{"id":1752,"date":"2021-08-23T17:07:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T21:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/?p=1752"},"modified":"2021-08-24T09:28:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:28:26","slug":"counter-intuitive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/counter-intuitive\/","title":{"rendered":"Counter Intuitive"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Counter
Photo provided by Taco Bamba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll!\u201d AC\/DC rips through the dining room at Taco Bamba in Rockville\u2019s Congressional Plaza on a steamy summer midafternoon, bouncing off the corrugated metal that dominates many of the interior walls. It\u2019s loud, but it sets a vibe that has worked well for the mini chain of counter-service taquerias from award-winning chef-owner Victor Albisu. You might even catch him playing air drums on the way out of the kitchen.<\/p>\n

He seems relaxed now, but Albisu admits that he\u2019s always a bit nervous before an opening \u2014 he has five Taco Bambas in Virginia in addition to this first Maryland location, which opened in early June \u2014 wondering if each new version will connect with the community the way his first Falls Church location did when it opened in 2013. Turns out, he needn\u2019t have worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe line almost got to BuyBuy Baby when we opened,\u201d he says, referring to the destination baby-gear emporium at the other end of the large shopping center. \u201cThe people here have been incredible, incredibly understanding. I\u2019m like, \u2018The wait\u2019s two hours,\u2019 and they would be like, \u2018As long as you have food, we\u2019ll wait.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Since graduating from Le Cordon Bleu School in Paris, Albisu has opened and closed two fine-dining restaurants \u2014 Del Campo and Poca Madre \u2014 in downtown D.C.; won accolades from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington; beaten Bobby Flay on Flay\u2019s eponymous Food Network show; and been nominated twice as Best Chef Mid-Atlantic by the James Beard Foundation. But for Albisu, who grew up in Northern Virginia with a Cuban father and Peruvian mother, building a local taqueria empire is what he currently finds fulfilling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to overstate this, but this is like my life\u2019s work right now,\u201d he says. \u201cI have a very clear mentality that every space and every day needs to be earned, and we need to be [working] with that kind of mindset. So it\u2019s never a set-it-and-forget-it. I\u2019m in these stores all the time. For me, it\u2019s one of the coolest eras of my career, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The music downshifts to Blondie\u2019s \u201cHeart of Glass,\u201d a song that goes down just as easily as the Grapefruit Vanilla Paloma spiked with mezcal ($9.50). The cocktail, incidentally, is a great way to #prepareyourmouth (an apt hashtag used by the restaurant) for the intense and varied tacos, tortas, nachos and other flavor-packed items on the menu \u2014 several of which are exclusive to the Rockville location, such as the Fredneck BBQ filled with roasted pork shoulder, spicy slaw, pickled onions, jalape\u00f1o and cilantro.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy chef de cuisine at this restaurant and my senior corporate chef are from Frederick, so I feel like we\u2019re OK to use the terminology. They are card-carrying Frednecks,\u201d Albisu jokes.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth ordering, along with the Mrs. Hogan, an homage to Maryland\u2019s Korean-born first lady Yumi Hogan. Apparently, she hasn\u2019t been in to try it yet but is pleased with having a taco stuffed with kalbi pork, gochujang, kimchi bacon fried rice, cucumber and radish named after her.<\/p>\n

These can be found on the tacos nuestros side of the menu, which features creative riffs on what a taco can be, and each costs $4.50. Tacos tradicionales, which include taqueria classics like al pastor, carnitas, barbacoa and carne asada, go for $3.50 apiece. The price exception is the birria taco ($9), a style of taco from the Jalisco region that\u2019s filled with roasted goat and Chihuahua cheese before being fried and served with a broth called consom\u00e9 for dunking. The rich, comforting taco is definitely having a moment around this region.<\/p>\n

While the tacos tradicionales are also excellent, the real fun of a Taco Bamba (besides the cranked music and the craft cocktails) are the tacos that take advantage of what fine-dining chefs can do with one of America\u2019s most beloved street-food imports.<\/p>\n

Take the Fauda Fried Chicken taco, which draws upon the wildly popular Mediterranean cuisine trend by incorporating a za\u2019atar spice blend along with tehina mango ketchup, yogurt, dill, mint and fresno chilies to dress up crispy chicken thigh nuggets. It\u2019s all served on a flour tortilla \u2014 unlike most of the tacos here served on corn tortillas \u2014 and it\u2019s a table favorite, along with the Indian-inspired El Rancho Rasul that folds together chipotle curry chorizo, hash browns and a mint-cilantro chutney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this kind of food coming out of a fast-casual space that happens to have a bar, and right off of Rockville Pike, where people are getting hair dryers next door,\u201d Albisu says. \u201cIt\u2019s so much fun to me. I can\u2019t tell you how people have been so understanding and happy to have us here. It\u2019s been great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taco Bamba, 1627 Rockville Pike; 301-822-2334; tacobamba.com\/location\/rockville\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s a long way to the top if you want to rock and roll!\u201d AC\/DC rips through the dining room at Taco Bamba in Rockville\u2019s Congressional Plaza on a steamy summer midafternoon, bouncing off the corrugated metal that dominates many of the interior walls. It\u2019s loud, but it sets a vibe that has worked well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":1756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,32,61],"tags":[187,123],"yoast_head":"\nCounter Intuitive - Montgomery Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Award-winning chef Victor Albisu talks opening his latest Taco Bamba location in Rockville featuring innovative tacos and craft cocktails.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/counter-intuitive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counter Intuitive - Montgomery Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Award-winning chef Victor Albisu talks opening his latest Taco Bamba location in Rockville featuring innovative tacos and craft cocktails.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/counter-intuitive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Montgomery Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-23T21:07:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-24T13:28:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Taco-Bamaba-Rockville-Interior1-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1660\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Rapuano\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Rapuano\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/counter-intuitive\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.montgomerymag.com\/counter-intuitive\/\",\"name\":\"Counter Intuitive - 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