JEFFERSON PARK — Marci Romero Berner recently checked off another business venture of hers: launching her Tatas Tacos’ signature beer.
La Rubia, which means “blonde” in Spanish, is Tatas Tacos’ first official beer, brewed by Jefferson Park’s Printer’s Row Brewing, 4801 N. Austin Ave.
The Northwest Side business collaboration debuted last week and was made possible after Ald. Nick Sposato (38th) connected both business owners, said Romero Berner, owner of Tatas Tacos.
She’d been looking for partners to work with to carry out her vision and is grateful the alderman connected her with brewery cofounder Jon Wolf, she said.
La Rubia, a lime blonde ale, is the first to launch under the restaurant’s new beer brand, Tatas Brujas. Brujas means “witches” in Spanish.
“Brujas is a play on brew house,” Romero Berner said. “We’re going to start with one beer.”
The beer is available at all three Tatas Tacos locations in Portage Park, Six Corners and Lakeview; growlers are also available for purchase at the restaurants, she said.
Wolf “picked that beer for me [and] we wanted to launch it this year,” she said.
The duo hope to create more beers under the Tatas Brujas line once they see how the community takes to La Rubia, business owners said.
The beer is a spin-off of Printer’s Row’s signature ale beers — with a lime taste as an ode to lime’s popularity in Mexican beers, Wolf said.
“La Rubia is coming to life,” Wolf said. “We think that it’s going to be a hit.”
The beer is part of Romero Berner’s desire to work with new business owners and continue to grow the Tatas Tacos brand and serve the Northwest Side beyond food, she said. Earlier this year, she opened Tatas Tacos’ third location in Portage Park, 5700 W. Irving Park Road.
Its original location is at 4929 W. Irving Park Road and the second Tatas is at 2826 N. Lincoln Ave. A fourth location is in the works, she said.
Printer’s Row moved to Jefferson Park last summer and has hosted several community events and business partnerships to connect the neighborhood. It began in 2017, when Wolf and his friend, Virg Mazzeo, became homebrewers in Printers Row in the South Loop — hence the business name — and sold small batches of beer to local bars and restaurants while working out of a Gladstone Park warehouse, Wolf said.
The duo worked out of Lake Effect Brewing for two years before scouting out their new home, which used to be the Los Encinos Restaurant.
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