It’s Cinco de Mayo. Here are some of our favorite tacos in Hampton Roads

Cinco de Mayo is the day the Mexican city of Puebla holds a military parade — celebrating victory against an invading French army.

But it is also the day Americans raucously celebrate Mexico, in our own dippy and tequila-fueled way.

Why? To paraphrase Tom Waits: To answer that question, you’ve got to go all the way back to the Civil War.

In the 1860s, the imperialist Napoleanic army sided with the Confederacy, and so many Mexican Americans viewed the Civil War and the war against the French as part of the same titanic struggle. Chicano activists revived that history in the 1960s, in a symbolic fight against colonialism.

Anheuser-Busch, which really wanted to sell beer to Mexican Americans, was only too happy to jump on the bandwagon — and so were international tequila conglomerates, who wanted to sell tequila to anyone in the United States who would drink it. Booze companies love Cinco de Mayo the way De Beers loves Valentine’s Day and Hallmark loves mothers.

And so here we are, celebrating America’s Mexican holiday. Much like St. Patrick’s for an Irish bar, it’s the biggest payload of the year for Mexican restaurants in this country.

There’s no real right way to celebrate — but plenty of wrong ones. Leave your sombreros at home, please, be nice to overtaxed service staff on their busiest day and try not to do a meet-and-greet with local police officers by getting in your car after downing margaritas the size of a Rottweiler.

If you wanted to do it Puebla-style, you’d be eating complex and rich mole poblano and not tacos. But the holiday in the United States is uniquely dissociated from Mexican tradition. As WHRO news director (and former Pilot reporter) Mechelle Hankerson suggested on Twitter, in Hampton Roads you might as well be partying with a big ol’ bucket of white sauce, the most American of Mexican American delicacies in Virginia.

Many here tend to celebrate with tacos and tequila. And there’s also no particular shame in a lettuce-blanketed Tex-Mex taco, which is a perfectly fine Mexican American food tradition. But we figured we’d take the opportunity to highlight some of our favorite tacos in Hampton Roads that resemble the ones you might actually find in Mexico City.

(For Beachy-Baja fish tacos, go here for some advice. Want quesabirria? Here you go.)

Chorizo Mexican Restaurant

4820 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk, 757-390-2526, chorizomex.com

Chef Rodrigo Ochoa’s tacos contain some of the most lovingly tended meat in Hampton Roads, from beautifully flavorful carne asada cut from actual strips of flank steak to al pastor pork shaved off a pineapple-topped trompo.

Chorizo would usually be closed on Wednesday, but they’re opening specially for Cinco de Mayo with a menu of tacos and ceviche and drippings-drenched Jalisco-style barbacoa that’s a close cousin to trendy quesabirria. Not to mention, they’ve got some of the best fresh-squeezed margaritas in Hampton Roads, available both on-site or to go (thanks, coronavirus!). Smokier “mezcalita” versions are also on hand. (Full review from last year here.)

Los Cuates

412 Newtown Road, Virginia Beach, 757-456-5456, facebook.com/loscuatestaqueriaVirginiaBeach.

Tucked into a little Newtown Road mini-mall, Los Cuates serves some of the most splendid barbacoa and carnitas tacos you can ever expect to find in Virginia, with pork or beef-cheek flavor deep as an undertow. Latin-American regulars tend to also load up with their tables with chalice-like seafood cocteles brimming with spice and ringed with shrimp. If it sounds good, that’s because it is. Meanwhile, margaritas are 50% off all day: You’re welcome. (Los Cuates was also the winner of a 2018 taco taste test by the Pilot.)

Taqueria La Patrona

1153 Lynnhaven Parkway, Virginia Beach, 757-301-4527, taquerialapatrona.mobilebytes.com.

Started by a founding family of the Plaza Azteca empire, La Patrona is son-mother duo Chris and Antinea Lopez’s ode to their family’s origins in San Jose de la Paz, Jalisco. That means thick and lovely housemade corn tortillas, well-tended meats, and lovely West Mexican shrimp ceviches. But Mexican American favorites can be found here, too, from many forms of quesabirra — gringa, taco, quesadilla — to, oh lord, so many different versions of margarita.

Expect La Patrona to be the busiest place in town: No reservations, only first-come-first-served. Order in advance even if you’re going through their oh-so-handy drive-thru window. (Full review from 2019 here.)

