BY MEG VAN HUYGEN for WEEKLY VOLCANO 5/15/26 |
“Next to the Taco Bell on Sixth,” my friend told me. “There’s a little stand that sells South American hot dogs with potato sticks on them, like Pik-Nik style.”
I tried looking it up on Google Maps, both through the biz listings and the street view. The only thing on Sixth that could be described as “next to” the Taco Bell was a barber shop. Is it a pop-up? Inside the barber shop?
Then I did a drive-by at the location and saw nothing except an innocuous barber shop. But there was a clue: a row of flags above the marquee. One of them was Venezuelan. Oh ho. This isn’t the first time that being a vexillology nerd has paid off in my career as a food writer, friends. My Venezuelan hot dogs are somewhere inside or near this building.
After an exhaustive search for “Tacoma” + “hot dogs” while subtracting any result that included The Red Hot, I found a listing for Bocao on DoorDash. The address was the barber shop! But they weren’t open, with no hours listed. Armed with the name of the business at last, however, I found Bocao’s IG profile, which said they were open Thursday through Sunday. Oh. Okay.
We rolled up on Saturday night to a crowd of about 20 people, and the air was fizzing with energy. Bocao, a slang term that means “bite” or “morsel” throughout Latin America, is indeed a pop-up stall in front of the barber shop, beneath the flags, a cart under a pair of red tents with a slick digital menu setup. Owner Miguel Mendoza was hustling at the grill cart with a co-chef, each taking turns ringing up orders, flipping arepas, and buttering the plancha up for the next round. The smell was intoxicating.
There are only three things on Bocao’s menu: hot dogs, arepas, and cachapas, with a couple of variations on each. I’ve eaten a lot of international hot dogs in my life, but perros venezolanos were a new item for my checklist. We went for the classic: an all-beef hot dog dressed with crispy shoestring potato stix, grilled onions, cabbage, shredded chedd, and, enigmatically, “sauces.” Other available upgrades include a combo of bacon and sweet corn or your choice of either shredded beef or chicken. Luxurious!
The cachapa was also a new one for me: a grilled sweet corn pancake loaded with queso de mano, a mild cow’s milk cheese that you may already know from arepas, and folded over like a taco. Patrons are also given the option to meatify the cachapas with added shredded chicken or beef.
The arepas, also in chicken or beef, looked great too, but y’know, we’ve had those before. Round One at any new-to-me cuisine is strictly for novelty.
Waiting for the food amid the buzzy Saturday-night crowd and the beautiful aromas coming off the cart was half the fun. There are, of course, about 700 bars in every direction, and I won’t say everyone was drunk, but let’s just say … none of us was there accidentally. Being in the crowd kinda made us want to go get drunk once we received our potato hot dog and meaty corncake.
The food was lovely and cheesy. Everything was made to order and sizzling hot. The cachapa arrived just buried in saucy chicken, and we were able to ID at least one of the mystery sauces as salsa ajo, a creamy garlic sauce common in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, and their penumbra. There’s also nata in there, a Venezuelan condiment made from the skin of raw milk or cream, salt, and lemon juice; it’s used as a spreadable cheese, like ricotta. The first bocao of the cachapa resulted in a two-foot cheese pull. Very dramatic! Someone in the crowd cheered for it. The corn was sweeter than most American palates expect, I think, but it’s still delicious, and it’s righted by the salty, stretchy cheese. Mendoza mentioned that the queso de mano is made in-house, by the way.
The hot dog was pretty normal, served on a soft steamed bun and blanketed in so much grated cheese that it was hard to see what else lurked beneath. Ketchup, for sure, along with some of that light green salsa ajo and the crispy little potato sticks. I noticed they’re using Nathan’s Coney Island beef franks, a personal fave. It’s good.
Does it help to be shithoused to enjoy this stuff? Oh yeah, for sure, but it’s not required, as we found out. I’m curious to try the rest of the menu. I love the idea of accenting my hot dog with more meat, just out of pure hedonism, so that’ll be Round Two at Bocao for sure.
Bold of them to set up shop on the same block as The Red Hot, I must say, but neither is a threat to the other. Bocao is absolutely doing their own thing out there, and it’s a unique, welcome addition to the Sixth Avenue weekend barscape. BBL, putting potato stix on everything I eat from now on.
Bocao Restaurant is at 2910 6th Ave, Tacoma, WA 98406. Follow on Instagram @bocao.tacoma
