Eric, Alex and Alan Adler grew up eating authentic Mexican food daily: handpressed tortillas, fresh salsa and slow-cooked meats. Their mother hailed from Guadalajara and their father from Monterrey, and they took no shortcuts when it came to cooking the dishes that reminded them of home.
As a result, every Mexican restaurant in their hometown of San Diego served plates of disappointment.
"From the tortilla, salsa, how the flavors melded, everything was off," Eric Adler said. "We decided to do it ourselves."
The Adler brothers pooled their resources with their cousin Isidoro Lombrozo in 2012 to open Puesto, a food stand serving the Mexico City-style crispy cheese-crusted tacos called costras that they had always loved.
Now, they're bringing Puesto
to Nashville with their first restaurant outside of California in Nashville Yards.
Owner's ties to Music City as a Vanderbilt alumnus
Isidoro Lombrozo graduated from Vanderbilt University in 2010, and since the taco stand took off, a small part of him held onto the dream of bringing the concept to Tennessee. Within a decade, the group successfully opened nine locations in California and three outposts at California venues like Levi's Stadium.
In 2024, they decided Puesto was ready for expansion, and Lombrozo quickly pitched Nashville.
"I brought them all here, and luckily, everyone likes the city," Lombrozo said. "I've seen the growth gradually, since I would come back probably once a year after graduating. Every year, especially in the last seven, it's really grown. A lot of it is unrecognizable."
While looking for the right piece of real estate for Puesto, Lombrozo said he realized many of the hot Nashville neighborhoods real estate agents suggested to them hardly existed while he was in school, at least not in their current form. Ultimately, they landed on a large space in Nashville Yards, neighboring The Pinnacle, Earls Kitchen and Ocean Prime.
Lombrozo said that it was the perfect example of a new piece of Nashville. Plus, developer Southwest Value Partners is based in both San Diego and Nashville, making Nashville Yards feel like a natural fit.
"There are a lot of big national chains that are opening in Nashville, and then there's a lot of great local restaurants," Alex Adler said. "We're like the sweet spot. We're in between because we're family-owned. We're not this big corporate restaurant group. We touch everything from the design and all the food sourcing, to cocktails and uniforms."
What's on the menu?
With three patios, an open-air dining room, a stage for live music and bright colors on every wall, Puesto is filled with energy. The restaurant can hold up to 245 people, and reservations are available online.
On the menu is a range of tacos: surf and turf with lobster and filet mignon, short rib quesabirria, crispy shrimp and ribeye trompo. There are also enchiladas, salads, chicken mole, grilled branzino, ceviche and a special taco made with Claire Kittle, social media influencer and wife of San Francisco 49ers player George Kittle.
The star of the show, though, is the tortilla.
"The market needed a real tortilla, so we made it," Alex Adler said. "Tortillas are usually an afterthought, whether they're cold or old or store-bought. For us, they're the key."
Hadley Hitson covers trending business, dining and health care for The Tennessean. She can be reached at hhitson@gannett.com. To support her work,subscribe to The Tennessean.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: California taco chain Puesto opens first out-of-state restaurant in Nashville
