Some restaurants, you come across. Others find you. For many guests at 13 Tacos & Taps in Raleigh’s Falls River neighborhood, it’s the latter. Word travels — from a neighbor, a coworker, a social media post — and curiosity wins.
And once you walk through the door and peruse options on the extensive menu, you can expect to be told by co-owner Marilyn Peraza: “Just start with picking anything because you’ll be back, and then you can work on the rest.”
She’s not wrong. The return rate at 13 Tacos & Taps hovers around an impressive 50%, and local loyalty runs deep. This is the kind of place where regulars are known by name, where instead of birthday cake a young girl requests jasmine rice with a candle in it, and where guests leave humming a jingle dreamed up by Marilyn herself and composed by AI.
Lucky 13, indeed.
At 13 Tacos & Taps, the food is inventive without being inaccessible. Fusion tacos and classic Mexican dishes reward the curious and keep the loyal coming back.
The Road to Falls River
Chef David — José David to those who knew him before North Carolina — Peraza has spent a career in kitchens, blending the culinary traditions of his Mexican heritage with the flavors and techniques he’s absorbed along the way.
That instinct toward innovation took shape early, during his years cooking Colombian Mexican cuisine and quietly reworking the specials menu into something entirely his own. “The fusion started in my head,” he says.
When the reception from diners was good, the idea of a food truck followed. When that food truck developed a devoted fan base, a brick-and-mortar felt inevitable.
David and Marilyn — married 26 years, together 31, and business partners for most of that time — had already run a successful restaurant, David’s on the Avenue, in Delray Beach, Florida.
Family circumstances brought them to the Raleigh area, but after achieving accolades such as being voted Best Mexican restaurant in Palm Beach and Broward Counties, the pull of the kitchen traveled with them.
Whether as art on the wall or flavor in the Chef’s Special 13th Taco, here the number 13 brings good fortune.
When David and Marilyn launched The 13th Taco food truck in 2016, they established support — in the form of mile-long lines — that would follow them through the doors of their Falls River location when it opened three years later.
Dreams on a Plate
The menu at 13 Tacos & Taps resists easy categorization. It’s rooted in Mexican cuisine — certified Angus beef birria braised low and slow, served traditionally with consommé or loaded into queso; classic enchiladas built on scratch-made mole; and fajitas for two featuring filet mignon, chicken, or shrimp. But the Taco Fusion section of the menu is where David’s imagination gets to run loose and is what keeps guests coming back for more.
The Moo Moo Tres — seared filet mignon with fire-roasted poblanos, bell peppers, onion, queso fresco, and citrus cilantro emulsion on flour tortillas — has been winning awards since the food truck days, including People’s Choice at Taco Palooza, and is the menu item David considers his “trademark.”
The Korean “Porky” BBQ wraps slow-braised pork butt in a sweet and spicy Korean glaze with da bomb slaw on corn tortillas. The Porky Asia layers smoked pork belly with a hint of orange and ginger, apple relish, and sesame seeds. The Taco Lao combines seared filet mignon in a Vietnamese and macha chili sauce glaze with citrus cabbage, carrot, and sesame.
And then there’s the Chicken & Waffles taco: double-dipped breaded chicken, smoky maple syrup, pico de gallo, queso fresco, and waffle on flour tortillas. This one has its own devoted following, with some guests even preferring to eat it cold. (The trick to this loaded taco, we learn from Marilyn, is to treat it like a regular taco and fold it, waffles and all.).
“The tortilla,” David says, with practiced consideration, “is a good vessel to deliver food.” A sign on the wall reading #Everything fits in my tortilla affirms the notion to be true.
What underpins David’s experimental approach is a signature layering of flavor that guests notice and talk about. Marilyn has watched this pattern play out over the years: “They say they taste every single layer,” she explains to her husband, who seems touched by, though not unaccustomed to, his wife’s praise. “There might be five different things in it, and they taste every single layer.”
When asked how he achieves this layering of flavors that both blends and builds, David simply responds, “Focus.”
Many of his best ideas arrive when his mind is free to contemplate. “He’ll go to bed at night and dream of a recipe,” Marilyn explains, then “come in the next day and create it here … and it ends up a huge success.”
The Cherry Raspberry Margarita combines the award-winning fresh homemade sour mix, fresh cherry and raspberry juices, triple sec, and Juarez Tequila Silver.
David shares that because of a careful regard for balance, there’s little fear of flavors clashing. He recalls how, with the food truck, if they ran out of something, like the sauce that goes on the Moo Moo, they could use the Red Bird’s and it would taste “phenomenal,” as the sauces work with multiple proteins to include fish.
Another creation is already in the works, David adds. The Moo Moo Cuatro is a new iteration featuring a spicy béarnaise on filet that he’s been developing in his head. Watch for it.
The Secret in the Mix
If the food is considered the soul of 13 Tacos & Taps, the margaritas are its heartbeat. The restaurant was recognized by Yelp as home to the best margaritas in North Carolina — an honor the team credits to their house-made mix, a proprietary blend that isn’t leaving the building anytime soon.
“We make our own mix,” Marilyn says. “That is the big secret” to the classic house and slew of flavored margaritas. And the demand is real. Regulars have been known to purchase the mix by the half gallon to take home.
The Details Matter
13 Tacos & Taps is also a curated environment, with the walls showcasing rotating work for sale by local artists, including pieces from a father-son duo who have become family friends of Marilyn and David.
One striking work, The Matador, contains a hidden figure that only one person has ever officially spotted. The restaurant’s lighting shifts through colors at night, entirely changing the way the painting reads. “Each time it changes, it changes what you’re seeing,” David says. “It comes alive.”
As if guests’ senses need more of an awakening, the music playing overhead instills a decidedly eclectic atmosphere. Much of the playlist is AI-generated, curated by Marilyn. (This includes a track about the Chef’s Special 13th Taco — currently fish — which guests have been known to request copies of.)
If focus is the secret ingredient in David’s fusion, consistency is what arrives on the plate. In an industry defined by turnover, the team has remained largely unchanged, and most of the kitchen staff has been there for four to six years. One employee has been on board since day one. “I don’t pester her,” David says jokingly when asked about this loyalty before turning contemplative: “I show her.” When it comes to the team he’s built, and to whom he expresses his gratitude with a living wage, he says, “I’m thankful for what we’ve accomplished.”
Attention is the culture at 13 Tacos & Taps, and not just from the chef and staff. When a supplier accidentally substituted a different variety of rice, yet all the other ingredients remained unchanged, a trusted regular immediately noticed the difference in the addictive “crack rice” as it’s been referred to since the food truck days.
What’s Next
With two years remaining on their current lease, David and Marilyn are beginning to look ahead to a smaller footprint possibly focused on takeout and perhaps to licensing the 13 Tacos concept so that other operators can carry it forward. This is where consistency, already a strength, can become an enduring asset in the form of a partner who trains deeply, understands the standards, and carries the name forward with integrity.
In the meantime, a Saturday open-air market with live music launches later this summer and promises to uphold the creative and community components of 13 Tacos’ winning recipe.
The goal, as it has always been and despite increasing competition in North Raleigh, is straightforward: to serve food that people want to eat and will come back for.
“I’ll sit over there,” Marilyn says, gesturing toward the hosting stand where guests can expect to find her, “and I’ll look at the people and I’ll think, They’re in our restaurant eating this food and loving it …”
“That is such a good feeling,” David chimes in before heading back into the kitchen to create — or create anew.
13tacosandtaps.com
@13tacosandtaps
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