Señor Taco Express brings delicious, classic taco shop food to central Phoenix

There's no shortage of Señor Taco restaurants in the Valley, but they've largely been confined to the suburbs — until now. .

The latest: Now that Señor Taco is open for business in central Phoenix, it's available to a whole new audience — myself included.

• Señor Taco Express — with a smaller menu that focuses on the chain's more popular items — opened on June 10 on Central Avenue a few blocks south of Osborn Road, inside the old Jack in the Box building.

Best bites: There's a full menu of everything you'd want from a Mexican restaurant, like burritos and quesadillas, but when you're at a place with "taco" in the name, you might as well go with the tacos.

• I got a couple of street tacos — carne asada and carnitas — along with a hard-shell quesabirria taco.
• The quesabirria, oozing with cheese and packed with stewed spiced beef, was my favorite.

Catch up quick: Owner Reynaldo Ruiz traces Señor Taco's origins to his father's Cotija's Mexican Grill, which opened in 1974 in San Diego.

• Ruiz calls his father one of the original pioneers of the taco shop concept.
• The opening of Señor Taco Express in central Phoenix was on the 50th anniversary of the opening of his father's restaurant.

What's next: Ruiz tells Axios there are three new Señor Taco locations in the works:

• One at Glendale and 75th avenues, which is expected to open in about two months.
• And one at Elliot and Ellsworth roads and another at Cardinals Way and 91st Avenue — both slated to open next year.