Taco Dreams come true in Fairfield

FAIRFIELD - For Emily O'Connor, dreams really do come true.

O'Connor has opened a new restaurant in Fairfield called Taco Dreams, open for lunch Monday through Friday. It's located in the former Harper Brush building at the intersection of West Grimes Avenue and North Second Street, a building O'Connor shares with other businesses such as Breadtopia and Wholly Patisserie.

O'Connor has worked in the restaurant industry for almost 20 years. She grew up in Olympia, Wash., and has lived all over the country, including Maui, Los Angeles and New York City. She and her husband, Sean, moved to Fairfield two years ago, and shortly thereafter O'Connor helped to open the restaurant Big Schwilly's Chicken Dillys in August 2019.

O'Connor left the restaurant last spring but wanted to continue working in the food industry in some form. Over the summer, she started making tacos and delivering them to people.

'I put it out there, and people were excited about it. I got tons of orders,” she said.

After doing that for a few months, O'Connor realized she would need to return to more regular employment. She started asking around to see if there were any kitchens available for rent and got in touch with Galen and Liza Saturley of the Fairfield Food Cooperative. They told her the former Harper Brush building had kitchens for rent, and O'Connor jumped at the chance. She now occupies one of the six kitchens in the building.

O'Connor chose to focus on tacos since 'it's my favorite food,” she said, and because she's very familiar with the style of authentic Mexican tacos from having spent considerable time in the country.

As a young child, she and her family would visit Mexico twice a year for a few weeks at a time, and she's continued to travel there as an adult with her own family.

'I have an affinity for Mexico's culture and food,” she said. 'I really like the versatility of a taco. It's a creative format for food.”

O'Connor said she knows her tacos are not 100 percent authentic Mexican tacos, and that's because she's trying to make them unique.

'I'm using authentic ingredients but putting a different spin on them,” she said.

Her husband helped her open the business in November, but he has his own business to run, so for most of the time it's just been Emily taking orders and doing the cooking. She hired an employee a month ago and has plans to expand the business. In addition to tacos, burritos and tamales, she's going to start selling her own tortillas and salsas on a large scale.

'The tortillas are made from non-GMO heirloom corn from Oaxaca [a state in Mexico],” O'Connor said. 'I source my beef, which is 100 percent grass-fed, from a farmer in Douds.”

O'Connor said she assumed she would get a lot of vegetarian orders, and has vegetarian options such as a black bean and guacamole taco and jackfruit taco. But she's found that people in Fairfield are hungry for good quality meat.

'I'm trying to elevate my product by using organic chicken and by using as much organic produce as I can get my hands on,” she said.

O'Connor encourages diners to order through her website, tacodreamsfairfield.com, which is updated daily with the newest menu. Customers can choose when they want to pick up their orders, between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.

'Online ordering has freed up the phone line and freed us from having to run credit cards,” O'Connor said. 'It's been awesome, and allowed me to do this alone for a few months.”

The building does not have indoor seating, but O'Connor said she wants to add outdoor seating once the weather warms up. She plans to expand her hours in the spring.