New Blood Alley Eatery
We have always been fascinated with the comings and goings in Gastown’s Blood Alley. And what better way to people watch than while enjoying drinks and food with an alley view. We were big fans of Judas Goat which was replaced in October 2013. Sean Heather (Irish Heather, Salty Tongue, Salt Tasting Room, Shebeen Whiskey House, Bitter, Rainier Provisions) sold the space to a former employee and it is now called Gringo which is inspired by south-of-the-border cuisine, SoCal & the LA food truck scene.
Gringo
We first visited Gringo on a sunny April day and have now been back 3 times. It is a great place to take visitors who always enjoy the alley location experience. The menu is small and focuses on street tacos with authentic ingredients, nachos, mexi-dogs, mexi-rice and cold drinks. Gringo is open for lunch six days a week (not on Sunday) and dinner seven days a week. It is a late night find, open until 2am on Friday and Saturday and 1am the rest of the week.
What is a Beera Colada?
As soon as I saw the combination of rum (my fav) and beer I had to give it a try. The $7 Beera Colada is made with rum, lime, coconut and beer. It tastes like a Pina Colada but the beer takes away some of the standard sweetness and makes it much more refreshing. One is not enough!
A Beera Colada ($7) and a basket of hand cut tortilla chips and sides of spicy queso, made to order guacamole and fresh chunky salsa ($15) make a great snack or starter. We have stopped in for these on our way to a football game.
We have also tried all of the Tacos (sorry no pic). Go for the 6 for $15 and you get to try one of each of the five choices (chuck, encino, wilbur, pink, mugroso which is veg) plus a bonus. My fav is the ‘Pink’ with shrimp, chimmichurri and tomatillo sauce and Jeff’s is the ‘Encino’ with hand-pulled roasted chicken, ranch and salsa.
The food is reasonably priced, fast and good. The staff are friendly (usually only one or two as the place is very small) and the drinks are cheap ($3.50 pints and $7 cocktails). We plan to go back in the near future to try the street dog and the stadium nachos, and another beer colada of course.
We, Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other a Biz Blog where we comment on business best practices and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned and operated CK Golf Solutions for 7 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. We DO NOT get paid for ANY of the blogs on our website. These are the places we visit and the things we do because we want to. When we say that we like or dislike something or have a good or bad experience this is our opinion and the truth as we see it. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us anytime.
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