Taco restaurant to open in Wheaton, from the family behind a toda madre

Bien Trucha takes its name from a Mexican expression, loosely meaning “on top of your game.”

Julio Cano and his family have worked to stay at that level since their original taqueria opened on State Street in Geneva some 16 years ago. They added a highly regarded sister restaurant, a toda madre, in Glen Ellyn, then expanded to Naperville’s Water Street district with Santo Cielo and Quiubo.

Now the Bien Trucha restaurant group is developing an entirely new concept in downtown Wheaton.

“This is going to be our first fast-casual restaurant,” Cano said. “We've been planning this since before COVID.”

The menu will focus on Mexico City-style tacos de guisado.

“Some people argue that this is the oldest kind of taco in Mexico,” Cano said. “I don’t want to say they’re like stews. It’s like braised meats. It could be vegetables.”

The Bien Trucha restaurants have open kitchens, and its latest venture will be no different. It’s taking over the 4,800-square-foot corner space previously occupied by Muldoon’s Irish Pub and Yia Mas at Front and Hale streets.

“We like people to see what we're preparing and see that everything is fresh,” Cano recently told the city’s liquor control commissioners. “We're going to have a tortilla machine. So we're going to be doing our tortillas right there in front of people. It’s going to be a key element of our concept.”

He describes the concept as more of a hybrid between a fast-casual and a full-service experience. The interior will seat about 60 people. Patrons will be able to order from the service counter, at the bar or from their tables with their smartphones.

“They are significantly remodeling the space to add a service counter to turn it into the fast-casual concept that they're looking to open,” said Jim Kozik, Wheaton’s planning and economic development director.

The city’s liquor control commission has recommended approval of a full liquor license for the restaurant. The city council is set to vote on the license application on May 6.

Cano and his business partners hope to be up and running in June “at the latest.”

“We’ve always had our eyes on opening a restaurant here,” he said. “So we’re excited that this is going to be the flagship for this concept that hopefully will turn into multiple locations within Chicagoland.”