Bull Taco expands into Encinitas

North County’s irreverent Bull Taco will open its third North County restaurant Monday in Encinitas.

And just like every other outlet opened by San Diego dining’s merry prankster Greg Lukasiewicz, the 30-seat eatery at 101 N. Coast Highway 101 will be a restaurant like no other. Drinkers can pour their own brew at self-service taps, diners can bring in and grill their own fresh-caught seafood, and there are plans for an $18 ribeye taco.

Or maybe not.

The painter-turned-restaurateur has a feverish imagination and is fearless when it comes to testing out new concepts. Proud server of “inauthentic Mexican” food? Check. Bear, bull penis and beaver taco specials? Check. Sushi joint named for a rat? Double check.

“I get on my unicorn, fly in the clouds and hatch ideas and my wife pulls me back down,” said Lukasiewicz, 47, referring to Bull Taco’s executive chef, Laurel Manganelli.

The Encinitas restaurant is the fourth Bull Taco opened by the Oceanside couple since 2009, when they took over her family’s café/market concession at the San Elijo State Beach campground in Cardiff. The couple ran fine dining restaurants in L.A. before moving to North County five years ago, but they decided to go lowbrow here, selling tacos, the comfort food the half-Nicaraguan Lukasiewicz grew up on in Pasadena.

Named after the Bultaco, a classic line of Spanish motorcycles, the company specializes in gourmet tacos made with local seafood and exotic meats. Duck and shrimp curry tacos can be found any day, but past daily specials have included ostrich, elk, sweetbreads, foie gras, alligator, lamb’s head and the aforementioned bull genitalia.

“It was surprisingly good,” he said. “But the beaver tacos were inedible.”

Since then, they have opened Bull Tacos in Oceanside and San Clemente. Once the Encinitas store is running smoothly, plans are in motion for Del Mar and La Jolla spots. Eventually, Lukasiewicz said he’d like to have 20.

Where space is available inside Bull Taco locations, the couple plans to open their new sushi concept, Wrench & the Rodent, which debuted seven months ago inside their Oceanside location. Run by former Fish Joint sushi chef Davin Waite, the “pop-in seabasstropub” (a play on the proliferation of pop-up restaurants and gastro pubs) serves inauthentic sushi with ingredients like fresh mango sauce, roasted garlic, truffle oil and root beer teriyaki.

The Encinitas Bull Taco opened in the wedge-shaped space by the train tracks formerly occupied by Jamroc. Skateboarding icon Bucky Lasek has signed on as partner at the location and in his honor, the back wall of the restaurant’s kitchen is covered with tiles made from recycled skateboard decks.

There is patio seating on the restaurant’s north end and a couple banquettes on the south wall, but half the seats line the wide wood countertop, where diners can interact with the chefs in an open kitchen. Lukasiewicz said he and Manganelli hope to introduce some higher-end menu items at this location, as well as the future Del Mar spot.

Some ideas may work, like the $18 steak taco. Some ideas may fail. But Lukasiewicz said he’s not afraid to try. It’s a technique he learned in his days as a young artist.

“We like to go with the flow. Each restaurant is a blank canvas and we see how it builds in layers. Sometimes we have to wipe it clean and start over,” he said.

Bull Taco, 101 N. Coast Highway 101, Encinitas. Hours, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, beginning April 6. (760)753-1421; bulltaco.com.