Happy’s Taco Shop (Traverse City)
448 E. Front StreetIt was a long weekend for everyone.
I hadn’t slept more than about 5 hours a night all week and the night in a hotel before an ice skating competition is always tough. By the time L got to her final event, the crankiness had set in.
We headed back to the hotel to sleep it off for a little bit. J and L took naps. I went for a walk and sat on the beach watching Tik Tok for a while.
When I got back to the hotel, J asked about dinner. It was getting late and getting a table somewhere at 7:00 on a Friday night in Traverse City didn’t seem like it was worth the hassle.
L and I met some of her teammates for a team dinner last year after this competition at The Little Fleet. J didn’t get to go because she was home sick and she really wanted to see what Little Fleet was about. I figured even if we couldn’t get a table, we could grab something a go.
We got to The Little Fleet, a food truck park, right around 7:30. The place was pretty packed but it’s pretty much all outdoors so you can just kind of walk in and look around. We did a quick scan of the food truck options then J and L both picked Mac and Cheese from Cordwood BBQ. I considered BBQ but there is a taco place that is inside The Little Fleet all year round.
Happy’s Taco Shop, as I’ve mentioned, is inside The Little Fleet on the corner of Front Street and Wellington Street on the east end of downtown in Traverse City. The parking all around is street parking so it took us a few trips around the block to find a spot. Once we did, we grabbed food for J and L then went in search of a table. Happy’s Taco Shop is inside the permanent structure on the property. It’s right next to the bar and this part of The Little Fleet is open all year.
Ordering is done at a small counter in the corner of the building. It was a busy Friday night so there was a line. It wasn’t too bad but at one point, the cashier just walked away for a while. Not sure if they were stopped trying to catch up or what, but she took an order then just left and took out garbage leaving a line snaking through the building past the bar.
When she came back, the line moved pretty quickly. There aren’t a lot of options at Happy’s Taco. There are a couple of burrito options, a couple of taco options, and chips and dip…and that’s pretty much it.
I put in an order for four street tacos. Steak wasn’t an option but roasted pork was (smashed pinto beans is the other option). The cost for the four tacos was $16. They gave me a buzzer to come back when the tacos were ready.
J and L had actually found a table by this point so I went to join them. It was near the bar so when I got there, J went to get drinks.
J got herself something fruity and grabbed me a beer. They have a pretty good taplist and I saw the Pleasant IPA from Brew Detroit on the menu. It was one I haven’t had before from a brewery I haven’t seen much so I grabbed one.
It took less than 10 minutes for my buzzer to go off. I went and grabbed the two paper boats with the tacos and rejoined J and L at the table. Both of them had already finished their mac & cheese so they had to sit there and watch me eat.
The tacos are put together with corn tortillas, roasted pork, cojita cheese, onion, and cilantro. I typically go for steak tacos but since that isn’t an option, I was really happy with the pork. It was tender and juicy…can’t ask for much better than that.
The Little Fleet is such a cool idea and it’s really pretty stupid other municipalities are actively stopping places like this (looking at you South Haven….literally no one, despite what “business owners” say, think waiting 4 hours for a table is part of the experience). The afternoon was pretty rough for us with the crankiness but this kind of smoothed things out. We all got a quick, delicious dinner. J and I got a drink. There was live music. There are a lot of great options at The Little Fleet but I really like this one a lot. I love street tacos and these are solid street tacos.
SW Michigan Dining 