Los Paisas Locos

11710 Jefferson Ave., Newport News, 757-595-8226, facebook.com/lospaisaslocos

Finding great Latin American food on the Peninsula can be a challenge, but this no-frills Mexican spot is a worthwhile mainstay. Look especially to their estimable skills with carnitas and grilled meats. And, of course, there is the salsa bar that should be legendary. Open the lid, and discover an eight-deep wonderland of spice and flavor. One is the color of violent and terrifying midnight, while the rest come in every color found on a stoplight. Linger too long and you’ll nearly pass out from the capsaicin fumes.

El Rey #2

849 E Little Creek Road, Norfolk, 757-965-5466, facebook.com/elrey2va

If ever there was a place that understood the beauty of copious low-cost tacos and tequila, it is El Rey, whose second and more spacious location is a blue-collar hang that’s long had some of the best happy hour specials in town. El Rey’s Little Creek location sports a vast cornucopia of proteins on their tacos and specifically boasts some of the better carne asada tacos around. On Cinco de Mayo, expect $5 margaritas and a grip of food specials.

Taqueria La Hacienda

2146 S Military Highway, Chesapeake, 757-962-0090, taquerialahaciendava.com

In a neighborhood that’s one of the densest homes to Mexican and Latin American culture in Hampton Roads, La Hacienda also has some of the best salsa you’re likely to find here, whether roja or verde. Also, some of the finest and especially the most toothsome corn tortillas, handmade each day. They are also home to a third-generation birria recipe and some delicate and lovely consome. Unsurprisingly, they are always busy. But you needn’t come just on Cinco de Mayo. Stop in anytime.

Jessy’s, Jessy’s, Jessy’s and Jessy’s

3201 E Ocean View Ave., Norfolk, jessysov.com; 1375 Oceana Blvd., Virginia Beach, taqueriajessys.com; 1021 Virginia Beach Blvd., Virginia Beach, jessysvb.com; 328 W 20th St, Norfolk, jessysghent.com

The most famous Mex-Mex taqueria in Hampton Roads, a Quadruple-J featured on Triple-D, is always Jessy’s. Among the locations’ multiple chefs, you can argue which locations offer the best food at any given time. But for traditional Mexican-style street tacos, I’d veer to the takeout options on Virginia Beach Boulevard. For a party atmosphere on Cinco de Mayo, go to Oceana or the original Ocean View location. And for surprisingly delicious veggie tacos and rotating meat specials such as deshebrada or suadero, go to the one in Ghent.

Los Primos

3380 E. Princess Anne Road, Norfolk, 757-837-4200.

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Tiny Los Primos is less a Mexican restaurant than a lovely food conversation across much of Latin America — a tortilleria with a bracing mix of foods from its Guatamalan, Honduran and Veracruzana chefs. It is also home to the most delicious tacos de lengua I’ve eaten anywhere in Hampton Roads, plus some excellent grill-crisped carnitas and a heart-stoppingly hot salsa roja that should come with a warning label. Beautifully browned Latin American rotisserie chicken can also be found here. And if you want to jump borders: The Honduran baleadas here offer belly-filling and heartwarming comfort. (Review from 2019 here.)

Krazy Trompos

Food truck, located today at 3578 Holland Road, Virginia Beach. Details at krazytrompos.com.

Krazy Trompos began three years ago at a taco festival, from a cadre of home cooks slicing al pastor pork of rotating vertical spits. The trompos are gone, but the truck is now a powerhouse of excellent tacos with handmade tortillas, not to mention quesabirria and mangos on sticks. If you show up much after they open at 3 p.m., expect to wait.

El Korita

200 E Washington St, Suffolk, 757-809-4712, elkoritasuffolk.com

El Korita, a little treasure in downtown Suffolk, is home to meticulously prepared meats and housemade corn tortillas with specialty taco fillings that rotate with blessed regularity. But since you’re here, avail yourself of fiery aguachile ceviche or the mariscos and some of the best refried beans in the region. Also: scratch-made, fresh tamales, which are more likely than tacos to be eaten in Puebla on Cinco de Mayo. Did we also mention the Mexican-style cocktails, such as cantaritos, that you’re not likely to find elsewhere?

Crud: Now we regret mentioning the place. We have become hungry. (Review from 2019 here.)

Matthew Korfhage, 757-446-2318, matthew.korfhage@pilotonline.com