A Mexican restaurant from an award-winning Fort Worth chef is opening in the West 7th area. Called Los Guapos Mexican Street Food, the restaurant is a spinoff of Guapo Tacos, the popular gas station taqueria, and will open this summer at 2708 W. 7th St.

The restaurant comes from Angel Fuentes, the well-known Fort Worth chef who made a name for himself at Mariachi’s Dine In, a tiny Mexican restaurant that opened inside a funky gas station on Sylvania Avenue in 2018.

Two years ago, when Mariachi’s owner Ashley Miller moved the restaurant to Fort Worth’s west side, Fuentes stayed behind to open his own concept, Guapo Tacos, in the same gas station space.

He's gone on to earn acclaim including winning the award for Rising Star Chef of the Year at the 2023 CultureMap Tastemaker Awards.

His new restaurant will feature a menu that focuses on food commonly served by street vendors throughout Mexico.

“There are a lot of places, a lot of nice places, up and down 7th Street, but there’s no one serving street Mexican food there,” says Fuentes, a native of Monterrey, Mexico. “It won’t be a super-fancy place. I just want people to relax and have a beer and enjoy what I like to call Mexican soul food.”

The menu is still in the works but will feature several key dishes such as pozole, gorditas, quesadillas, street tacos, tortas, alambre, and huaraches.

The alambre and huaraches are two of the dishes he’s most excited about. Alambre is a traditional Mexican dish comprised of chopped meats and vegetables, held together with melted cheese, and served with tortillas.

Huaraches consist of oblong-shaped pieces of fried masa dough topped with smashed pinto beans, vegetables, and proteins.

Most of his dishes will be available to customize with choice of proteins and toppings. “It’s going to be a super a la carte menu,” he says. “If you want a gordita with pork verde, we can do that. If you want a torta with chicken, we can do that. Whatever you’re craving.”

There will be vegetarian and vegan options, too; Mariachi’s was an early champion of vegan cuisine, offering diners an entire menu of vegan dishes. “We will definitely have some dishes to make our vegan friends happy,” he says.

Everything will be made from scratch, from the salsas to the tortillas. To drink, there will be freshly made agua frescas, bottled Mexican soft drinks, and a selection of Mexican beers.

The restaurant takes over a space that has been home to several restaurants over the years, such as Fanboy’s Grill, Emmy’s Smokehouse, and 360 Smoke Shack. It’ll be next door to The Abbey Pub, whose co-owner, Dusty Smith, will be one of Fuentes’ partners in the restaurant; Jim Austin, CEO of a biopharmaceutical engineering company called Conecraft, is also a partner.

The restaurant will also have another next-door neighbor: Velvet Taco. But Fuentes says there shouldn’t be any competition among the two.

“We’re definitely a lot different,” he says. “What we’ll be doing isn’t even close to what they’re doing. We don’t want to compete with them. We want to co-exist with them.”