It's rare for a chef that has a pretty successful restaurant to basically stop and rework the concept in mid-stream. That's what happened with a place we liked to go to in downtown Davenport from time to time, an upscale casual restaurant by the name of Woodfire Grill. In October of 2019, owner Toby Christianson decided that he was getting stale as a chef and he wanted to do something fun with a new restaurant concept. He ended up shutting down Woodfire Grill and rebranding it into an eclectic taqueria. In February of 2020, Christianson reopened the restaurant with the unique name of tacobar?.
Toby Christiansen grew up outside of Fargo, ND and got into working at restaurants as a teenager. After graduating from Minnesota State-Moorhead, he started on an odyssey where he worked for a number of upscale restaurants around the Midwest. He helped open restaurants in Grinnell, IA and in Muscatine, IA before making his way to the Quad Cities over 15 years ago.
In 2004, a restaurant by the name of Centro opened on the ground floor of the historic Redstone Building in downtown Davenport. Once the flagship store of what eventually became the Von Maur department stores, the building also houses the River Music Experience on the other half of the ground floor and up on the second story of the building. Centro had signed a three-year lease when they opened in the summer of 2004 and that lease expired in 2007. The lease was renewed month-by-month as the owners of Centro were helping the River Music Experience find a suitable replacement for their restaurant. They found it in Christianson who was the managing partner of a small investment group who ended up taking over the location.
Pictured right - Toby Christianson. Photo courtesy Quad City Times.
Christianson's upscale/casual restaurant Woodfire Grill took over the new location in March of 2008 and my wife and I ventured down there less than our usual "three month rule" after a new restaurant opened. Of course, there were problems and that was the first night we met Toby Christianson who came by our table to profusely apologize for my wife being served the wrong meal. We told him that we usually wait 90 days after a restaurant opens to allow them to work out the kinks. Toby said to us, "Well, if everyone did that, new restaurants would be out of business in less than 90 days. That's why we need people like you guys to help us work out the growing pains." It was a good point and one that we've thought about since. But, honestly, we still try to let a restaurant go for 90 days before we give it a shot.
The Woodfire Grill was a place we had been to a number of times over they years and we really enjoyed the food that Toby and his staff served there. They always had a good bar and sometimes we'd just hang out with friends for a drink.
But Christianson was getting burnt out after running Woodfire Grill for nearly 12 years. As I said, he ended up reimagining his restaurant into a chef-driven eclectic taqueria with a diverse selection of crafted drinks and a couple dozen craft beers to choose from on tap. I was told that the name "tacobar?" came about as that was the immediate retort people would say to Christianson as he told them that he was turning his popular restaurant into a taco bar. After closing Woodfire Grill in October of 2019, he had a soft opening of his new restaurant later in December and tacobar? was pretty much open for full business in February of 2020.
Of course, not long after tacobar? opened last year, they were forced to shut down due to COVID-19 restrictions. Christianson worked through that by offering carry-out meals and also providing tacos to many of the front line medical workers who were fighting the coronavirus.
And the continued outbreak of the coronavirus was one of the reasons why it took us so long to finally get down to tacobar? for a meal. We were out with friends of ours having a couple drinks on a Friday night and the women were wondering where we should go for dinner. My wife brought up tacobar? and our friends basically said, "Yeah, we haven't gone there yet, either! Let's go!"
We found a parking space just down 2nd Street from tacobar? which is located at 2nd and Main. (see map) We had actually tried to get into tacobar? on a Friday night during the time when restaurants were still under 50% capacity restrictions sometime late last year, but we were told it would be a 45 minute wait. Well, there was going to be no problem getting in this particular night - even if there were restrictions in place - as there were just a handful of people in the place. And with their outdoor patio open during warm weather months, there was plenty of places to sit.
The inside had changed a bit from the days of Woodfire Grill. Some of the banquette-style seating and booths had been taken out on one side of the restaurant and small alcove seating was available. I detest banquette seating, so this was a good change.
However, on the other side of the restaurant, they kept the banquette seating in the middle of the dining area.
There was a little lounge area off to the side that replaced a number of tables along the east wall of the restaurant. It was kind of a neat concept to have comfy sofas for people to relax on while having a drink.
