These California transplants ‘blew away’ Nampa. Sorry 2C, Boise just stole your restaurant
When La Garnacha Que Apapacha unveiled plans to close its birria taco trailer in Nampa and open a Boise restaurant, reactions were split.
“Oh hell yes!” one Facebooker wrote.
“I’m sad you’re leaving Nampa!” admitted another. “But so happy and proud for your new restaurant!”
“BOISE … get ready for THE BEST!” declared another commenter, summing up Canyon County feelings by signing the message, “sad 2C’er.”
With a dose of local hype — and a menu powered by an undeniably popular Mexican cuisine — La Garnacha Que Apapacha will open its first brick-and-mortar restaurant on Wednesday, Aug. 16. Adding cool graffiti artwork to the interior, it has taken over the former Mad Mac space at 7709 W. Overland Road, suite 120.
Are you late to the birria game? You owe it to yourself to feed your face at this place.
Tacos, pizza
A traditional Mexican meat stew, birria has exploded in popularity in recent years. As the self-described “only authentic birrieria in the Treasure Valley,” La Garnacha Que Apapacha specializes in the stuff.
After appearing in late 2020, the yellow food-truck-turned-food-trailer at 215 1st Ave. S. earned a cult following. Recent California transplants Fabrizio Sanchez and his wife, Gabriela Talavera, dished up tacos, tortas, quesadillas and more.
They’re filled with delicious, slow-cooked beef. To fully savor the experience, customers dip their tacos into consomé, the steaming, rich broth created while simmering the birria.
This is not Corona Light cuisine. This is crisp-fried-tortilla, gooey-cheese comfort food.
La Garnacha Que Apapacha has racked up a review rating of 4.7 out of 5.0 on Google — with more than 300 reviews.
“Wow just wow!!!” reads a typical summary. “Their food is AMAZING! Literally drove 45 (minutes) just to eat here! It’s that good!”
New converts are common. “Some friends had suggested it and we were blown away,” another review says.
Sanchez and Talavera don’t just offer traditional Mexican creations on their menu. La Garnacha Que Apapacha sells birria versions of pizza and ramen, too.
A Taco de Birria (medium-sized corn tortilla with beef birria, onion, cilantro, lime and grilled onion) is $3.99. A QuesaBirria Taco — same but with cheese — is $4.99. Consomé is sold separately ($1.75 for 8 ounces).
A 12-inch PizzaBirria, which comes with two 16-ounce cups of consomé, goes for $24.85. A large cup of MurachaBirria — ramen noodles with birria — is $9.85.
Got room for dessert? (You truly might not.) There’s also housemade Flan ($5.75) — or ChocoFlan ($6.85), chocolate cake with a layer of flan.
‘Hard work, dedication’
La Garnacha Que Apapacha will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays, according to its website.
Judging from recent posts by Sanchez on social media, nostalgia and excitement are in the air.
“Started selling from home,” he wrote recently. “Then we bought our first food truck. Hard work, dedication and sacrifices for a year got us our upgrade to a newer food trailer. And now after three years since we first start(ed) our adventure with Birrieria Garnacha Que Apapacha, we are a few days from open(ing) our first RESTAURANT.
“We have no words how to express our feelings, but we are going to show it to you with our FOOD.”
Sorry for your loss, Nampa. With all due respect, though, Idaho’s capital city is sooo ready.
This story was originally published August 16, 2023 at 4:00 AM.