Nacho Tacos To Bring Late-Night Dining To Downtown Beverly

BEVERLY, MA — Late-night tacos are coming at long last to Rantoul Street.

It was March 2020 when Nacho Tacos co-owner Shahab Afsharian said he and his business partner, Francisco Lepe, first planned to open a restaurant in downtown Beverly. The location — nestled in between two breweries that did not have their own kitchens — seemed perfect for the experiment of bringing authentic Mexican food to Beverly to a presumably eager and accessible audience.

Then came the pause in the world with the onset of the coronavirus crisis that Afsharian said nearly derailed the best-laid plans for Nacho Tacos.

"We were going to go all-in last March," he told Patch on Tuesday. "Then it almost didn't happen. We almost didn't do it.

"It was a big, big investment on our end to make this facility work for us."

The pair waded through the pandemic, but never gave up their vision for the space in between Gentile Brewing Company and Old Planter's Brewing Co. The idea of providing that late-night option — especially back when the state was requiring a food purchase with any alcohol order — remained intriguing until late in the fall when they decided to take the proverbial plunge.

"We decided to go for it," Afsharian said. "We figured we would either be the idiots who spent a million bucks opening a taco restaurant (in a pandemic) and fail, or it's going to be great."

Fast-forward seven months, and Afsharian and Lepe are on the verge of their soft opening on Wednesday with full-online ordering available Monday after Nacho Tacos is closed on Sunday for the Fourth of July.

Afsharian, who is from Mexico City, said he views himself as the "guy with the vision" while he trusts Lepe — a Guadalajara native who has spent more than 20 years operating and managing the kitchens of Mexican restaurants — with the food.

"I think we know what we're doing," Afsharian said.

Afsharian said the corn tortillas are made from scratch each day and "we're trying to keep it as authentic as we possibly can."

The space has seating capacity for 24, take-out service, a takeout window to Gentile Brewing and QR codes at Planter's where customers can order directly from Nachos Tacos. There are also six dedicated parking spaces.

"We're surrounded by breweries who are not serving food," Afsharian said. "And what pairs better with beer more perfectly than tacos?"

Afsharian said the arrangement is modeled after restaurants in Mexico that will stay open until 5 a.m. to serve customers as they empty out of local bars at the end of the night.

The last call comes a bit earlier than that in Beverly, but Afsharian said with a 1 or 1:30 a.m. closing time Nachos Tacos hopes to fill a similar void in the city.

"There is nothing after 9 around here," he said. "We are the only crazy dudes who are willing to open up that late downtown.

"We'll see how it goes."

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(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.