Pictured: Tacos from Circo, photo by Wyatt Kostygan.

Before I returned to write for SRQ Magazine last month, I was vegan. True story. But I didn’t think I could effectively write about the Sarasota food scene without rejoining the estimated 90% of Americans who consume meat. I can say with confidence that reintroducing it into my diet has been way easier than the opposite.

As I’m easing back into my meatful journey, it’s restaurants like Circo that I have come to love and appreciate even more. It speaks to the omnivore in me — the one who loves the simplicity and challenge of creating incredible, complex flavors with plant-based ingredients, and the one who dreams about smoked and slow-cooked meats, melty cheeses and sausage. As a relocated midwesterner, I simply adore the region’s top exports.

On a recent Tuesday evening, with my wife out of town, I brought a date (settle down — it was my five-year-old daughter, Summer) to Circo in downtown Sarasota. She’s a cheese quesadilla connoisseur, and Circo offers a dandy for the kids that received a decisive thumbs-up on this night.

But all I cared about was the tacos. It was Taco Tuesday, and that meant a BOGO on six of Circo’s most crowd-pleasing taco varieties. With one foot firmly secure in my plant-based past, and the other in a meaty future, I ordered a pair of the Nashville hot tacos and a birria. The Nashville — boasting pickles, crispy tofu, and Napa slaw on a fluffy flour tortilla — comes with a side of that Nashville hot sauce that adds a flavor-first/heat-second kick that works to elevate all the ingredients. (Side note: If you’re dining with me and the phrase “Nashville hot” is anywhere on the menu, there’s no need to ask me what I’m ordering. For it will be whatever thing they’ve decided to douse in Nashville hot sauce.)

But as much as I adored the crunchy, flavorful, tangy veg experience of the Nashville hot, it was the birria taco that made the biggest impression.

During my meatless hiatus, I missed the birria taco’s ascension into cravedom. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this ingenious invention, this miracle of handheld deliciousness, this pocket of roasted, savory goodness?

I want more. I need more. When people ask me why I stopped being vegan, I’ll have one word: birria. 

Circo, 1435 2nd St, Sarasota, 941-253-0978.

Pictured: Tacos from Circo, photo by Wyatt Kostygan.

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