Driving back to Austin from South Texas a few Sundays ago, I decided on a whim to take the business route of US 183 through Gonzales. I hadn’t gone very far before I saw a mass of cars on my left, at the Matamoras Taco Hut, and others were still pulling in. All this activity in a small town, and on a Sunday, to boot, was intriguing. What did these diners know about this modest little restaurant that I didn’t?

  It was a little after noon, so I decided to give the MTH a try. The parking lot was crowded, so I parked on a shady side street. Walking back to the restaurant, I met a few customers who had picked up their food to go, and I solicited a quick recommendation. “Is the food good?” I asked, already knowing the answer. “Oh, yeah,” came the reply. “We eat here a lot.”

The dining room was full, so I opted for a take-out order myself: something called Robert’s Special, a soft taco featuring potato, sausage, and cheese. While waiting for my food, I surveyed the patrons, who appeared to be locals, some of whom had obviously just left church, judging by their dressy clothes (a few even wore hats). I struck up a conversation with an elderly couple seated at a table near the register. They were waiting for their Mexican plates, which they assured me would be well worth the wait. They invited me to sit with them until my order came, but my number was called before I could accept.

  When I returned to my car, I rolled down the windows and savored my soft taco, which was delicious; the tortilla was so tender that it had to have been made from scratch that morning. On my way out of town, I pulled over twice more, to window-shop at Discovery Architectural Antiques (an upscale salvage business with a huge inventory) and The Hearty Gourmet (a culinary shop). I’ll check out those sites the next time I’m through. I have a feeling there are at least two more small-town gems in Gonzales. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009 at 3:31 pm and is filed under Nola McKey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.