. As he explains it, he wanted to be known for his food, not a margarita special. And he’s been successful at that,the last two years. At his next location—following Falls Church, Audi Field, and Spotsylvania.—Peña will still focus solely on his hit Mexican cooking, but now you can at least enjoy it with a beer. That’s because the taqueria is opening inside Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Company later this fall.
At the same time, Peña wants cater to the regulars who liked the variety of Port City’s food truck rotation by offering an expanded menu. He’s planning to introduce Sonoran hot dogs wrapped in beef bacon with pico de gallo, ketchup, and mustard. He’s also looking to introduce lamb burgers with rotating toppings like feta, balsamic reduction, and pickled onions or a chipotle aioli.
Peña worked in construction before getting into the food industry as a line cook at Rustico in Alexandria, eventually working up to sous chef. During family meals, he’d often cook tinga tostadas with stewed chicken, and one of his fellow cooks would joke, “When are you going to open up La Tingeria?” When he was laid off a year later, the name stuck with him. He opened La Tingeria food truck, and eight years later, in 2021, he turned it into a taqueria in Falls Church.