Popular Toronto taco restaurant quietly opens epic second location

A taco restaurant that's been a downtown Toronto go-to for over a decade has finally embarked on an overdue expansion, quietly opening a new location in the city.

If you've ever found yourself hankering for tacos while on King West, the aromas of asada and Baja fish all likely led you to Wilbur Mexicana at 552 King St. W.

Since 2015, the buzzy taco joint has been a lunchtime staple for the neighbourhood's population of hustle-bustlers. While its immediate surge of early Instagram attention may have ebbed over its decade in business, business itself hasn't, leading many (or maybe just me, who actually makes a living thinking of such things) to wonder why an expansion or franchising of sorts wasn't happening.

Almost as if co-founders Will and Baird Cumberland and Steve Chan read my mind, here it is: Wilbur Taco Co., the long-awaited follow-up to Wilbur Mexicana.

This time, taking up residence in Liberty Village, Wilbur Taco Co. certainly looks the part. It eschews the original's stainless steel sterility in favour of a lived-in exterior that would be at home anywhere along the California-Mexico border, with corrugated steel on one side and stucco on the other.

Inside, the atmosphere feels similarly old-school. Checkerboard floors, subway tiles and glass block dividers all make appearances, while a wall of vinyl sleeves announces "What's Spinning" today.

The menu, replete with tacos, burritos, quesadillas and fajitas, on the other hand, is virtually identical to that of its King West sibling. That's good news, too, because the tacos at Wilbur, well, they slap. Now they're just slapping in a whole new neighbourhood.

Wilbur Taco Co. is located at 50 Atlantic Ave.