Its time for Taco Tuesday Review round two, you broke-ass taco eatin’ sons of a bitches. This week I headed to Cantina Dos Segundos for their $1 taco special with ten bucks in my pocket looking for a quick meal and a couple cheap drinks. Check it out after the break.
Cantina Dos Segundos
Second stop, Cantina Dos Segundos. A Mexican bar/restaurant in Northern Liberties just off of 2nd and Poplar, the second location of Cantina Los Caballitos in South Philly. They offer a $1 taco special every Tuesday where the types of tacos are rotated regularly, but both a meat and vegetarian/vegan option are always available. Yes it probably would have made more sense to review the original location, Cantina Los Caballitos, but Dos Segundos is closer to my house and I’m a guy writing an internet article about getting drunk while eating tacos. So...
Cantina Dos Segundos is a one floor setup separated into two rooms, one being a dining area and the other a bar with a few small high top tables. Because of this, your first important decision of the evening is going to be left or right. You can choose the left-hand room and sit down at a table like a human being to enjoy a meal and maybe an overpriced(though tasty and full of tequila) margarita. Or you can make a right, sit at the bar and get irresponsibly drunk while gorging on free chips and salsa (I am not even close to finished talking about the free chips and salsa).
If going left sounds appealing to you, stop reading this article. Seriously, this is not for you. Just turn off your computer and walk away. If, on the other hand, the thought of even considering not sitting at the bar is making you confused and maybe just a little bit angry then carry on. You’re gonna turn right. There, you'll find a bar where people from around the city come for Mexican food, locals come when they want drinks with limes in them and groups of coworkers who don’t know how to interact with one another sober come to drink mojitos. All in the same place. Surrounded by shots of tequila and pitchers of margaritas.
In a city with so many niche places to drink where there is only your own particular breed of alcoholic for company, its rare to get so many people that just don’t belong in the same room to coexist in a single environment while someone feeds everybody liquor. This can either be amazing or terrifying depending on your own personal perspective and/or which sport is currently being played on the television. Personally, I like to get drunk while sitting between a guy in a suit and a guy with neck tattoos, makes me feel classy and tough at the same time. The one detriment to such a non-genre specific atmosphere, however, is the music.
The sound track for your evening is going to be loud and most of it is going to be bad. Fortunately the jukebox uses actual records with no Internet search function. That usually means more plays for your money and the opportunity to find some music you might not usually think to look for, along with the added bonus of probably not hearing the same shit ad nauseum. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter here. You’re still just going to hear the same old bar shit or some nonsense someone played to try to piss everyone else off. I don’t have anything against Joan Jett or the Beastie Boys, but I don’t need to hear them every time I go to a bar. So actually, I guess I do have something against Joan Jett and the Beastie Boys. Oh well, fuck em.
Now that we’ve got the ambiance out of the way, back to the most important element of any bar. The free shit. When you sit down at Cantina Dos Segundos, you’re almost immediately offered free chips and salsa. Sometimes they skip the offering and just give them to you. Because they know you need them. This feels like the right time to share something personal with you, because I feel like we’ve gotten pretty close over these last few paragraphs. I love free. I love salsa. And if you put free chips and salsa in front of me, I'm fuckin’ em up. I will all the way embarrass myself and just not care. Partly because they're free and I feel like if I don't pay for something it could get taken away at any moment. So I need to eat all of it as fast as I can, you know, just in case. And mostly, my own troubling psychological issues aside, they’re just really good. Anyway, long story short, they give you free chips and salsa and that makes my dick hard.
Drink time: A Tecate and a tequila. $5. All day, every day. Their own Mexicaner version of the city wide special. Shots of Sauza Gold are not good but you can do a lot of them without throwing up. Tecate is Tecate. And I don’t have a problem paying five bucks for those two things together. As a matter of fact, I endorse it. Because when paired with $1 tacos, chasing shitty tequila with mediocre beer just feels right.
Taco time: Tofu with green molé on soft corn tortillas. $1 each. Oh. Fuck. Yes. A surprising amount of tofu sautéed in green molé sauce with some raw onion on top and a lime wedge on the side. Three dollars worth is enough for a meal without any fake cheese, shredded lettuce or room temperature bottles of taco sauce and sour cream to pour on top. Really delicious. I don’t know how much I’d be willing to pay for these, because they’re still tacos and basically just an excuse to drink on a Tuesday, but probably more than a dollar.
Three tacos($3), chips and salsa($0) plus a Tecate and well tequila special($5) adds up to some really good food and some pretty bad booze for $8. The tacos are great, no complaints at all and the $1 special makes them taste even better while opening up the possibility of taco eating contests. A five spot for a shot and a beer is pretty good for a bar with a menu that includes things that aren’t deep fried. And if you can’t appreciate free chips and salsa then fuck you and fuck your family.
Cantina Dos Segundos probably isn’t the best bar to hang out at, and maybe its not meant to be, but if you’re hungry on a Tuesday and anywhere near Northern Liberties then you’re doing it wrong if you’re not at Cantina Dos Segundos eating a legit meal for the price of a bus ride.
Next stop, Barbarella. The upstairs bar at the Barbary on Frankford Ave and Allen St just off of Deleware Ave. They offer $1 tacos and $2 Tecates from 5-9pm every Tuesday.
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