Chapter 2 – Flower Tie Glasses

Taco Bar MKE – 782 N. Jefferson Street, Milwaukee

It seems inconceivable that, having decided to once again write about local tacos, the first two places I'd visit would have the word “taco” and the letters “MKE” as part of their name. Well, taco, okay, but MKE? What's it mean? Mr. Kite of England? My Karaoke Empire? This happened on a day that Mark and I headed to Shah Jee's during lunch hour from our office jobs. As it turned out, it was an Islamic holiday, Ashura, and Shah Jee's was closed! So we then repaired to the next closest restaurant, Taco Bar MKE, which is next door to the Dogg Haus, but connected—I get the feeling they had too much space for Dogg Haus—so decided to split it in half and make a taco joint next door. That's ingenuity, I guess. The problem on this day was that dozens more office workers bounced on the same rails we did and created a perfect storm, the mother of all Taco Bar MKE lunch rushes. That's probably overstating it a little, but it was the longest I've ever waited for a taco. It didn't help that the tacos are all too complicated, too fancy, too expensive, and there are only high tables to sit at. I can only sit at one of those high tables for the time it takes to complain about it. The tacos on the menu board all have goofy names, none of which I remember except for the “Naked Chicken Taco,” because that's what almost all the office workers in line ordered, like they never got to say the word “naked” otherwise. I guess sex sells, even if it's a dead bird. Unfortunately, I can't remember what two tacos I ordered, but they were the only two listed with corn tortillas. At least one had some kind of pork, and they were both fine, tasty, if a little too busy. The thing I do remember is on my check it said: “Flower Tie Glasses”—which confused me for a second, then I realized it was the cashier/server's code to remember which order went to whom. (I was wearing my glasses, see, and a tie with flowers on it!) Something about that kind of warmed my heart, for some dumb reason, and ended up leaving me with a much more positive impression than I would have had otherwise. Sometimes mystery, no matter how fleeting, is paradoxically like a balm for the harsh and meaningless void that is this world.