Could the Bay Area’s best tacos really be all the way up in Napa?

When I was 16 years old, I had the best tacos al pastor of my life. 

I was traveling through Morelia in the central Mexican state of Michoacán, on a summer exchange program with my high school. My friends and I regularly frequented a local taqueria for inexpensive, delicious tacos carved from a pineapple-topped trompo, a vertical rotating spit of meat. From my memory, there was only one taco you could get — al pastor — which is pork marinated in spices and then layered on the spit to slowly roast for the entire day.

The taqueros used their machetelike knives to shave thin slices of the pork onto a corn tortilla the size of a silver dollar pancake. They added a sprinkle of chopped cilantro and white onion on top, a little salsa, and soon enough, the perfect, tacos were delivered to our table.

Ever since, I have been searching the Bay Area for al pastor tacos that remind me of those memorable, two-bite delicacies I had in Morelia. Friends have taken me places they adore in the Mission and in Oakland, but they left me wanting more. Thankfully, I might have found what I’m looking for — in Napa, California, of all places.

Mothers Tacos, at 3150A Jefferson St. about 2 miles north of downtown Napa, is the first Bay Area taco shop I’ve found that serves an al pastor taco reminiscent, to me, of the kind I had 16 years ago.

Opened in January of this year, Mothers Tacos is the brainchild of industry veterans Ben Koenig and Charles Whittaker. After teaming up at Heritage Eats, another Napa fast-casual restaurant from Koenig and his wife Ali, Koenig and Whittaker took a fateful trip to Mexico City and returned compelled to bring what they experienced to the Bay Area to the best of their abilities. The name honors the women who are often the ones cooking the meats, making the tortillas by hand and blending the salsas, though the front-facing taquero world is largely dominated by men.

“It was just kind of like that religious experience,” Koenig told SFGATE about eating tacos and taco culture in Mexico City.

The business partners said there were two taquerias that really influenced them when creating Mothers Tacos. For Koenig it was El Tizoncito in the Condesa neighborhood of Mexico City; for Whittaker it was Taqueria Orinoco in Roma Norte.

So what makes a great al pastor taco? For Koenig and Whittaker it’s all about the “pop of flavor.”

“It was a lot of trial and error to find that reminiscence … but a few extra chilis and a bit of unusual ingredients like fruit juices in our marinade, and we finally got to the flavors that stood out in our memories,” Whittaker said.

There are two main qualifications that I look for every time I encounter a new trompo. One: It has to have the right color — a deep orange with black char spots that mark the meat like a tiger’s fur; Two: It has to be cut from the spit superthin so that the meat stays succulent and tender in the tortilla.

The al pastor at Mothers Tacos definitely fit the bill.

When I visited Mothers Tacos on a recent weekday, I ordered two al pastor tacos, as well as one suadero (beef) and one chilorio (pork) taco. The al pastor tacos ($4.45), as previously mentioned, were remarkable and reminded me of the best I’ve ever had. The shaved pork was sweet and savory with hints of cinnamon on my tongue, and very tender. Al pastor tacos often come with shards of fresh pineapple sliced from the top of the trompo to play up the fruit-forward marinades, but this recipe was delicious enough on its own. I only wish the shavings of pork were even thinner than they already were — then it would have been a near replica of what I had in Morelia.

The suadero taco ($4.55), a slow-cooked, extra-tender beef cut (that is not often sold in the U.S.) cooked with soft and sweet onions, and the chilorio, a Sinaloan-style braised pork, or guisado, were also standouts. In fact, the chilorio ($4.25), which is scarce in the Bay Area, was arguably my favorite taco of the day. There was a faint smokiness to the stewed, brown sauce, which was rich with earthy flavors.

There were also four unique vegetarian and vegan taco options: a garlic-sauteed mushroom taco, a Jamaica taco, a simple avocado one topped with queso fresco and pico de gallo, and a vegan purple potato taco. Offering this many vegetarian tacos is uncommon at many taquerias. Thankfully, my mom let me try her order of the purple potato taco ($3.95), which was exceptional because the potatoes were tart with vinegar, which lent a kick to the sweetness of the potato.

All of the tacos are served on homemade tortillas, with heirloom corn from Mexico (sourced by Masienda), which was an upgrade from what I remember in Morelia.

For many taco lovers, it’s about the experience of eating tacos as much as it is the flavor. Sometimes, it’s eating them on a folding table on the side of the road in East Oakland. Sometimes it’s about eating 36 tacos between four friends for only $6 on a hot night in Morelia, Mexico, while sipping tequila from our water bottles. Yes, it was half my life ago, but I’ll never forget eating those tacos while surrounded by lifelong friends.

For Koenig and Whittaker it’s all about the experience, as well.

“It’s the smell, it’s the sound, it’s the visual of the skilled taquero shaving the meat,” Koenig said. “It’s an experience for all senses.”