Nano Wheedan has already been slinging his Austin-style breakfast tacos in Philadelphia for a while through pop-ups, but Wheedan told What Now Philadelphia via phone that he means to open his breakfast taco restaurant in July at 1001 E. Passyunk. The restaurant will be named Taco Heart. Wheedan will concentrate on making the freshest flour tortillas for his taco creations since he understands the value of fresh tortillas in great Mexican food.
Wheedan was born in Philadelphia but lived in Austin, Texas for quite a few years after attending Harvard. He was there to make music but came to love cooking and feeding people. He came to see it as a way to communicate with people through food and to make people happy. He started working at Home Slice Pizza as a day job and met Philip Korshak and they ended up working in Philadelphia together at Korshak’s Bagels.
Wheedan envisions a breakfast taco menu that includes eggs, chorizo, bacon, and freshly made salsas, but he wants the customer to be able to personalize their tacos. He believes that giving the customer the choice of exactly what kind of tacos they want, in the combination that they want, is crucial.
He spoke about migas tacos as well and said how the migas tacos from the Vazquez sisters’ restaurant Veracruz All Natural in Austin could change his whole day for the better. That is the kind of reaction that Wheedan hopes to get from his customers.
Wheedan spoke to What Now Philadelphia about the importance of freshness but also about how the quality of a tortilla makes a difference when you eat a taco. He likened it to having freshly made pasta or bread for a sandwich. He said that when the bread product that you use as an ingredient in a dish is fresh and made with care, that is where the heart of the food really is.
He will be using a tortilla press and a comal to make the tortillas as is customary and for now will focus on flour tortillas. His intention is to eventually start to make fresh corn tortillas too but it will be a while before he can move on to the painstaking process of producing those corn tortillas.
