Taco Escobar Opens on East Fremont Street

By Scott Roeben, on July 17 2025

4 min read 1 comment

There’s always something new on Fremont Street, whether west (touristy) or east (bar-hoppy).

Taco Escobar opened July 13, 2025 in the former Smashed Pig space. It is lightly wrestling themed, and even more lightly spaced, a sliver of a venue (max occupancy is just 49), a bar with Mexican food, lots of food traffic and a dream.

We broke the story Taco Escobar was coming to Fremont Street, but we typically mention that after the first photo, so just ignore this entire paragraph.

Size doesn’t matter and that’s the story we’re sticking to.

We first shared word of “Taco Escobarr” back in November 2024. Then the operators pursued finalizing the name, they realized that name was already taken by another taco joint in Portland, Maine.

To avoid a legal kerfuffle, the “r” was dropped.

Smashed Pig is missed, but booze makes everything better.

Taco Escobar is run by the Lev Restaurant Group, which also operates the outstanding Evel Pie on the other side of Fremont Street and epic Al Solito Posto in Summerlin, as well as the spectacularly underrated Harlo Steakhouse, also in Summerlin.

“Lev” is the Hebrew word for “heart.” The company’s founder, Jeffrey Fine, named the company after his son, Levin.

Taco Escobar, is “named for the man, the myth, the Legendary Luchador.”

Speaking on behalf of all those who are unfamiliar with what the hell that means, Taco Escobar explains, “For those who are unfamiliar, Taco Escobar was a revered Mexican luchador enmascarado (or ‘masked professional wrestler’). His wrestling career spanned several decades, during which he became a folk hero and a symbol of justice for the common man due to his unwavering commitment to inspiring and uplifting the tired and hungry. Even today, tales of his invincible prowess continue to be passed down from generation to generation in Mexico.”

Vegas has WrestleMania now, so the popularity of wrasslin’ is at an all-time high.

We asked the Internet about Taco Escobar, but ChatGPT said, “I didn’t find any evidence that Taco Escobar was an actual wrestler outside of the restaurant branding. The only results are tied to the LEV Group taco spot, which celebrates him as a ‘legendary luchador’ in their promotional materials. There are no independent records—no fight history, match listings, or wrestling archives—that confirm Taco Escobar ever performed in the ring. It appears the name is purely a thematic homage to classic Lucha libre, created to give the restaurant some vintage-wrestling flair rather than referencing a real pro wrestler.”

Well, now we have a mystery, finally, some drama!

Jeffrey Fine says, “We are thrilled to have this opportunity to work with the Escobar Family to present delicious Mexican food and drinks on Fremont. And to create a place where fans of the legendary Taco Escobar can celebrate his amazing achievements!”

Fans of a wrestler there’s no evidence actually existed? Hey, the bar has posters showing Taco Escobar fought the Gold Snake, so we’ll just let this one go and move along to a cocktail photo.

We’d tell you which drink this was, but that would involve “taking notes” or “exerting effort” or “actual journalism,” so nope.

Here’s the drink menu at Taco Escobar.

See, if you’re patient, we will eventually get around to providing something of actual value.

Fluffed-up backstory or not, Taco Escobar should fare well on Fremont East, as Mexican is the official drunchies food of the United States of America.

The Fremont East Entertainment District is sort of the opposite of Fremont Street Experience, with its eclectic collection of bars and restaurants and nightlife venues.

Here’s the Taco Escobar food menu, already.

Here’s a look at one of the items on the menu.

We were there for a media thing and they told us the name of this, so it’s not on them that we have no idea what menu item this is. You’ll figure it out.

There isn’t a lot of good Mexican food in the tourist corridor, surprisingly. Cadillac Mexican Kitchen & Tequila Bar at Golden Nugget is solid, as is La Mona Rosa (once La Comida), just around the corner from Taco Escobar. A new entry is Alebrijes by Chef Paco in the space that was previously Crash N Burn in Neonopolis. Terrible name but excellent food, we’re told.

Real Fremont die-hards know to grab the cheap but reliable tacos at Wana Taco just inside Four Queens.

Taco Escobar is part of a new wave of businesses sprouting from the withering garden that was tended by Tony Hsieh’s deep pockets before he died. Smashed Pig, Downtown Cocktail Room (soon to be Daphne’s Cocktail Room, please notice we didn’t crow about breaking that news, probably), Inspire, Flippin’ Good, all gone.

Under new property ownership (the same company, Boston Omaha Asset Management, owns the Tony @ Carson building, too, once the John E. Carson Building), rents went up and businesses shuttered.

Another wrestling-themed bar, DDT, closed in the Tony @ Carson building in May 2025.

No idea how this fits into the theme at Taco Escobar, we just know it was our favorite thing.

The only constant downtown is change, as well as some MILF from Nebraska retching into a trash can after one heavy-pour cocktail from Cowgirl Up at Binion’s with her girlfriend holding back her hair. But mostly change.

We would say you can find out more about Taco Escobar on the official Web site, but there’s nothing to be found yet. Mysterious, don’t you think?