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Sanctuary of a Different Sort Where churchgoers would once have seen the sanctuary and altar along the back portion of the main room, Taco Guild customers now elbow up to a large, 16-seat u-shaped bar. A central focus of the room, it's topped in reclaimed wood sourced from a farm in Colorado and faced in tufted vinyl. The back bar, constructed of heavy, reclaimed wooden shelving, showcases the tequila and mescal collection and is the primary divider between the front and back of the house. "It's quite high and the main thing that is preventing items on the shelves from falling off the back side is metal wire mesh with fairly open aperture," Henrich says. "You can see through it into the kitchen, but the view is fltered by the bottles and other items on the shelves so it's not a fully exposed kitchen." To the left of the bar, a repurposed section of high school metal lockers sourced from a local thrift shop displays more tequila bottles. "We took the doors off and replaced them with the same sort of thick wire mesh that's secure but see-through and added an old paddle lock. It ended up being a unique and functional piece that really ft our design approach." At slightly more than one year old, Taco Guild has proven to be a winning new concept for the Z'Tejas group and one that Micheletti says may have legs for future expansion – although the fagship design will likely be unique. "There are still things we're working on," he notes. "Menu-wise, we're trying to be a farm-to- table concept, but we're still learning about establishing local sup- ply chains and dealing with seasonality. We'll continue to tweak it and refne it here so that we can make knowledgeable, experience- based decisions before we decide to grow with it." + The bar features original light fxtures and candelabras from the church that were electrifed.