the On Nut area.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” said Lisa. “We are now setting up a delivery kitchen for Tacos and Salsa in our other restaurant Madong in Onnut Soi 2. Madong will eventually open with a Thai/fusion restaurant, bar, hostel and rooftop bar, and Tacos and Salsa will eventually find a new home, we are keeping our eyes open!”
Tacos & Salsa currently delivers food via Facebook Messenger or phone. Find all the deets on its Facebook page.
