Self-labelled as the “Mexican Taqueria in Florence”, Tosco Tacos recently opened in via Santa Verdiana with a upbeat vibe ideated by owner Tommaso Fontanella. From the nachos gringos (tortilla chips, chorizo and cheese) to taco de suadero (beef confit, roja sauce and coriander), campechano (beef and chorizo, onion, roja sauce and coriander) and carnitas (pork and orange), every morsel packs a punch at lunch and dinner from Tuesday to Saturday.
I’m hearing an American accent…
I was born in Florence, but my mom’s American, so half my life I thought I should move to New York and give it a try, given that I have a passport. I moved there with my wife and I began working in advertising. It was a great start because you get into the middle of whatever is going on in New York and pretty soon I moved to another agency whose clients included the U.S. tourism board. We were paid to travel across America, taking videos and pictures, and showcasing how great it was to visit every state. It was a huge positive shock because I started discovering all these different foods.
Such as?
We took this trip in the South and were invited into the house of an African American family. They were cooking collard greens and pork as well as pickling okra and this sous vide cabbage with honey on top. It was really tasty. When we’d travel back to Italy, I was going back to the staples like prosciutto and pecorino, but I was starting to crave different food and flavors. For me, the biggest discovery was Mexico. I took this trip with my wife and we went crazy with everything because the flavor profiles were so different. It had acidity, sweetness, saltiness and fat all together. Back in New York, I started visiting all the taquerias and used that as research because I couldn’t go to Mexico that often. Back then I thought it would be fun to mix Tuscan food, so I tried some peposo in a taco, and it was good because obviously the taste of a tortilla is polenta, so it’s pretty easy to find in our culture, but it just didn’t give me that addiction that I have from Mexican food. So, when we moved back here in 2021, I was missing it so much I started cooking for myself and for friends, and then it became a party, and a party became a pop up, and then we started thinking that this could actually become a thing. We spent two years doing pop-ups to test the ground and see how it would work with an Italian profile.
The pop-ups were always out in Tuscany, right?
Our base was always Colle Val d’Elsa because we were able to partner with a butcher who lent us his shop on weekends, which felt great because taquerias always start with leftover meat in a butcher shop. I loved that, but at the same time we had so many people coming from Florence that I started thinking we should probably move into the city. We started looking for a place and in a couple of months we found this place near Sant’Ambrogio that used to be a sandwich shop.
How’s it going so far?
It’s been surprising because a lot of Italians are interested in discovering the new flavor profiles. I always thought it was going to be Americans, Mexicans and Italians, but it’s been the opposite. Italians first and lots of Mexicans.
Sant’Ambrogio is a melting pot of cultures, so this is a suitable location for you.
Initially we were looking at the Oltrarno because I felt that that would have been probably the hipper area, like Williamsburg in New York. But the truth is that if you open there it’s only to become yet another hip spot. I lived in Sant’Ambrogio years ago before moving to New York in borgo La Croce, back when I was a student. Having the market here for me is a huge thing. Any good taqueria in Mexico is next to the market to have access to fresh vegetables. Everyone in the neighborhood is incredibly welcoming.
What’s on the menu?
We showcase typical taqueria food. The mains are carnitas (pork belly); suadero (brisket); and chorizo; and we do that all in-house with the spices and everything. There’s quesadillas to keep it simple. Now we’re working with nopales (cactus leaves from Sicily). You just clean the spikes off and cook it. Some dishes are kept off menu, like secrets, so you’ll see someone ask for something and someone else will see and ask about it. What we’re doing right now are chicken rinds dried in the oven and fried, broken into pieces and put in a pico de gallo salad with some avocado.
And to drink?
We’ve leaned entirely in natural wines because people are appreciating them and they go well because the spices in the tacos are already so high that a Tuscan Sangiovese would just burn your mouth off. We’re also building a network with local growers, like La Ginestra and Le Masse. They come here to eat with their friends, so we’re all supporting each other. We also have two artisanal beers that have been made for us and the kombuchas are from a Florentine company called Latteria that just started recently.
Plans for the future?
We’d love to offer this as a guest space, given our background as a pop-up. I was really lucky in the beginning because not a lot of people believe in doing that. It would be nice for us to learn new things from them, while giving them a fun test spot because it’s really hard to open a business.
