When Alan Raines and Samantha Eaves closed Tortuga y Chango in November, they promised that the West College Avenue space would still serve a purpose. Raines and Eaves, who also own El Tesoro in Edgewood and West End, hadn’t decided on its replacement. They promised, however, to continue hosting mezcal tastings there. Mezcal was something the Mexican restaurant became known for under former beverage director Orestes Cruz.
Tortuga y Chango is again serving food, with local chefs taking over the kitchen a few days a week as part of a new residency program at the Decatur restaurant. Residencies kick off Jan. 11 with pop-up Mascogo Tacos, led by chef Craig Headspeth. The bar is also back serving cocktails made with mezcal and agave spirits and offering mezcal pours from small producers.
Headspeth worked previously at Holeman and Finch, Ink and Elm, and the St. Regis Hotel in Atlanta before launching his taco pop-up four years ago.
Since 2020, Mascogo Tacos has popped up regularly at breweries and distilleries around Atlanta, including Wild Heaven Beer in Avondale Estates and Independent Distilling in Decatur. Headspeth’s menu features tacos filled with marinated grilled nopales (cactus), al pastor, and confit crispy pork shoulder. The flavors and ingredients he uses are not unlike those once served at Tortuga y Chango before the closure. Headspeth is adding habanero marinated grilled chicken and carne picante and street food mash-ups like Frito-queles in Decatur.
Kitchen residencies will last six months and include occasional pop-ups from other chefs on Monday evenings. Raines and Eaves also plan to host their mezcal club meetings at the Decatur restaurant.
While local chefs will serve food, Tortuga y Chango will serve drinks. Look for two familiar faces behind the bar, too. Margarita Girard and Phillip Carrol-Rollins both worked under Cruz at Tortuga y Chango and previously worked together at El Tesoro.
Raines and Eaves are keeping the communal atmosphere intact at Tortuga y Chango but leaning into quick-service, family-friendly dining with this iteration of the restaurant. People order at the counter and then take a seat, just like at El Tesoro.
Mascogo Tacos will start out serving dinner on Thursday and Friday evenings, from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., with Saturday and Sunday lunch beginning in the coming weeks.
This isn’t the first time Raines and Eaves have partnered with a local chef or establishment. In 2023, they opened an outpost of their popular Edgewood neighborhood cantina, El Tesoro, inside the taproom of Wild Heaven Beer at Lee and White. The partnership is a win-win for both El Tesoro and the West End brewery. It allows El Tesoro to expand quickly and reach more diners beyond Edgewood and for Wild Heaven to continue utilizing its kitchen in West End.
The duo aims to do something similar with the chef residencies at Tortuga y Chango.
“We love collaborating directly with chefs, and a semi-permanent residency was the best opportunity for the chef and us,” Raines says. “We get to focus on what Samantha and I do best: share mezcal. And we get to work with chefs excited to get into a space and hone their recipes and techniques.”