Delicious duty

Texas foodie eats up new role as Favor’s first ‘chief taco officer’

Favor Delivery has named self-proclaimed "taco king" Chris Flores as its first "chief taco officer."

Courtesy of Favor

San Antonio resident Chris Flores, owner of video production company, Eatmigos Creation, gained recognition when he set out four years ago to devour tacos from more than 900 Alamo City eateries.

Now, he’s taking his taco obsession to the next level. Favor, the Austin-based delivery service owned by San Antonio-based grocery chain H-E-B, has tapped Flores as its first-ever “chief taco officer.” Favor announced its search for a chief taco officer in April.

Chosen from hundreds of applicants, Flores will document and share his search for the state’s best tacos. Flores will be paid $10,000 to taste-test tacos for two months. He’ll also receive food, transportation, accommodations, and Favor swag, as well as free Favor delivery for a year.

Flores, who runs the Eatmigos social media brand, enjoys a following of nearly 37,000 users on Instagram, where he bills himself as the “taco king.”

In 2018, Flores embarked on a mission to chow down on tacos served by more than 960 restaurants in San Antonio. Three years later, he teamed up with San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg and five local businesses to cover 1,000 taco lunches for people affected by the statewide winter storm.

“Our goal was first and foremost to find someone who has a genuine passion for tacos, storytelling, and the history and culture of tacos in Texas, and Chris is exactly that,” Jag Bath, CEO of Favor, says in a news release about Flores’ meaty new role.

“We’ve delivered over 11 million tacos across Texas since Favor’s launch — and as a Texas-born and Texas-based company, needless to say, we take tacos very seriously,” Bath adds. “We cannot wait for Chris to share his taco journey with the rest of Texas, and really showcase a core component of Texas cuisine and culture.”

Flores’ first stop on his two-month taco tour will be Dallas-Fort Worth. Other places he’ll visit include San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Lubbock, Waco, and the Rio Grande Valley.

“I love Texas because of the melting pot of different cultures that have migrated here and adopted the taco into their cuisine,” says Flores, a San Antonio native. “I’m so excited for this opportunity to travel Texas while seeing and tasting the different impact the taco has had on each region.”

Flores’ taco travels and recommendations will be posted on the Favor website, as well as on Favor’s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube accounts.

tacos

Peak Plates

7 Austin restaurants make OpenTable's top 100 for 2024

Jeffrey's Restaurant/Instagram

Jeffrey's Restaurant is a great example of the type of fancy, well-established restaurant that made the list.

Restaurant reservation website OpenTable has issued its new list of the top 100 restaurants in America for 2024, and seven Austin restaurants have made the list. That's already impressive at a glance — 7 percent of the entire national list in just one city — but compared to other Texas cities, it's huge. Austin is the only Texas city to have more than one restaurant on the list.

The "2024's Top 100 Restaurants" list is a compilation of the most sought-after and top-ranked restaurants in the U.S. based on 14 million verified reviews on OpenTable from October 1, 2023, to September 30, 2024. Restaurants are not ranked, but arranged in alphabetical order by state.

Austin's seven restaurants (including several repeats from OpenTable's 2023 list) are:

Aba: Known for its laid-back, yet fancy patio and being a popular spot for visiting celebrities
J Carver's: Known for a commitment to the classic steakhouse experience and legitimately fancy dining
Jeffrey's Restaurant: Known for fine dining, a connection to Austin before its boom, and a fantastic wine program
Red Ash Italia: Known for approachable, yet high-quality Italian food with rustic touches
Sammie's Italian: Known for its romantic take on the archetype of an East Coast Italian joint
Uchi: Known for bringing Austin into the national sushi conversation and defining the scene
Uchiko: Known for a cool atmosphere and getting creative with sushi and other small plates

Austinites will probably not be surprised by this list, which names some very well-established restaurants that are all upscale. These qualities tend to appeal to similar lists, regardless of who's curating them.

It is interesting, given that the list was democratically based on user ratings, that there were not more beloved food trailers or casual spots. However, other factors that led to high rankings included alerts set and reservations made ahead — things that don't really apply to even the most awesome taco truck.

Mediterranean food was a trend among the Austin picks. Red Ash Italia and Sammie's Italian are, as the names would imply, completely dedicated to Italian food, while Aba covers a wider swath of the Mediterranean. There were also two steakhouses: J Carver's and Jeffrey's Restaurant.

As list-perusers may have guessed, Uchi and Uchiko are in the same family of restaurants, with Uchi being the more formal and Uchiko being a bit more accessible for drop-in meals and cocktails. But are two more incognito duos of sibling restaurants on the list: J Carver's and Red Ash, and Jeffrey's Restaurant and Sammie's Italian.

That could be a coincidence. It could also be a reflection of the utility of money and experience in opening a good restaurant, or a lesson about the effects of good (and expensive) marketing. Whatever it is, it doesn't sound like hospitality groups had any direct sway on how OpenTable made its choices.

This list was different from the inaugural list of OpenTable Icons, which launched in 2024. The "Icons" list chose restaurants that are getting a lot of buzz, which ended up being more subjective. It also seemed to let in — as a side effect of the process, rather than a hard eligibility rule — more new and Mexican restaurants. Two restaurants are on both lists: Red Ash and Jeffrey's.

Restaurants outside of Austin that made the Top 100 list, organized alphabetically, are:

Hudson House — Dallas
Steak 48 — Houston
Signature — San Antonio

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