Longtime Friends Serve Up Texas-Style Breakfast Tacos at This Littleton Food Truck

Ryan Ross and Rick Sharman both grew up in Texas, where they developed a love for barbecue, Texas-style breakfast and Southern hospitality. For the past year, they've brought those passions to Littleton with their food truck, RxR's Texas Tacos, which is permanently parked in the Arc Thrift Store lot at 1400 West Littleton Boulevard.

Ross, who met Sharman in college, originally moved to Colorado from Texas twenty years ago to become a river rafting guide in Buena Vista, quickly falling in love with the state and deciding to call it home. Around six years ago, he called his longtime friend and suggested that he come to Colorado as well. Sharman, who was already considering a move out of Texas, agreed, and the two friends were reunited.

"I have pretty much worked in the industry since I was sixteen," Sharman says.  "I attended culinary school and worked about every position in a restaurant."

Ross, too, has a hospitality background: "I've been in the business for about twenty years, bartending, mainly," he explains.

While both love Colorado, they missed the flavors of home. "The food we grew up on in Texas is a lot harder to find out here. It's just different. And with all the Texans moving out here, we wanted to give them the same stuff we grew up with," Ross says. Sharman had thought about opening a food truck for a long time, but the opportunity and timing never seemed to align. But together, they were able to launch RxR's last October. 

A year into operations, the truck is making its presence known — this year, it took top honors for both the judge's and people's choice in the barbecue tacos category at Top Taco.
While the team is riding high from the summer competition, they are still learning about operating a food truck. "I wouldn't say we experienced any major issues. It's more along the lines of going through the growing pains of our first year working on a food truck and dealing with all the elements," Sharman explains. "During the winter, we found out we have to keep the generators warm because if they stay out cold, they don't start the next morning. ... Putting the heater next to the pipes so they don't freeze. Just finding that stuff out every morning. Stuff you don't deal with in a restaurant that you've got to deal with in a food truck."

With so many taco options across the metro area, Ross and Sharman believe that their Texas-style approach draws regulars and newcomers to the truck. "It's something from Texas that, since I moved here, I've been missing, and something that Colorado has been missing this entire time," Ross says. "People didn't know about breakfast tacos. Burritos reign supreme; green chile reigns supreme. [At RxR's], it's basic, delicious ingredients that make our breakfast tacos stand out."
Most of the breakfast tacos are $5 each, but Ross is quick to rave about his favorite, the extra-large El Camino, which is $12. "It's a quarter-pound of brisket served on a flour tortilla with scrambled eggs and cheese, and then topped with our homemade jalapeno salsa," he explains.

Sharman, though, has a harder time choosing just one standout. "That's tough. That's like asking to pick a favorite kid," he says. "But if I had to pick, I'd probably go with the migas breakfast taco. It's made with eggs, onion, jalapenos, tomatoes and corn tortilla chips served on a flour tortilla. Huge staple in Austin and all over Texas."

While breakfast tacos are tops for both Ross and Sharman, RxR's also serves lunch options like the carne guisada ($7) made with chunks of beef cheek in a rich gravy and topped with extra cheese. "You're not going to find this anywhere but here," Ross asserts. All of the tacos are Texas-sized (read: huge), and the truck also offers brisket and sausage sandwiches ($9-$12).

Be sure to ask for a meat shot, as well — a piece of brisket served in a small ramekin with a little barbecue sauce on top, which RxR's serves in lieu of booze as it cannot get a liquor license. But that could change one day; Ross and Sharman hope to eventually open a brick -and-mortar restaurant. But for now, they say that they love what they do, and enjoy the community following they've built in Littleton and beyond.

RxR's Texas Tacos is located at 1400 West Littleton Boulevard in Littleton and is open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more information, visit rxrgrub.com.