The story below is from our September/October 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Fresh ingredients, a cool vibe and a Tequila Club make Cabo Fish Taco a diverse downtown Roanoke offering.
John Park
Cabo Fish Taco
“I never wanted to be in the restaurant business,” says Gary Walker, recounting his journey into opening Cabo Fish Taco. “I kept using the restaurant business to fund school so I could get out of the restaurant business.”
Walker, a Virginia Beach native, started his unintentional career path into the restaurant industry at an early age; bussing and waiting tables for his uncle, who owned a restaurant in North Carolina. Walker went on to Virginia Tech, graduating in 1994 with a finance degree and minor in history. He then decided to pursue a professional skiing career out in Colorado. This was a flop, and soon he was back at Virginia Tech for graduate school; more history with the addition of philosophy and a goal to teach high school. This didn’t pan out either.
Instead, Walker found himself further immersed in the very industry he was using as a means to a different end. Eventually Walker gave in and answered the restaurant’s call.
And what was it that finally caused him to cave?
Years earlier, while Walker was in his transitional time of pursuing a ski career, he would spend the “mud season” as the off-season is called, in Costa Rica; San Diego, California and Baja, Mexico. It was in Baja where Walker had his first fish taco.
“I kept thinking about that taco,” says Walker. “I loved the freshness of it. When I came back I really missed the food. There was nothing like it on the east coast. I was wrecking my kitchen trying to recreate the foods I enjoyed so much in Southern California.”
Walker, along with Rob and Meaghan Crenshaw (fellow restaurateurs and friends from Blacksburg), opened the first Cabo Fish Taco in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2001. Using Rob’s skill with seafood (who spent years cooking seafood in Virginia Beach) and Meaghan’s expertise with creating the right SoCal vibe for the space, the team of three hit Cabo Fish Taco success. So much so, they decided to expand—first to Blacksburg (mostly because Walker missed the mountains) in 2005, and then Roanoke in September, 2018.
When building the Cabo Fish Taco menu, Walker and Crenshaw combined Walker’s Baja food experiences with fresh, healthier versions of Mexico’s staple ingredients. They use a vegetable stock as their base, making it from scratch every day. They use flour tortillas and flash fry them to give the crispy texture of corn tortillas. They use nothing that comes from a bag. They don’t use simple syrups in their margarita mixes.
Walker says they have a four-use rule for every ingredient: if they can’t find a way to incorporate an ingredient into at least four different menu items, they get rid of the ingredient. In this way, they ensure they are using every ingredient to its full potential while keeping the turnover of ingredients at a high rate.
I noticed this early on in my visits to Cabo Fish Taco, primarily in their sauces. They have several sauces they repeat throughout the menu: cilantro white sauce, honey wasabi sauce, sweet Thai chili, southwest aioli and a couple different iterations on a soy sauce.
I find myself often choosing my meal based on what flavor I’m craving, first, then search out different ways I can experience that flavor. It’s a neat way to interact with Cabo’s menu.
Another thing I appreciate about Cabo’s dishes is the abundance stuffed into every taco, wrap, burrito and salad bowl. It would be easy for Cabo Fish Taco to skimp on certain ingredients—especially proteins—when putting together their tacos or burritos.
I’ve eaten at Cabo Fish Taco multiple times and every meal is loaded through with meat. The Thai shrimp wrap, buffalo ranch shrimp tacos, honey glazed salmon tacos…on and on. Every meal is dense with its layering of ingredients. And yet, because the ingredients are incredibly fresh and the sauces light, I don’t finish my meal feeling loaded down.
Another way Cabo Fish Taco brings a taste of Baja to Roanokers is through their Tequila Club. At the front of the restaurant is a tequila tasting room. Here, folks are given their own tasting card and have the opportunity to try Cabo’s selection of high-end tequilas, the most expensive being $400 a bottle. Once a person has tasted all Cabo’s tequilas, his or her name is engraved on a plaque and hung on the wall. The Tequila Club has become hugely popular in Blacksburg and Walker hopes it will catch on in Roanoke as well.
Walker loves having Cabo Fish Taco be part of Roanoke’s vibrant downtown scene. He sees Cabo as a great addition to downtown’s restaurant diversity. And, he’s excited to share his love for Baja-inspired foods with the community; from drinks to dinner—a whole dining experience.
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