England native Paul Horton moved to Texas 22 years ago. After working in the corporate world and owning an Italian gelato franchise for seven years, Horton decided to open Taco Crush.

“[I] started looking around for things to do and I came [upon] tacos,” he said. “I mean it’s Texas, so you will always do well with tacos here in Texas.”

Horton opened the taco eatery in November 2016 at the northeast corner of Hardin Boulevard and Eldorado Parkway.

“My background is not Hispanic, not even Texan, not even American so I can’t say I’ve got all these family recipes that we’re passing on to people,” he said. “But being here you develop a likeness and fondness for tacos and things like that. But on the flip side … I’m not bringing any preconceived notions of what tacos should be, which is why we can get kind of creative and play around and try different things.”

Perfecting the menu took lots of research, testing, and trial and error, Horton said. However, trial and error led Horton to find the “perfect consistency” for barbecue, which he said is letting the sauce simmer for four hours.

Taco Crush serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

“We added things like the buffalo chicken taco and the Reuben taco [to the menu] and just keep experimenting and trying different things,” Horton said.

Popular menu items include the fried fish taco, chicken fajita taco, brisket taco and the bacon, egg and cheese taco, Horton said.

Horton also said all salsas are made in-house, including the tomatillo, fire-roasted red tomato and mango habañero.

“We’re not trying to be your typical Tex-Mex place or your standard taqueria,” Horton said. “There are fantastic taquerias that have been doing it for generations and generations, and why would you try to compete with that? So we’re just trying to do everything differently and do our own thing.”