Grilled fish tacos, chorizo burgers and more await at Turlock’s newest food truck

Taco trucks are nothing new in the Central Valley. But a taco truck that makes its own chorizo burgers and grilled fish tacos? Well, now, that’s a little different.

The new Titos Tacos & Grill in Turlock prides itself on those differences, like scratch-making all its salsas and sauces, to give a home-cooked flavor to your Mexican favorites as well as some dishes you might be less familiar with. The trailer parked just off downtown Turlock at the corner of Center and Marshall streets opened earlier this month.

Owner Cesar Rodriguez has worked in the restaurant business since he was 18 years old, starting out as a busser. Now 31, he is striking out on his own with a food truck named for his father, who goes by the nickname Tito. It’s his passion for cooking, particularly makings salsas, that helped to inspire Rodriguez to start his truck. And it is where its pepper logo comes from.

“My dad is really passionate about making salsa,” Rodriguez said. “Anyone who knows him, when they come to his house, he’ll always try to feed them peppers.”

Now he is in charge of making the salsas for the truck, and also helps out with prep work. The business is a true family affair with Rodriguez’s wife, mother, brother and sister all helping out on the 22-foot trailer.

When putting together the menu for Titos, Rodriguez said, he wanted to draw on his family recipes and the best (and the worst, which he avoided) of his own taste tests at taco trucks up and down the Central Valley.

The truck’s main salsas are a spicy guacamole sauce and a blended chile de árbol salsa. You can get it on the tacos, which can can be ordered with beef, chicken, al pastor (marinated pork) or chorizo. And, not to be missed are the fish tacos. Rodriguez uses Swai fish filets for his tacos, which are seasoned, grilled and then topped with pico de gallo, purple cabbage and sauce. Regular tacos run $1.50 a piece and fish tacos are $2.50.

You can also order burritos ($7-$8), quesadillas ($5-$8), nacho fries ($8), burrito bowls (burrito fillings over rice without a tortilla for $8) and mulitas (a variation on a quesadilla and taco made with corn tortillas for $3), all with your choice of meats. And then there is the Tito’s burger. The handmade patty is 50 percent ground beef, 50 percent chorizo. The result is a juicy, flavorful burger topped with cheese, pico de gallo and sauce on a grilled bun.

“We wanted enough on the menu to attract not just people who want tacos, but people looking for other options or healthier food,” Rodriguez said.

Around mid-September, Rodriguez plans to start making breakfast burritos and extend his hours to the mornings. Around that same time, he plans to add birria, stewed beef, to his meat menu for tacos, burritos and the rest.

Rodriguez also plans on offering on-site catering for special events and fundraisers. But for now he is focused on letting more people know the truck is there — sitting in the long-vacant former Bonander’s car lot. He has even put the site’s carport to good use, as a permanent sunshade and dining area thanks to new picnic tables he installed underneath.

Titos Tacos & Grill, at 240 S. Center St. in Turlock, is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday (additional Sunday hours will start mid-September). For more information, call 209-485-8609 or visit www.facebook.com/pg/TitosTacosNGrill.

Elsewhere on the Business Beat:

Save Mart is expanding its online grocery shopping program, ClickCart, to another valley location.

The service started at its Pelandale Avenue store in May, and has now launched at Save Mart in Riverbank’s Crossroads shopping center at 2237 Claribel Road. A ClickCart personal shopper at each store picks up all of your items and has them ready and waiting for you curbside that same day.

In celebration of the new Riverbank location, the company is waiving its service fee and offering a $10 off $50 spent promotion through the end of September. As with the Modesto store launch, Save Mart has donated $2,500 of online ClickCart shopping credit to Camp Taylor, a Modesto nonprofit that holds free camps for children with heart disease.

To use ClickCart at either the Modesto or Riverbank locations, visit www.savemart.com and click “online ordering.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 3:10 PM.