After a long and somewhat stressful week, my wife and I headed to downtown Davenport to get a couple beers/drinks at one of our favorite brewpubs, Stompbox. (They have a new kitchen staff and menu at Stompox and we need to try their food there at some point.) After I had probably one beer too many, I told my wife that I needed to get something to eat. We ventured over a couple blocks to a restaurant that had been on our radar for sometime, but had never been to until that evening. Here is the story of our visit to Dam Tacos.
Dam Tacos is a joint venture between Bill Sheeder - who along with his wife Stephanie has owned a handful of restaurants in the Quad Cities area (but none that lasted more than a couple three years); and Marc Van Severen - who is the guy behind Van's Pizza & More with locations in Davenport and LeClaire (and formerly in Bettendorf). Van Severen bought the Dam View Inn, a popular, yet small hole-in-the-wall dive bar that is right next door to Dam Tacos. The building that houses Dam Tacos was previously the home to two popular retro-style stores - Trash Can Annie that specialized in vintage women's clothing and styling, and Ragged Records which was (and still is) a great place to go look for new and used vinyl records. After the flood of 2019 devastated downtown Davenport and forced the move of Trash Can Annie and Ragged Records to new locations, Sheeder and Van Severen took over the building in 2021. They spent nearly the whole year of 2022 renovating the building and getting it back in working order.
The premise of Dam Tacos was basically a "grab-and-go" concept where street-style tacos would be served in containers that could be eaten in the restaurant or taken to-go, as well as a full bar serving top quality margaritas. Anticipation for the opening of Dam Tacos was high given Sheeder's and Van Severen's background in restaurants. Finally on May 5th, 2023 - Cinco de Mayo - Dam Tacos opened their doors.
Initial reports and reviews on Dam Tacos were mixed. Friends who had been there thought the tacos were good, but very overpriced. "$15 bucks for 3 tacos is a bit much, man," a friend of mine told me after he went there not long after it opened.
But another friend thought the tacos were outstanding. "They're tough to beat," he told me. "Everything is very fresh."
Dam Tacos is located on 2nd Street on the far east end of downtown Davenport, just before the north entrance to the Government Bridge just up stream from Lock and Dam 15 on the Mississippi River. (see map) The road in front of Dam Taco and the Dam View Inn has been shut down for a couple months due to roadwork at the mouth of the Government Bridge where the city is putting in a round-about. Parking in the lot directly behind the Dam View Inn and Dam Taco is readily available when on-street parking is not available. A rear door entrance to Dam Tacos is off the rear parking lot.
Inside the restaurant we found a lively space with colorful santa meurte murals on the wall. The main lighting was provided by barrel band light fixtures with faux candle light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The three-sided bar was the focal point of the dining space and featured a corrugated tin face under the bar. High-top tables were along the walls and up toward the front of the restaurant that was also naturally well-lit from the large windows up front.
We ended up sitting at the bar and were greeted by T.J., a bartender we had run into at other establishments in the Quad Cities over the years. He was a seasoned barkeep and was somewhat famous for his mixed concoctions. He was telling us that the street work shutting down 2nd Street was putting a damper on the walk-in business. "We've done what we can to try to stay open," T.J. was telling us as we settled in. (As this blog post comes up on June 7, 2024, Dam Taco appears to be temporarily closed down due to the road construction in front of the place. Road construction is scheduled to continue into July before the roads are reopened.)
T.J. had given us some menus to look over as he made up a couple margaritas for us. We decided to try the "Trio" appetizer that gave us the option of picking 3 of the 4 dips or queso in the "starters" part of the menu. We took the queso, guacamole and the salsa which is made by Lobo's Salsa over in East Moline. We'd tried some of the Lobo's salsa at the local farmers market, but this was the first time we had more than one little sample scoop. It was pretty good with a nice fresh taste and a bit of a bite on the back end. The guacamole was topped with ground black pepper and garlic powder and was very good. But the queso was the best out of the three. It was creamy and had a smooth taste with a little spiciness in each bite. The chips were just OK - I could tell they weren't made in-house and when I went back to the men's room later on to use the facilities I saw that they were just using regular Doritos chips out of a bag.
Even though I really didn't need one after a couple three high ABV beers at Stompbox, I had T.J. mix up one of his signature margaritas. It was made similar to the ones I make at home - it started off with Herradura silver tequila, then some Cointreau was mixed in. I usually add lime juice and some agave syrup along with a splash of water before mixing it up on ice in shaker. After adding the tequila and Cointreau, T.J. added orange juice and lime juice. But instead of adding agave syrup as a sweetener, he added raspberry syrup. "I like the balance raspberry syrup adds to the overall flavor," T.J. explained as I tried a sip of his margarita. It was good, a bit more complex in overall flavor than what I normally like, but it was definitely drinkable. It was much better than the soda mix-infused margaritas that most Mexican restaurants around town will make.
The menu isn't very extensive offering about 10 different types of tacos including a breakfast taco (served between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.), a basic ground beef or chicken taco, a breaded and deep-fried shrimp taco, and a "Philly" taco with a choice of steak or chicken topped with poblano peppers and a queso sauce. They also had a rice bowl with a choice of chicken or beef, quesadillas, nachos and beef or chicken burritos. And the prices appeared to be lower than what they were when then first opened. Most tacos were 8 to 9 dollars for 3 tacos up to $12 for 3 steak or carnitas tacos.
My wife and I got something similar - the verde tacos. She got the chicken verde tacos, while I got the carnitas verde tacos. Dam Tacos does offer a "taco flight" of up to three different types of tacos, but we decided to just go with three of one type. The tacos were topped with shredded cheese, onions and a chile verde salsa and served in a paper-based deep plate. My wife thought her chicken tacos were fine, but nothing special.
The carnitas were dried out and they really needed to have more salsa verde on them. I asked T.J. for some more salsa and he brought out a couple small tubs. The extra salsa helped with the overall taste, but the carnitas were chewy and too dry. I wasn't impressed.
I really tried to like Dam Tacos. It was a little lame that they were using Doritos for their chips with salsas and dips, the carnitas tacos I had were too dry and overcooked, and my wife thought the chicken tacos that she had were just OK. I did like the margarita that T.J. made me and he was a good bartender/server while we were there. If Dam Tacos can survive, they need to have a little bit more consistency in the kitchen and stop using off-the-shelf chips to pair with the very good Lobo's Salsa, their great guacamole and their excellent queso dip.
Went by there the other day. They had paper up in the front windows. Looks more than temporarily closed.
Posted by: Bill S. | June 07, 2024 at 03:10 PM
If it is really closed this would be the third or fourth restaurant Bill Sheeder would be involved in that hasn't lasted more than a couple years. I don't know what that says, but it sure is interesting
Posted by: JSB | June 10, 2024 at 04:40 PM