VENUE INFO

Click below for address and more

• Roscoe's Tacos

Roscoe's Tacos keeps the decor simple and sweet.

Roscoe's Tacos offers an array of fiery sauces.

The chicken burrito at Roscoe's Tacos.

Before he became a baron of tacos, Roscoe Townsend was a man with a mean chili recipe and some fiery ideas for hot sauce. He makes use of his and some of his family recipes on the short Midwestern-Mexican menu at the taco shops that bear his name.

Roscoe's Tacos took root in Greenwood before opening in Avon -- the first step in a hoped-for larger expansion project.

The Food

Tacos are right there in the name and a solid choice, although the variation in presentation is the only real difference among the options, all of which are filled with one of three choices: ground-beef chili, shredded beef or shredded chicken.

Tacos are served in flour tortillas or bigger-than-usual, sturdier-than-average corn shells. (The shells are made elsewhere but baked in-house.) Order tacos with ground-beef chili like most customers do, or with slow-cooked shredded beef or chicken. I tried them all in the super sampler ($7.48), a meal of not only three tacos but whipped pinto beans and cheese or black beans and rice, and a quart-size (literally) soda that I felt a little absurd hefting to my lips.

Sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives and onions are built into the price, but high-maintenance requests aren't. The menu notes that "unorthodox hassles" cost 25 cents. Are they serious about that? Sort of. General manager Derrick Shinn told me the policy is reserved for rare instances -- for example, the customer who orders nachos with every topping on the side. "Those little cups are expensive," he said.

At 25 cents, hassles come pretty cheap.

The chicken burrito ($3.99) doesn't break the bank, either, and it comes with shredded chicken and all of the taco toppings folded into a flour tortilla.

Taco, burrito, tostada or salad -- choose any as a vehicle for the house hot sauces, which range from Cincinnati City Slicker (mild) to Lava and have hot-sounding names even at the low end (Texas Brushfire, Too Darn Hot) so that as long as you're not a city slicker you can feel tough about your choice and enjoy it. Each of the three I tried differentiated itself from the others and got a turn as my favorite (until the next bite of another).

End your meal with a cowboy cookie (79 cents), a big, soft, obviously freshly made chocolate-chip cookie.

The Service

You step up to order at one counter and pick up your food at another, so service is minimal, but both employees I encountered were perfectly pleasant.

The Atmosphere

There's a drive-up window along one end of the restaurant, but little inside feels like a fast-food restaurant. Walls are alternately red and gold; tables, chairs and lights are not just kinder and gentler but more attractive and higher quality than the super-low-cost menu would lead a visitor to expect.

The Price

$14.75 for two, including tax. Daily specials (buy one, get one free burritos on Monday; free meals for kids on Tuesday, and so on) kick in after 4 p.m. during the week and run all day on weekends. Next Time

Anything with that succulent, slow-cooked shredded beef, which comes on a taco or tostada, or in a burrito.

Traci Cumbay / Star correspondent