If you’ve spent five minutes in Austin, you’re probably familiar with the concept of breakfast tacos.
Now the Tex-Mex culinary craze that started in Texas has arrived in St. Helena, with farmers’ market favorite Ray Ray’s Tacos opening a restaurant downtown.
“I’m trying to combine the nature of what Tex-Mex is with the freshness of California,” said chef-owner Rachel Williams.
Williams graduated at the top of her class from the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in 2018. She worked at The Restaurant at Meadowood, including as a forager, before starting Ray Ray’s in 2019.
Thanks to strong word of mouth, the business was an instant hit at the Friday-morning St. Helena Farmers’ Market. The pandemic hardly slowed down Williams, who offered take-home taco kits.
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She’d been operating out of a commercial kitchen at Grace Episcopal Church, but she let it be known that she was looking to open a restaurant. In 2021 a real estate agent, Jeff Feeney, suggested she move into 1304 Main St., where Legit Provisions was getting ready to move to Napa.
Williams secured the space in early 2022, but it took almost two years of renovations before Ray Ray’s finally opened on March 5 — Taco Tuesday, naturally.
Williams chose communal tables to create the feel of a community gathering place “where you could sit by yourself but yet be amongst other people.”
“It’s been fun to watch people engage with each other and see it be so well-received,” she said. “I feel like I need more seating.”
Tacos for breakfast?
Williams said breakfast tacos are ubiquitous in Austin, even at gas stations and coffee shops.
“It’s simple and delicious without being overpowering like a huge burrito is,” she said.
The Ray Ray’s concept originated when Williams moved from Austin to San Francisco and found she was missing breakfast tacos “more than anything other than my friends.”
“Breakfast tacos are a particularly Austin thing, and they’ve since spread throughout the rest of Texas,” she said. “They’re catching on here and there in the Bay Area, but there’s still not much outside of Texas that’s dedicated to breakfast tacos.”
Williams said fluffy eggs, quality bacon (she chose Daily’s applewood smoked bacon “after tasting every single bacon on the market”) and scratch cooking from locally sourced ingredients are among the secrets to a great breakfast taco.
“There’s such a bounty of fresh, seasonal produce here in Napa,” she said.
Honoring women
Williams also dreamed up some creative branding, naming each item after a notable woman. Hence the shredded brisket Biddy (named after the formerly enslaved 19th-century entrepreneur Bridget "Biddy" Mason) and the braised carnitas Angelina (named after Austin heroine Angelina Eberly, who fired a pivotal cannon shot in the 1842 Texas Archive War — obscure to Californians maybe, but certainly not to Austinites).
The breakfast tacos are all named after mothers and grandmothers: Eleanor, Debbie, Miss Kitty, Camille, Father Jan, and Dolores (Williams’ favorite).
Then there are the salsas, which are each named after a Beyoncé song. And Ray Ray, as you’ve probably caught on, is Rachel Williams.
She started the restaurant “super-simple” to facilitate a smooth opening, but expect it to evolve quickly with wine by the bottle and dinner hours.
Williams said city officials like Maya DeRosa, director of community development, have been extremely helpful. During the two years of renovations, some people wondered if City Hall roadblocks were to blame, but Williams says that wasn’t the case.
“The city has been nothing but supportive and helpful,” she said. “So has the Chamber (of Commerce). It’s really been a best-case scenario.”