For chef Eddie Vargas, Tacos Wuey serves as a platform for exploration. Inside the cozy Vernor Highway restaurant — opened in summer 2025 — his cooking draws connections between regional Mexican traditions, family influences, and the flavors that shaped him growing up.
“A lot of the stuff that I make is inspired from when I used to live down [in Los Angeles] as a kid,” Vargas says, recalling trips to taquerias with his father and elotes from neighborhood street vendors. Now, he owns one of Detroit’s most exciting new restaurants, where experimentation never comes at the expense of the memories that inspired it.
Vargas, whose family traces its roots to Jalisco, incorporates guajillo-braised beef into griddled tacos sealed with molten cheese, platters served with consommé, crispy egg rolls, and even bowls of ramen. Servers greet guests with a basket of chicharrones de harina — airy fried wheat pinwheels — and a mild salsa. The appetizer offers a playful alternative to the standard basket of tortilla chips while signaling Vargas’s interest in elevating the everyday foods many Mexican diners grew up eating.
The same spirit influences the tacos. Alongside the restaurant’s signature birria, diners may encounter crispy Baja-style shrimp tacos layered with crunchy cabbage, pico de gallo, and mayo; tacos al pastor that sub out pork off the trompo for meaty hunks of smoky cauliflower brightened with slivers of pineapple; or the Otro Nivel, a playful take on a chophouse surf and turf platter, with shaved sirloin, shrimp, Detroit-style zip sauce, and huitlacoche.
The menu may wander freely, but it never feels directionless. Vargas’s house-made salsa macha, threaded throughout the menu, functions like a signature ingredient, adding smoky depth and chile heat to everything from tacos to wings. A rotating trio of table salsas may include a creamy avocado salsa one day and a hibiscus- or leek-laced creation the next. Varying in heat and flavor, they encourage diners to experiment, mixing and matching combinations.
Even as the restaurant has become one of southwest Detroit’s busiest new arrivals, it still carries the energy of an ongoing project, with Vargas constantly refining dishes and introducing new ideas. Tacos Wuey feels confident without becoming rigid, leaving room for both tradition and surprise.
3970 Vernor Hwy., Detroit; 313-406-4767; @tacoswueydetroit on Instagram.
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This story originally appeared in the August 2026 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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