Design District Taqueria Taco Stop Permanently Shutters

After nearly nine years in the Design District, popular taqueria Taco Stop has officially closed its doors.

Owner Emilia Flores announced the sad news in a press release on Friday, citing diminished foot traffic in the era of COVID-19 as the cause behind the restaurant’s closure. A native of Durango, Mexico, Flores’s tacos and salsas have been a staple of the city’s taqueria scene, but Taco Stop’s charitable efforts were equally recognizable.

For the past several years, Flores has been known for the coat rack outside her restaurant, which provided warm winter clothing to those in need in Dallas and beyond. According to Flores, people from all over Texas traveled to donate coats to Taco Stop’s efforts throughout the years. In addition to the coat drive, Taco Stop also regularly made donations of food to the hungry and prepared meals for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taco Stop is just the latest longstanding Dallas restaurant to permanently close its doors during the pandemic, joining spots like Highland Park Cafeteria, Wolfgang Puck’s Five Sixty, and the Greenville Avenue location of Tacos Mariachi, among other beloved establishments.

Now that Taco Stop has shuttered, Flores hasn’t announced plans just yet for what’s next. “I just want to make everyone’s lives a little better,” Flores said in a statement. “It’s in my nature to help others, and I’m looking forward to finding something that will allow me to keep doing that.”

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