From the owners of Nice Guys and the chef behind the short-lived Danger Danger in Cape Coral, the new Death by Taco food truck promises killer fare. This and more in A La Carte.
When Danger Danger closed in July after just three months in operation in south Cape Coral, partners Skyler Denison, Jovana Batkovic and Greg Gebhard knew it wouldn’t be their end.
Batkovic and Gebhard, the owners of nearby Nice Guys, helped Denison host in-house pop-ups on Mondays when Nice Guys is closed. The team worked on a stripped-down menu of mainly tacos, a menu that could be executed with limited space and resources. Then, six weeks ago, they found the final piece of their puzzle: a food truck.
Read more, eat more: Subscribers get full access to all the delicious news from our food team. Find expert reviews, best-of lists, restaurant-inspection reports and much more — only if you subscribe. Click here for tasty deals.
“We’ve had this idea for a while,” Denison said, “so when we found the truck, we were pretty much ready to go.”
And go they did.
More: Danger Danger is now Enter the Dragon; former cook hosts taco pop-up
The new Death by Taco food truck launched Monday evening, hosting its inaugural event in the Nice Guys parking lot. The truck offers some of the best-selling tacos from Danger Danger, as well as new ones Denison has dreamed up in the past few months.
“We’re doing an oxtail and braised beef-chuck taco that has a lot of Szechuan flavors, which I’ve been obsessed with lately,” Denison said.
“Salsa Macha, which is like a chili-infused oil with nuts and seeds, I put that on everything, so I did a version for this taco with a smashed-cucumber salad on top to cool things a bit.”
The Saigon and tinga tacos from Danger have migrated to Death by Taco’s menu, as has the fried-oyster mushroom taco that was a frequent Danger special.
The truck also offers beer-infused queso strewn with charred tomatoes and poblanos, plus hand-smashed guacamole, nachos and traditional quesadillas filled with Chihuahua cheese and buttered corn.
As he did at Danger, Denison sources many of Death by Taco’s ingredients, including his locally made tortillas, from Taqueria San Julian’s attached market in south Fort Myers. Everything else — his chicken tinga, his salsas, his confit pork, pickled corn, aioli and slaws — is scratch-made to Denison’s, Gebhard’s and Batkovic’s exacting specifications.
“We’re offering eight tacos now and a few little plates, nachos things like that,” Denison said.
“Eventually we’ll start playing with more things.”
Death by Taco sold out of food during its Monday launch. The truck is taking the next few days to prepare for Saturday’s PRIDE Cape Coral event, where it will once again be serving near Nice Guys on Cape Coral Parkway East. It will be back in the Nice Guys parking lot March 9, with plans to serve by Palace Pub and No. 3 Craft Brews in the weeks to come. Then it will be off to breweries and events in and around Fort Myers.
“In our usual Nice Guys way,” Gebhard said in a text message, “we’re going to take things on super slowly but surely.”
Death by Taco’s tacos range from $7 to $10 for its two-taco plates. For a schedule and more information follow @deathbytaco239 on Facebook or Instagram.
Click here to view the original web page at www.news-press.com
