Spicing Up St. Augustine, One Taco at a Time

April 24, 2025

By Michael Alaimo

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla - New brunch taco location becoming locals favorite place to dine for Mexican food. Recently being rated 5 stars on yelp and 4.8 on google, this location has been serving tortillas, tacos, delicious queso, and coffee to the locals.

Calico Cactus is a modern taco shop serving brunch to the locals and tourists of St. Augustine since its opening Jan 14. The owner is Scott Moore, also a co-founder of Maple Street in St. Augustine.

“I didn't plan to be in the restaurant business the reality is that I was just helping a young man in our church who needed a job, and I had this idea for a restaurant which then became Maple Street Biscuit Company,” said Moore.

The taco shop serves brunch 7 am to 3 pm daily. What sets Calico apart from other taco establishments is they are mainly handmade breakfast tacos and burritos. Most taco places just offer traditional tacos all parts of the day.

Moore said, “People are used to eating tacos, but they're not yet used to eating tacos for breakfast, but the truth is if you look at any coffee shop you go to, they almost always have a breakfast burrito it is kind of a favorite thing. We're just specializing in that; we have lots of breakfast tacos with everything made from scratch.

Moore added on, "By making everything from scratch we'll still be able to do it in 5–6-minute ticket times with the model that we've set up. So, you're going to get fresh food for breakfast that has unique bold flavors made from scratch and in a quick time,” said Moore.

Due to the high reviews of Calico Cactus, they have brought in a lot of tourists and locals recently, “But now that the locals have started putting reviews online, we're starting to see a lot of tourists come and give us an opportunity to serve them as well,” said Moore.

Calico doesn't just serve tacos and burritos, but they have other things on the menu that might attract the human eye.

“The number one selling item on the menu is called scrambled eggs on your face and it's our breakfast Taco that's a fresh made flour tortilla, scrambled eggs, pecan wood smoked bacon, fresh fried shredded potatoes and then our house made four cheese queso," Moore said.

At the end of the Day Calico Cactus’s goal is to satisfy the customers with their burritos, tacos and coffee and leave a lasting impression.

Moore added on, “I would always hope that every guest when they leave and our team will have made an impression on them”.

With unique food options, creativity and service, Calico Cactus is a new chapter in the already extremely diverse food scene in St. Augustine Florida. According to Yelp and Google, Calico Cactus is quickly becoming a local favorite.