EDITOR'S NOTE: Jose Sanchez (interviewed in this story) is now facing felony charges. The full details are available here.
If you've lived in the Treasure Valley for a while, you've likely noticed tons of new restaurants popping up in recent years, and if you're a fan of birria tacos, you've likely heard of Garnacha que Apapacha.
The family-owned business recently celebrated its grand opening at their new sit-down restaurant location at the Boise Spectrum. Previously, Jose Sanchez and his crew served up the traditional Mexican dish at a food truck in Nampa, quickly becoming one of the most popular spots to stop for lunch in the western Treasure Valley.
Sanchez explains "garnacha" refers to Mexican street food and "apapacha" means a hug to the heart; So Garnacha que Apapacha loosely translates to "street food that's giving you a hug".
Most of the dishes on their menu feature tender beef birria which spends all day simmering in a broth of seasonings and spices before being sliced and shredded by hand.
The restaurant goes through 240 pounds of the delicious meat every day, alongside 200 pounds of shredded cheese, and up to 300 pounds of onions. Their most popular menu item is the birria tacos, served a-la-carte.
The Boise restaurant is a far cry from where the business was just four years ago. Sanchez and his wife were cooking up tacos at home and selling them out of their trunk at construction sites for $1 per taco. They knew they were on to something when they could sell 400 tacos in 20 minutes.
The new location adds dine-in service with indoor and outdoor seating, homemade horchata, and a focus on fresh ingredients.
"I take a lot of pride and passion in what I do," Sanchez said. "We do everything fresh, like non-frozen stuff, no powder, no nothing. We peel our tomatoes, we make our green salsa, 100% fresh."
Sanchez says they've had visitors from hundreds of miles take the trek to taste their tacos, some even coming from Mexico to get a taste of their Treasure Valley birria.
You can learn more about the restaurant here.