It was such a nice evening that we decided to sit out on the patio. The patio overlooks the courtyard for the River Music Experience, and on Friday nights from June until September the organization sponsors "Live @Five" where they showcase local bands from 5 to 7 p.m. It was around 8 p.m. when we got to tacobar? on that Friday night, so the crowds had pretty gone and the band and production company had already packed up and moved on when we got there.
There is no waitstaff service at tacobar?. There are menus available to take to your table and then figure out what you'd like to get. Then you go inside back by the kitchen and order up your food. They bring the food out to you once it's ready.
We ordered the obligatory chips and salsa for our table to enjoy while we looked at the menu. The chips and salsa are not free at tacobar? and run $2.95. But we were fine with that. The chips were fresh and warm, and the salsa had a nice little kick to it with hints of chipotle peppers and cilantro. It was excellent salsa.
And since there is no waitstaff, that means you have to go to the bar and order your drinks. And that means two separate charges. The bar area hasn't changed at all from the days of Woodfire Grill. It still had the high-back chairs at the bar, the small tables along the front window and the six flat screen televisions hung above the back bar.
My buddy and I had gone to the bar to order drinks - my wife wanted a strawberry margarita while I saw the unmistakable spigot for Kona Big Wave. I ordered the drinks and the bartender - a blonde young lady - asked me for my name. When I said it, she said, "I THOUGHT that was you!" It turned out it was the ex-wife of a guy that I know and I hadn't seen her since they had gotten divorced a few years back. It turns out that she had been working at the Woodfire Grill with Toby and stayed on when he went to the tacobar? concept.
Well, the first hiccup of the evening occurred when the keg for the Kona Big Wave blew as she was pouring it. "And we don't have a replacement keg," she said looking under the bar. I decided to get a Sierra Nevada Hazy IPA they had on tap instead.
The second hiccup came when I went to order food. They touted "puffy tacos" on the menu - made from Navajo-style frybread - and I thought about getting a couple of the pork shoulder puffy tacos. However, I was told that they were out of the puffy taco shells that evening. Hmmm.... OK. Let me look at the menu again. I decided to go with the pork tacos. Then someone in the kitchen called up to the girl at the cash register and said they were out of pork that evening. I was sort of incredulous that they were 0 for 2 on what I wanted to order. OK - back to the drawing board.
Usually, they have six proteins to choose from for their tacos at tacobar? - chicken, pork shoulder, ground beef, carne asada (steak), butter-grilled shrimp and a fried tofu for the vegetarians. Toppings are grouped, such as "main stream" - lettuce, pico de gallo, taco sauce and fresh cheese; "al pastor" - pineapple, cilantro, onion and achiote pepper salsa; "Tex-Mex BBQ" - garlic-cider slaw, pickled onion, a house-made bbq sauce and house-made pickles; and "Korean" - chopped cabbage, chimichurri, sesame seeds, and a spicy "yum-yum" sauce.
My wife went with the chile lime chicken - three corn tortillas filled with marinated grilled chicken, main-stream style. She also got jalapeƱo slices on the top of each tortilla. The tacos were served in a tin-foil dish - not too fancy of a vessel for an eclectic taco place like tacobar?. My wife really did enjoy the chile lime chicken, the tin-foil dish, notwithstanding.
I ended up getting the carne asada tacos - there was a $2.00 upcharge for the carne asada - with the "Mexican OG" toppings which are the traditional cilantro and onions with a choice of sauce. I got the chile verde salsa to go with my tacos. And they were fine - not outstanding or earthshaking. They were just typical carne asada tacos in double corn tortillas. I really wanted to try the pork al pastor tacos, though. I guess I'll have to go back again at some point and do that.
For our first visit to tacobar?, I thought the food was fine. There were a couple three setbacks (ran out of the beer I ordered, no puffy taco shells, no pork al pastor), but we were able to work around it. My wife enjoyed her chile lime chicken tacos and I really liked their house-made salsa. Toby Christianson has said that he doesn't want to compete with the myriad of Mexican restaurants in the area, he just wants to enhance the offerings. I hope tacobar? is able to make it as the location is a prime spot in downtown Davenport. But knowing how successful Christianson has been in the past, I'm sure that he'll be able to make it work.
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