Robert Rodriguez dropped in on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, and after sharing shots of Irish whiskey with his host to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, the local filmmaker regaled the crowd with food-related stories and a new short film starring Kimmel’s sidekick Guillermo Rodriguez.
Any local hipster worth their ink knows that Robert Rodriguez is a serious foodie who is one of the owners of the popular Fresa’s Chicken al Carbon and is also a pizza fanatic with a wood-burning pizza oven in his Pemberton Heights backyard. So it came as no surprise that Rodriguez had some food stories to tell Kimmel, the Austin food scene’s most ardent fan.
Rodriguez loves to entertain visiting celebrities with pizza parties (POTUS pizzas for President Barack Obama, etc.) at his home, so earlier this week he fired up the backyard oven and whipped out pizzas for the likes of director Guillermo del Toro and actor Adrien Brody, who were in town for South by Southwest. According to Rodriguez, some of the pizzas were even topped with shredded brisket from Franklin Barbecue, and Brody happily put away several.
From there, the conversation turned to Rodriguez’s ownership of Fresa’s, where the team had created a special taco for the President when he last passed through. The director offered to do the same for the visiting late night comedian. The “El Yimmy” taco made it’s debut in Guillermo Makes a Taco, a short film featuring Guillermo Rodriguez in full-on Danny Trejo mode and a sweet little abuela strapped to a keg of dynamite. Fans of Robert Rodriguez films shouldn’t have any trouble figuring out how things went from there. After the film, the director presented Kimmel with a sample of the new taco – guajillo chicken tinga, black beans, shaved Brussels sprouts, pickled jalapeños, cotija cheese, and tomatillo sauce. They’re on the menu today at Fresa’s for $4.75 and we’re told the line is out the door.
Watch the full clip below.
This article appears in March 13 • 2015.