In hopes of not making you pay $16.75 for just a side of guacamole (which you still can), Bay Area chain Tacolicious has introduced a “tariff-era menu” with guacamole that uses chickpeas, to cut down on their lime and avocado use as Trump’s tariffs kick in.
Despite whatever horseshit Donald Trump claimed in his joint address to Congress last night, inflation has absolutely gone up since he took office again. And prices are about to go up even more, as Trump’s tariffs with Canada and Mexico kicked in Tuesday.
The Bay Area mini-chain Tacolicious is already feeling the pinch, as much of their avocados, limes, tequila and such are imported from Mexico. (Some of these items are grown in California, but not year-round). And the LA-based Mexican food blog LA Taco reports that Tacolicious is implementing a “tariff-era menu” to keep their prices from going through the roof.
“The White House's order to place tariffs on goods coming from Mexico will greatly impact the cost of excellent limes and avocados we use for so much of our menu,” Tacolicious said in a Tuesday Instagram post. “While we source many ingredients locally, these are items for which there isn't a local alternative we can source without significant price increases for our customers."
That’s rather diplomatically stated. But some of these replacements are essentially Hamburger Helper-style ingredient alterations that use filler. For instance the new Avocado Garbanzo Guacamole ($13) is a cost-cutting combination of chickpeas and guacamole.
So one menu item name is less diplomatic. As seen above, the traditional avocado guacamole is called Beso Del Presidente (Kiss from the President). That’s priced at a stunning $16.75. That was the cost of a full Mexican meal when Biden was still president!
Moreover, Tacolicious says it will no longer serve sides of limes with meals (lime slices will be available by request only, at no additional charge.) On top of that, Mexican cocktails that use lime juice will now use a combination of lime and lemon juice.
It remains to be seen whether these menu alterations will only be a Tacolicious thing, or whether this will catch on more broadly among other restaurants that serve Mexican cuisine. The Chronicle spoke to a couple other Bay Area Mexican restaurants, and did not find any planning to raise their prices yet. Though that outlook is tentative.
“We’ve only increased prices twice in the last five years,” the Mission District’s La Taqueria owner Miguel Jara told the Chronicle. “That was for COVID and for high inflation. We’ve worked hard on keeping prices steady.”
Related: Tacolicious Announces Closure of North Beach, San Jose Locations [SFist]
Image: Tara A via Yelp
