Secrets revisited
Secret menus have become a universally known way of making restaurant regulars feel special and insider-y. Restaurants specializing in tacos haven’t been oblivious. Indeed, they’ve pushed beyond that now common idea, hatching new confidences that only a few privileged patrons are invited to share.
Chief among them seems to be the availability of secret sauces. Patrons of Oscars Mexican Seafood in San Diego don’t have the opportunity of trying a particular sauce unless someone spills the dope that it’s hidden in the drink cooler (we don’t know what it is, not being cool enough). Customers of Guisados, the Los Angeles-based small chain, have to ask for the special sauce.
Other ingredients are similarly kept under wraps. Bar Ama will make a puffy-shelled piccadillo taco upon request, but patrons have to know it’s available for the asking.
Meanwhile, the formula for secret menus is changing. No longer are they static affairs, but rosters that change as frequently (if not more often) than the standard bill of fare. Velvet Taco, for instance, features what it calls a WTF, which stands not for what a regular web user might think, but for Weekly Taco Feature.