Taco Heart, South Philly’s hub for Texas-style breakfast tacos, is set to open in the Ardmore Farmers Market in October, bringing its fresh flour tortillas and Tex-Mex fare to the Main Line.
Nano Wheedan, Taco Heart’s owner, said coming to Ardmore “seemed like the perfect next step for us” as the restaurant navigates its first expansion beyond South Philadelphia.
Taco Heart’s menu is anchored by the tastes and textures familiar to anyone who’s stepped into a Texas-style taco restaurant before: egg, cheese, avocado, jalapeño, queso, refried beans, pico de gallo, steak, brisket. In addition to tacos, customers can order bowls served with house-made chips, quesadillas, sides of queso, desserts, and beverages such as cucumber limeade and cold-pressed juice.
Wheedan is a Philly native and Penn Charter grad who got schooled in breakfast taco culture during a 15-year stint living and working in Austin, Texas. There, he played music and was director of operations at Home Slice Pizza, where he befriended Philly bagel master Philip Korshak.
Wheedan and his wife, Carinne, a Texas native, relocated to Philly during the pandemic. It was during the height of lockdowns that Wheedan set up a stand outside of his South Philly home, hawking breakfast tacos to neighbors. The ad hoc taco project later got the name Nano’s Tortillas, and Wheedan found a spot in the Bok Building, where he could cook and serve pickup orders. During this time, Wheedan also became an investor and business manager at Korshak’s namesake bagel joint, Korshak Bagels. (Korshak is now working on building Korshak Picnic Provisions, a corner shop built around hot dogs and house-made sourdough biscuits.)
In 2022, Taco Heart opened its doors in a polychromatic corner building on Seventh Street and Passyunk Avenue.
For Wheedan, introducing Philadelphians to the Texas-style breakfast taco has been a tall task, but he’s been heartened by the reception, both from Philly locals and transplants from the Lone Star State, or “Tex-pats,” as he calls them.
“There’s so many people with a connection to this food who have been missing it, and I am so grateful and moved when Texans tell me that they’ve finally found a piece of home at Taco Heart,” he said.
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It was in the last year that Wheedan felt Taco Heart finally “had its feet under itself,” and he began to think about what it would mean if he “took advantage of economies of scale” and opened a second location, using Taco Heart’s South Philly flagship as a prep kitchen at night. He was looking into opening his next location in the River Wards when the Ardmore Farmers Market approached him. The market offered a fully-functional kitchen setup, a solid base of foot traffic, and exciting culinary neighbors. He signed on.
Large swaths of the market, located at Suburban Square, were left vacant earlier this year after Di Bruno Brothers shuttered multiple locations, including its outpost in Ardmore.
Wheedan is planning to serve most of the same items in Ardmore as he does in South Philly. While some items like salsas, quesos, and refried beans may be prepared in South Philly and transported to Ardmore, Taco Heart’s signature flour tortillas will still be made fresh.
Wheedan also hopes the expansion will allow Taco Heart to move into the world of catering: In Austin, getting breakfast tacos for the office is the equivalent of the East Coast bagel breakfast, he says.
Taco Heart is set to open on Oct. 5 at the Ardmore Farmers Market (120 Coulter Ave.).
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