Alex spent 19 years in San Antonio managing restaurants of various styles, mostly a mix of Asian and Mexican cuisine, and a combination of moving out of San Antonio and the COVID-19 pandemic gave them time to think about what to do next.
“Being in the restaurant industry, ... you’re always focused on the restaurant,” he said. “During COVID, there were a few things positive and negative for some people, and for us it just opened up more time. So I was able to experiment with this.”
The Hernandezes developed their recipes and in summer 2020 began getting permits for pop-ups.
“That evolved into our first truck in December. And now we have our second one [in Austin] that came up in February of this year. Another one possibly coming pretty soon, hopefully,” he said.
Tejas Birria bases its offerings on beef birria and consume, a savory stock the beef is slowly cooked in and used for dipping the tacos or sipping on its own.
While the most popular dishes people order are the quesibirria tacos plate, Alex said the beef birria ramen noodle served in the consume broth with beef birria, as well as the birria melt—beef birria and cheese served on Texas toast instead of tortillas—are big draws.
All are served with onions, cilantro, limes, a creamy homemade salsa verde and consume soup.
Alex said the consume is the anchor for all the items on the menu.
“[It is] all grilled in our consume; pretty much everything’s made out of the broth itself. That’s what produces pretty much the whole birria. So if your broth’s not good, then it kinda goes south from there,” Alex said.
Alex said what began as a family affair has grown to 16 employees between the two food trucks.
“We are looking into possibly in the future [offering] inside dining options, but for now, we try to make it as hospitable as possible,” he said.
What is birria?
Birria-style cooking originates in Jalisco, Mexico, and is made with goat meat. Hernandez said the style of cooking the meat slowly in a heavily seasoned broth was to mask the strong smells of the goat meat. Tejas Birria employs the Tijuana-style of birria—birria de res—only cooking with beef.
Tejas Birria
2775 FM 2001, Buda https://tejas-birria.square.site
Hours: Fri.-Sun. noon-8 p.m., closed Mon.-Thu.
