Taquiza – the taco counter that doubles as a tortilla factory

Taquiza is as much a working tortilla factory as it is a taco counter, and since its move to Little River it finally says so out loud: its Little River home combines the taquería, tortilla factory, commissary and wholesale operation. Steve Santana — a former web developer who worked his way through the Broken Shaker and Eating House kitchens — opened a small walk-up counter in South Beach in 2014, and grinding organic, non-GMO blue corn in-house daily and pressing tortillas to order, the stand introduced Miami to house-nixtamalized masa at a time when that process was rare in the city. Taquiza has moved often in its 12-year run, including eight years at a North Beach location before relocating to Little River, into a building that had been Taquiza's commissary kitchen and headquarters for more than three years, supplying the North Beach restaurant with tortillas and running wholesale production behind the scenes. It is selected in the MICHELIN Guide, a distinction rarely handed to a counter with no indoor seating.

01The room and the factory floor

There is no dining room in the conventional sense. Most of the floor belongs to the machinery: the nixtamal, masa, and tortilla processes are visible directly from the dining area through imported Celorio production equipment. Santana has said the move puts that work back at the centre of the restaurant rather than tucked behind a counter, giving the operation room to run at a scale it never had in South Beach. Guests order at the till and eat at a handful of patio tables, or take everything to go.

02The chef

Santana came to cooking sideways. A web developer by trade, he worked his way through Jeremiah Bullfrog's food truck, the Freehand's Broken Shaker and Chef Giorgio Rapicavoli's Eating House before, as he tells it, an investor offered him a small counter-service space inside a South Beach hostel. With no professional grounding in Mexican cooking, he immediately bought ten Mexican cookbooks, all in Spanish, to learn how to make the best tortillas possible, and the concept for Taquiza was born. His business partner is John Burnett, who approached him to collaborate on what's now known as Taquiza, an authentic, fast-casual Mexican street fare concept. The original stand later landed spots on Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and the Travel Channel's The Zimmern List.

Insider tip

Counter-service only, no indoor seating; order at the till, online, or by delivery for pickup.

03The cooking

The method has stayed constant at every address: corn is nixtamalized, ground and pressed into tortillas daily, the slow process that first set Taquiza apart from Miami's taco shops. What has changed in Little River is the grain. The biggest change on the menu is the tortilla itself — Taquiza has long served its tacos on blue corn, but in Little River they switched to stone-ground yellow corn, while the forever popular totopos remain heirloom blue. The entirely gluten-free, seed-oil-free menu is built around that tortilla, with masa and chips made on site for the restaurant and for Taquiza's wholesale clients across South Florida.

04What to order

The counter sells ten tacos, all on stone-ground tortillas, read on Taquiza's own ordering menu in October 2026. The Crispy Fish Tacos pair masa-fried wild cod with cabbage and a roasted salsa; Gobernador wraps grilled shrimp, sautéed peppers, onion and Oaxaca cheese; Al Pastor carries shaved pork with achiote, pineapple and tamarind; Lengua is braised and seared beef tongue; Rajas keeps things vegetarian with roasted poblano, onion, mushroom and cilantro crema. Start with Totopos Azul, the hand-pressed blue corn chips that built the brand, alongside four ounces of guacamole, and close with the churros — sweet corn masa tossed in cinnamon sugar with dark chocolate. Fresh stone-ground tortillas go home by the dozen for six dollars, and blue corn masa is sold by the pound.

05Wine and drinks

The list stays short and specific: Mexican Coca-Cola and a house hibiscus agua fresca sit next to Pacifico, Modelo Negra and a local IPA from Tank Shark Valley. Wine arrives by the can — a Syrah-Grenache blend from France's La Roche Buissière and a Chenin Blanc from Jean-Pierre Robinot — alongside Tepache Sazón, a sparkling pineapple ferment at 7% ABV, and an Aplos chili margarita for anyone skipping alcohol.

06The neighbourhood

Little River sits north of the Design District and within reach of Miami's Upper East Side, and it has quickly become one of the city's more interesting streets to eat on. In the past few years, Little River has become one of the city's most interesting culinary destinations offering everything from Michelin-starred dining at Ogawa to pizza at Bar Bucce and wine at Magie — all a short walk from Taquiza's counter.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.