Mexico in Memphis? Think barbecue. Then think Mexican food.
The smoked meat — brisket, chicken, and pork — tacos Tim Shirley sells in his Mexico in Memphis food truck are “Memphis style,” says the cook, who, along with his wife Angelica, owns the business.
His Memphis-centric fare also can be found at events inside Agricenter ShowPlace Arena. As sole vendor for Agricenter International, Tim, 50, sells barbecued nachos, barbecue sandwiches, and smoked meat quesadillas — all of which he also sells on the food truck — as well as turkey legs.
“It’s a smaller menu,” Tim says. “It’s all quick food and the kind of food people enjoy for events like that. … I’m not claiming it’s 100 percent classic Mexican food. We take the Mexican dish and, basically, try to respect the soul of the dish by having pico de gallo and homemade salsa. We try to stay true to the Mexican flavors and Memphis smoked meat at the same time. Our slogan is ‘Memphis Smoked Meats, Fresh Mexican Flavors.’”
Tim got the idea when he remembered what his sons ate growing up: “Leftover barbecue meat stuffed in a quesadilla for breakfast or lunch.” He barbecued the meat and Angelica prepared the leftovers. “We also ate leftover barbecue meats in tacos and things like that.”
He got into barbecuing after calculating how much they spent eating out. “That led to experimenting with trying to recreate at home what we enjoyed at restaurants. … I got into barbecue and started going to barbecue joints across Memphis. And it became an obsession to go to as many barbecue places as I could.”
After Tim started his own blog, Memphis Barbecue Guide, he discovered more than 200 barbecue places just in Memphis while visiting “roadside pits and bars and really, any place that had real pit barbecue.”
A native Memphian, Tim says he got into Mexican cooking through Angelica, who was born in Mexico City. Her family taught him how to cook during visits to Mexico. The women let Tim join them in the kitchen and cook fried corn cakes, or sopes, topped with various ingredients. The men taught him how to grill steak tacos and fried fish tacos outdoors. Tim also tried the fare at “little roadside taco shops, taquerias, panaderias, and torterias throughout the region.”
Recreating these experiences when he got home “sort of morphed into the fusion stuff as well. Leftover smoked meats and making tamales and quesadillas.”
Tim, who was majoring in business management at Southwest Tennessee Community College, changed his major to hospitality management after the school opened its Culinary Institute. “Around this time I was really into this barbecue thing and Mexican cooking.”
Tim, who did his internship at Hog & Hominy restaurant, says, “I was going to all these barbecue contests, writing articles, and taking pictures for my blog. And I was cooking at home as well. A ‘backyard chef’ kind of thing. Experimenting.”
In 2020, while working as a corrections officer sergeant with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department, he began operating a food truck on the side for family events. “In 2022, I left the jail and opened the food truck full-time.”
He uses smoked brisket in his tacos. “That would be our replacement for the carne asada, meat cooked over hot coals like on a grill, or beef barbacoa, meat slow cooked underground with hot coals. It’s all about getting that smoked flavor in the beef. But we still have the pico de gallo, homemade salsa, lime, and cilantro, which are all classic taco condiments.
“A little more Memphis would be our Memphis smoked pork taco. That’s meant to be like a barbecue sandwich in a taco. ”
Tim will still be using the Mexico in Memphis food truck, but he will be “focusing on the concessions” at ShowPlace Arena. “As this business grows, we’ll be sending the truck out in coming months.”
People need to follow Mexico in Memphis on Facebook to find locations, he says.