Photo by Kathy Tran

Bishop Arts lost a real one last week.

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Trompo closed its Oak Cliff location with its last service on Christmas Eve, but the East Dallas location is still open.

Owner Luis Olvera started with taco pop-ups in our neighborhood and parlayed that into a minimalist restaurant on Singleton Boulevard about five years ago. The original Trompo was named one of Bon Appetit magazine’s top 50 new restaurants in the United States in 2018.

Olvera closed the Singleton location and opened in Bishop Arts in 2019. He was interviewed by NPR’s All Things Considered at the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, saying business at that time was “bleak.”

The Oak Cliff-raised restaurateur declined to specify why he’s closing the Bishop Arts location other than to say he is focusing on Trompo East Dallas, which is located at 4201 Gaston Ave.

He says he would like to come back to Oak Cliff some day, but “rents are extremely high,” and landlords expect a percentage of business while offering little in the way of build-outs.

Trompo East Dallas is open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.