Photograph by Cori Carter
This 16-seat Edgewood oasis, in a dusty gravel lot across from a members-only biker bar and behind Rudy’s Auto & Collision, serves some of Atlanta’s finest tacos, burritos, and tamales, among other dishes (including breakfast options; currently, the restaurant is open only from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.). “El Tesoro” means “the treasure,” and the restaurant’s owners have found one in Cristina Lugo Soto, a home cook who hails from the Mexican coastal state of Guerrero and runs the kitchen with her daughter, Mayra. Soto offers three tamale flavors—pork with green salsa, chicken with chipotle salsa, and rajas with mushroom and squash—and if there’s a more craveable masa in existence, we’ve yet to find it. The tacos come as tacos are supposed to, with supremely flavorful meat that requires no embellishment aside from micro-diced onion, a light shower of chopped cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and, if you must, a streak of one of three homemade salsas. Before you scoff at the tacos’ $3.25 cost, note that the “burros” (aka burritos) will set you back only $5.75. A taco or tamale and a burro would easily feed a reasonably hungry person, though they might not be enough to satisfy that person’s instant infatuation. 1374 Arkwright Place, 470-440-5502, eltesoroatl.com
