Gordo’s opening up shaved ice stand

May 15, 2012

Summer must surely be approaching if the shaved ice stands start opening up. Look for the folks who run Gordo’s Tortas at Highway 290 and Derecho , across from the Valero, to open up a second food stand on their lot this weekend. This one won’t have any hot stuff, only Hawaiian shaved ice with a choice of over 30 flavors.

“I’m pretty excited about this new flavor we will have,” says Ramiro Gonzales. “It is called ‘chango’ which means monkey, but what it is is lime and spicy sweet/sour chamoy that we can add to any of the fruit flavors. Typically it is used with the mango flavor, but I think it will be great with watermelon or berries, too. It has become a huge sensation in San Antonio.”

About 8 years ago, Ramiro Gonzales, aka Gordo, took note of all the food trailers popping up and decided he wanted to get in on that scene. His trailer could be found in front of Buddy’s store on Highway 290 until a couple of years ago, when he moved to the current location. Gonzales was just a baby when his family moved from Chihuahua to Austin so his father could attend graduate school at UT. Many of the recipes come from mom Patricia, who also helps run the stand.

You can find all of the expected ingredients for tacos, tortas and burritos at Gordo’s, and they recently added burgers and fries to the menu. They also created the chili relleño burrito, which has a whole chili inside along with your choice of other ingredients.

Reckless Kelly’s tour bus has been known to stop by and country singer Kevin Fowler has long been a regular. “I didn‘t know who he was for the longest time,” said Patricia, “but I would always notice that the girls would go wild when he was around.”

The kind folks at Gordo’s always throw in an extra taco whenever someone orders a dozen. They also treat their customers to a free taco on their birthday. “The sign says to show your ID,” says Patricia, “it was so funny when someone brought their kid on their first birthday and brought the baby’s birth certificate with them.

The taco stand does close up when the weather is rainy but is open most every other morning and afternoon, except on Sunday. Patricia did want to let her customers know that they will shut down April 18th for a family wedding, but should be back the following Monday.