New Center City Restaurant Attracts Heat Over Controversial Name

What is in a name? That’s the question posed by Shakespeare, speaking through the voice of Juliet, and it has echoed down through the ages. A name may be just a name, but sometimes a name alone is enough to cause indignation and outrage. As the owner of a recently-opened Center City restaurant is learning, names do in fact have meaning.

A new Center City taco restaurant has come under fire for its name.

The restaurant in question is Illegal Tacos, which held its grand opening recently on South Broad Street. The name, explains owner and Albanian immigrant Florian Furxhiu, is that the tacos are so authentically Mexican that “they are illegal.” He calls the name a playful jab at the current political culture surrounding immigration, with Donald Trump referring so often to the perceived issue of Mexican and other immigrants entering the country illegally.

“Everyone posts comments on the internet about what they don’t like about the current immigration climate. But I’m the one that’s actually giving a voice to the illegals. Here we go, illegal tacos, we’re standing right here,” said Furxhiu to Fox29.

There’s little question about the owner of the restaurant being racist himself, since it is abundantly clear that he is not. Not only was he once a foreigner in this country, but his other business venture, a coffee shop in South Philadelphia, attracts a large immigrant population. “It’s more for socializing, more European,” he describes it. “Every other business is a coffee shop in Europe.” Accordingly, the shop attracts lots of European immigrants.

As per Eater Philadelphia, “Illegal Tacos will have a short menu of tacos, taco bowls, burritos, and rice bowls. The meat will be cooked on a spit and cut to order.” “It’s going to be authentic,” Furxhiu insists in the website’s profile of his restaurant. “I want to keep the menu simple and just serve the best tacos.”