Taco Naco KC Opens Storefront In Downtown Overland Park

Excerpt from Shawnee Mission Post, February 15, 2021
Words and photos by Juliana Garcia

In addition to tacos, Taco Naco KC is a market offering several items including Mexican Coca Cola. Other items include small candies and treats, pineapples, tomatillos, salsas and more.

Taco Naco KC, an Overland Park Farmers’ Market taco stand, now has a more permanent home in the downtown area.

Chef Fernanda Reyes Gonzalez and her husband, Brian Goldman, recently opened the taqueria storefront with the same menu as the seasonal taco stand  — including its best-selling guacamole and tomatillo salsa.

Reyes Gonzalez said Farmers’ Market customers flooded her inbox with requests for salsas and tacos every day of the week— not just during the stand’s bi-weekly appearance.

“We started growing and growing and growing, so we decided to open a place that was close to the [Farmers’] market,” Reyes Gonzalez said.

While opening in the middle of a pandemic can be a headache for most, Reyes Gonzalez said it turned out to be the perfect time to open the Taco Naco storefront. She and Goldman started the farmers’ market taco stand during the pandemic, and quickly gained regular customers.

Taco Naco KC offers nine non-traditional taco options, including a carne asada chimichurri taco and a mushroom mole taco. Reyes Gonzalez said her restaurant’s tacos start with three basic building blocks: a good tortilla (from a local Kansas City tortilleria), good meat, and good salsa.

Gonzalez said she wants Taco Naco KC to remain a small, family-friendly business.

“We like that everything feels like a family,” Reyes Gonzalez said. “We don’t want to be a big corporation, we like seeing all the time, the same customers.”

The market and taqueria is open Tuesday to Thursday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.