5836 S Harlem Ave, Summit IL Tue–Sun 11am–10pm · (708) 701-2190
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From a Garage in Cicero
to the Biggest Lots in Chicago

What started on a flat top in a garage has become one of the busiest taco operations in the city. We built it with family, neighbours and a lot of people standing in line, and we still run every version of it at once.

Explore the Story

  1. Garage

    Cicero. Mom’s recipes, a flat top, a phone number.

    2020

  2. Pop-Up Blows Up

    Not a truck yet. Lines around the block, three outlets in one week, and the Hot Cheeto Burger goes viral.

    2021
    Customers in winter coats waiting shoulder to shoulder down the sidewalk outside the pop-up

  3. The Trailer

    Wrapped, mascot on the side. Plus a weekly residency at Exit Saloon.

    2023
    The Prime Tacos trailer wrapped with the angry burger mascot and the booking number down the side panel

  4. Festival Stands

    Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago and Sueños. Branded tents, overhead menu boards, a line crew. Not the truck parked somewhere.

    2023
    A Hot Cheeto Burger held up in a clamshell in front of the Prime Tacos menu board at the festival stand in Grant Park

  5. Everywhere

    Festival season runs back to back, late May through August.

    2023

  6. The Belt

    Judges pick the arrachera at Lakeview Taco Fest. The belt hangs in the restaurant.

    2024
    The Critic's Choice Lakeview Taco Fest 2024 Award Winner belt, three arrachera tacos engraved on the gold plate

  7. Grand Opening

    5836 S Harlem Ave, Summit. An old Pizza Hut. Doors opened on Cinco de Mayo.

    2025
    The Prime Tacos storefront on Harlem Avenue at night, red neon sign lit above the windows
  8. Today

    All Three at Once

    Restaurant, trailer and festival stand all running.

    Restaurant Trailer Festival Stand

Meet the Owners

The Brothers

Anthony Solis in a Prime Tacos tee cooking on a TV studio set with two hosts

Anthony Solis

Co-Owner

Anthony runs everything that happens away from the flat top. He is the one on WGN and ABC7, the voice on WGN Radio during Hispanic Heritage Month, and the one who sat down with the Food Truck Empire podcast to tell the story from the garage forward. Festival organizers and anyone booking the trailer get him on the phone.

He started Prime Tacos with Eric in a Cicero garage in 2020, cooking family recipes on a single flat top with a phone number for a storefront. The Hot Cheeto Burger came out of that garage and had three Chicago television stations on the block inside a week. Five years later the same operation runs a restaurant on Harlem Avenue, a trailer working private events across the city, and a festival stand that has set up at Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago and Sueños.

Eric Cardenas holding up a tray of chicken al pastor tacos with lime and grilled jalapeño

Eric Cardenas

Co-Owner

Eric runs the kitchen. The al pastor marinated overnight, the arrachera off the flat top, and the birria that ends up in the tacos, the ramen, the egg rolls and the Cheeto-crusted balls are all his.

He built the menu with Anthony from the first day in the garage and has cooked it everywhere it has gone since: the pop-up that drew lines around the block, the trailer, the festival stands, and now the kitchen on Harlem Avenue. The arrachera taco that took Critics Choice at Lakeview Taco Fest came off his flat top.