Taco porn: En Su Boca

A nearly 40-year-old adult bookstore was recently taken over by a duo that’s not afraid to get dirty.

September 17, 2013; 9:48 AM • by Nathan Cushing

• Who: Patrick Stamper and Randy O’Dell
• What: Mexican food at the site of a longstanding porn shop
• When: Opened July 22nd
• Where: 1001 W. Boulevard
• Why: To bring the food of San Francisco’s Mission District taquerias to Richmond.
• Dishes: Quesadilla conchinita pibil — banana leaf slow roasted pork, cheese, sour cream, and two salsas ($10); lamb and chorizo chili with six chilies and lime crema ($10); slow roasted carnitas taco — citrus pork shoulder, toasted arbor salsa, taqueria onions, and cilantro (1 for $3, 4 for $11, 10 for $25).

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Behind the bar where Pacifico drafts are now poured and carne asada tacos are folded used to be a row of small booths wherein men would pay a few bucks for a couple minutes of “alone time.” For nearly 40 years, 1001 N. Boulevard was home to Triangle Adult Book Store, which, in addition to its pornographic inventory, populated its store with 15 door-less, curtain-less booths with video screens.

“It was fucking gross,” said Patrick Stamper, co-owner of En Su Boca,¹ about the Triangle’s condition when he took over the property in late 2011. “You’d walk in and there was this weird little area when you walked through the front door with a desk and on the walls they’d have porno mags, movies you could buy, and dildos or whatever,” he said.

Stamper and his business partner, Randy O’Dell, have traded Triangle’s porn and toys for tacos, burritos, and other Mexican cuisine.

While most residents and business owners in Scott’s Addition applauded the location’s about-face, not everyone was pleased. Stamper recalled meeting a man during En Su Boca’s lengthy cleaning and remodeling who boasted that every time he got out of prison, Triangle was the first place he’d visit. Or the old man that pulled up in a brand new SUV, disappointment in his eyes upon realizing that Triangle was gone.

Even those who wanted Triangle gone may have had a hard time processing that it really was gone. For 38 years, it welcomed visitors getting off and on I-95 at Boulevard. “Almost everyone will say that this was one of the first things they saw the first time they came to Richmond,” Stamper said. “It was kind of the armpit of the city.”

But in recent years, as Scott’s Addition saw the arrival of Bow Tie Cinemas, Fat Dragon, Light Tape, and others,² the Triangle was one of the last blights of the neighborhood. “I think by getting rid of [the Triangle], we were kinda moving the neighborhood in the right direction,” Stamper said.

En Su Boca wasn’t the first time Stamper and O’Dell had taken a shabby property and revamped it. Stamper moved to Richmond in 1995 and began working in several restaurants before helping to open Banditos in 1997.³ A decade later, Stamper helped remodel a property 3433 W. Cary Street–which had previously housed a run of failed coffee shops–into Mezzanine.⁴

Stamper and O’Dell then turned their attention to The Border, a bar located at 1501 W. Main Street. “The building was dilapidated,” he said. “It needed a lot of work.” Most obvious was the floor behind the bar, which Stamper described as “squishy.” In 2010, the dilapidated Border became the popular (and structurally sound) Bellytimber.

“The potential is there, you just have to be able to see past the shit,” Stamper said about the properties he’s revamped. But not only do he and his partner see past the shit, they clean it away. Perhaps none more so than when they took over the Triangle in 2011. “We’ve been kinda training for this our whole lives.”

Bodily fluid stains aside, the building was far from primetime. “There was no gas running into the building, there wasn’t a proper bathroom. It wasn’t even close to being a proper restaurant,” Stamper said.

Anyone who’s remodeled or refurbished a home or building will tell you to expect the unexpected, which usually leads to added expenses and delayed timelines. That certainly happened with En Su Boca, but there was also an unexpected gift: two garage doors.

From about 1950 – 1973, the property was a Texaco station with bay doors. Triangle ownership later covered those doors with a drab paneled exterior. “Nobody even knew there were garage doors,” Stamper said. “Nobody knew it was a gas station because Triangle Book Store had been here for so long.”

Discovering the doors was a happy turn of events. “The garage doors were a big thing for us” because it allowed En Su Boca extra light and patio space, Stamper said. On July 22nd, the restaurant opened.

Stamper says the menu harkens to the taquerias of San Francisco’s Mission District, which he’d make a point to visit whenever in the Bay Area. “I’d find my way to the Mission every day to eat tacos,” he said. “Good food that came out fast and was cheap.” He felt it was a type of Mexican food Richmond was missing, and who better than he and O’Dell to bring it to town. “We felt pretty confident that we would have a niche.”

As a result, some of the items are a tad different. For instance, cheese isn’t a standard ingredient for the tacos (although it can be added). “It’s more about the tortilla and the protein,” Stamper said. As for the tortilla chips, they’re thicker, authentic tortillas made by a Mexican family living in the West End. There are also dishes some may not be accustomed to like the grilled street corn ($6): two corn cobs topped with lime mayonnaise, cojita cheese, and piquing chili; and the slow braised goat leg ($20) served with guacamole, rice, drunken beans, and warm tortillas.

“There’s something fundamentally festive about Mexican food,” Stamper said. En Su Boca’s bright interior and colorful murals only boost the festiveness.

Stamper isn’t surprised that business has been good, but he is amazed by the number of families that regularly come in. So much so, he’ll soon have to order additional high chairs and booster seats to accommodate them.

“The last thing you’d think is the old porno shop…would be a place to bring the kids,” Stamper said, laughing.

En Su Boca is located at 1001 N. Boulevard.

Related

• From Porno to Taco; Richmond Magazine

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photo by Anne Aurelia Lewis

September 17, 2013 9:48 AM 24