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There’s a trendy Mexican restaurant near my office.  The place bugs me.  Lots of people rave about it on Yelp, describing it as the best Mexican food (or the best food, period) that they’ve ever had.  Maybe I have a bad memory, or deprived taste buds, but I don’t think I could proclaim anything I have ever eaten as the best I have ever had.  A lot of Yelpers tend to be pretentious hipster douchebags.  Talking hip, trying to sound like foodies with discerning palates.  They go on and on about the various cocktails and alcohol.  As a prohibitionist, it’s possible that I just don’t get it.  But I think these douchebags are making excessive use of hyperbole and their supposedly sophisticated palates are easily amused.  I wonder if the restaurant is trying to get everyone liquored up so they don’t realize how much money they are spending for drinks and dinner.

For $10, you get four tiny tacos.  They look like they would take only two bites each to polish off.  A lesser-known Mexican/American place I hit for lunch will sell me two tacos plus one tamale for $5.18.  Upon reading the Yelp reviews, I saw several people mention spending over $100 at Trendy Taco Place.  Just tonight, I read a review where a group of eight dropped $259 on drinks alone.  Holy crap.  Margaritas for $11?  That’s a week’s worth of gas for me.

So I’ve established Trendy Taco Place as being expensive.  It is also very small.  It recently expanded from like four tables to 11 tables.  Still, I will see a line of 15 people waiting for the place to open for dinner when I drive by in the evening.  The reviews say waits can be as long as two hours.  Personally, I would never wait two hours for a meal.  Unless it was some huge holiday meal that involved a lot of baking and preparation.  At the taco place I go to, I simply go to the take-out counter and my food is ready in 3-5 minutes.  The lines have gotten worse lately because Trendy Taco Place was reviewed on television.  What’s crazy is people will go to bars down the street while they wait, have some beers and maybe some bar food, then hit Trendy Taco Place when their table is ready.  So by the time they get back to the restaurant, they are somewhat full and already have some alcohol in them.  They go eat and drink some more.

The restaurant may think it is “too cool for school.”  They used to have a sign, but took it down.  Now there’s just a decal on the door.  For some reason, people like restaurants without signs.  Guess it makes them feel like they’re in on a secret, and they must be hip or special to know about it.  This no sign thing is getting silly.  I’ve been stopped on the street by several people trying to find this restaurant.  Most recently, a guy pulled up in his car directly across the street from the restaurant, asking me where it was.  Completely deadpan, I said “You’re right in front of it” and pointed at the sign-less restaurant.

A friend of mine says I am a contrarian, that I try to be different for the sole reason of being different.  That may be true sometimes.  In this case, I think I have a good reason to be different.  I don’t want to blow $10 on tacos and have to burp to find out what they tasted like.  I also don’t like the blind devotion to Trendy Taco Place some people seem to have.  Maybe the place really is that awesome, but I wouldn’t want to be associated with douchey hipsters and yuppies.  My beef is with the irrational enthusiasm people are showing.  You can get tacos that are likely just as good for less money in a less-trendy Mexican enclave.  I don’t think it is OK to spend more than $15 a person on a meal.  I am cheap, and I am damn proud of it.

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