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The Midnight Diners is a regular collaboration between KQED food editor Luke Tsai and graphic novelist Thien Pham. Follow them each week as they explore the hot pot restaurants, taco carts and 24-hour casino buffets that make up the Bay Area’s after-hours dining scene.
The best tacos I’ve ever eaten in Marin County are tucked away in the warren of warehouses and car dealerships that populate the eastern end of San Rafael. We pulled into the neighborhood at a little past 9 o’clock on a recent Friday night because we’d heard that one of our favorite taquerias, El Tucán, had finally opened its long-awaited location here — an outpost the owners had initially planned to debut all the way back in 2021.
El Tucán Tacos & Beer is meant to be a swankier, sit-down version of the original taqueria in Richmond. Importantly for our purposes, it stays open until 11 p.m. on weekends…