About Tacos Apson

How It Started

Francisco Durazo Jr. grew up around music. His father, Pancho, co-founded Los Apson Boys in 1959, and by the time Francisco was old enough to remember anything, the family name already meant something in Sonora — a sound, a stage, a legacy. But Francisco's calling turned out to be the kitchen, not the stage.

In 2001, he opened a small stand on South 12th Avenue in Tucson and named it after his father's band. It wasn't a tribute so much as an inheritance — the same name, the same pride, just served on a plate instead of a record. He started with a grill, a handful of recipes passed down from home, and the belief that Sonoran-style food, done right, didn't need much dressing up.

What We're About

Everything at Tacos Apson is grilled fresh over mesquite charcoal — nothing held overnight, nothing shortcut. The rasurados, thin-shaved beef rib grilled low and smoky, has been the signature since day one; it's the dish that eventually caught the attention of PBS's Cook's Country. But regulars will tell you it's not really about any one item — it's the whole spread, the salsa bar, the tortillas made the way they're supposed to be made.

Francisco still runs the grill himself most days, sticking to the same recipes he started with back in 2001. The walls inside are covered in photos from Los Apson's touring years — a reminder, every time you walk in, of exactly where the name came from.

Twenty-Five Years In

A quarter century later, Tacos Apson is still on the same stretch of 12th Avenue, still family-run, still grilling the same way it did on day one. What's changed is the reputation — from a neighborhood stand to a Tucson institution, the kind of place regulars bring out-of-towners to prove a point.

The name on the sign still points back to 1959, to a band from Agua Prieta and a family that's been making noise, one way or another, for almost seventy years now.

Beyond the Storefront

The taquería itself stays right where it's always been on South 12th Avenue. But for weddings, quinceañeras, company parties, and backyard gatherings around Tucson, the Tacos Apson carts hit the road — set up wherever the party is, running on the same mesquite fire and the same family recipes.

A catering spread means the whole board: pounds of carne asada laid out over the coals, and for the traditionalists, huevos de toro (bull testicles) — a Sonoran delicacy that's been on the grill long before any of this started.