Garrett’s Brewing Company debuts taqueria after listening to Tburg residents

Trumansburg wants tacos, and Garrett’s Brewing Company has taken note, entering the new year with the launch of a taqueria.

“It’s been really well received,” said Dan Scherer, part-owner of the brewery.

It’s a big year for the brewery, with many plans in the works to enhance the customer experience, beginning with serving Mexican food.

When Garrett’s Brewing Company first considered adding a food menu, the local brewery wondered what would be a great addition to the Trumansburg community – and they decided to seek input from locals.

“We did a lot of asking – patrons, other business owners, just kind of polled the community,” Scherer said. “Sort of unofficially, just to see what people thought Trumansburg could benefit from. Trumansburg is a small community, it’s a tight community. We definitely wanted to get a sense of what the public opinion was for a new or additional food establishment on Main Street.”

The answer, of course, was Mexican.

“There’s a lot of food options right now, but there’s no one really specializing in food truck-style taco fare,” Scherer said.

The brewery decided to operate its new taqueria like a counter-service food truck, where customers can order at the bar and pick up their food.

“Everything is streamlined. Everything is in to-go containers if somebody wants to walk out the door,” he said, adding that the quick-service concept allows the brewery to keep overhead low while serving high-quality, taco truck-style Mexican food.

Before landing on tacos, the business owners had contemplated offering smoked foods, like barbecue. “We had some folks interested in that for a while, but that didn’t really amount to anything,” Scherer said.

Enter Chef Drew Dillon, a chef at Garrett’s Brewing Company, specializing in tacos.

“He just came into our lives – he can cook anything,” Scherer said of Dillon, an established chef who has worked around the area.

“In conversations with him, even early on, we floated the idea about a taco truck-style taqueria,” Scherer said. “And he was like, ‘I would love to. That’s actually one of my favorite things to make.’ So we were like, ‘Okay, this might be a really good fit.’”

As it turns out, Dillon has solid experience making tacos from running a taco stand in New Orleans. He and the brewery continued discussions, throwing ideas back and forth about the taqueria concept.

“It just became apparent that was gonna be the way to go,” Scherer said.

Garrett’s Brewing Company’s chef makes everything from scratch, including his sauces, hot sauces, queso and even chips, which are made in-house.

“We try to make everything fresh that we can,” Scherer said. Chef Drew has even put his signature on some Mexican dishes, like a special barbacoa pork taco filling and a brisket.

“He has his own kind of style.”

Customers can order soft- or hard-shell tacos with a choice of protein for $6. The tacos are served with chips, a lime wedge and a side of salsa verde and rojo sauce.

Burritos with a choice of protein, basmati rice, black beans, shredded cheese, lime crema, onions and cilantro are also available for $14.

Other selections include a $12 cheese-stuffed quesadilla, and nachos, $10-14 depending on size, with lime-zested corn tortilla chips, choice of protein, jalapeños, black beans, queso, onions, cilantro and lime crema. A kids’ menu includes quesadillas.

Protein offerings include slow-roasted beef barbacoa, chicken tinga with Coping with the In-Laws IPA sauce, gluten-free pork carnitas with cider and spice-braised pork shoulder and a vegetarian option of butternut squash, roasted and tossed in spices and topped with pepitas.

Garrett’s Brewing Company has also recently introduced wing night, which will now be held on Sundays.

While Dillon is a pro at tacos, he’s versatile, with Scherer describing his wings as “phenomenally good,” with many recipes for specialty wings.

As Garrett’s Brewing Company is looking to keep the focus mainly on Mexican food for the time being, Dillon’s culinary skills may lead to some surprises along the way.

“He has a couple of things up his sleeve that we haven’t put on the menu yet,” Scherer shared.

In addition to expanding the menu this year, Garrett’s Brewing Company plans to offer new and different beers, update its furniture and offer some outdoor seating options.

“The theme of this year is growth, expansion and improvement. So, we really are approaching this next half-year or maybe entire year as an opportunity to do that,” Scherer said.

As the brewery is busy with its new food venture and fine-tuning its operation before tourists arrive in the warmer months, they are satisfied with their direction and may host some special events in the spring.

“We’re pretty happy with where [things are] right now; it’s been received extremely well by people in the area,” Scherer said.