(Image: Tacos Cometa)

(Image: Tacos Cometa)

Tacos Cometa is moving inside. The street taco venture from brother chefs Rey and Osiel Gastelum that has grown a devoted following this year at Nagle and Pine on the edge of Cal Anderson Park as part of the neighborhood’s wild — and delicious — nightlife street food scene will open as a brick and mortar taqueria on Broadway in 2026.

Rey Gastelum tells CHS Tacos Cometa isn’t leaving Capitol Hill’s street scene behind.

“There should be a better path. I wish there had been a better path for us as well,” Gastelum said.

CHS reported in May as Tacos Cometa was one of the latest to get dinged in an ongoing health department crackdown on unpermitted food vendors working the streets amid Capitol Hill’s nightlife crowds and at busy intersections across the county. The citations can be a slap on the wrist with many vendors waiting for 9 PM when the inspection teams go off shift to set back up and begin again. Some city officials are continuing to push for more serious consequences including Seattle Police — an especially chilling threat for many of the immigrant-run businesses under the current administration.

Gastelum said the process put Tacos Cometa on a new trajectory with a community-backed plan to get off the street and into a fixed restaurant. They’ll open in the Broadway Building at Broadway and Pine by spring.

The space is currently home to Old Street Malatang, a concept from the neighboring FOB Poke Bar folks that never truly took off on Broadway after its 2024 debut.

Gastelum says they are keeping things simple for the buildout and should be open not long after they get the keys this winter.

“The place already has the bones for a taqueria,” Gastelum said. “We really fell in love with it.”

The menu will have the opportunity to grow but it will focus on Tacos Cometa’s core offerings. You might find specials like pozole and occasional pop-ups in the mix.

In the meantime, the Tacos Cometa crew is preparing for a winter of weekends on the street at Nagle and Pine until the restaurant is ready to open next year.

Rey and Osiel’s dad made a surprise appearance at the taco stand earlier this year

With careers built in “Michelin-starred kitchens in Paris, San Francisco, and Beverly Hills,” they’re proud to be able to bring high quality and execution to their offerings — even in the Seattle rain — and to be part of the excitement of an active street food scene.

“That’s what makes a city beautiful. It adds to the landscape of the city,” Gastelum said.

Their first landlord, local Capitol Hill developer Hunters Capital, is helping the first-time restaurant owners prepare for their space and Gastelum says the area’s food and drink community has also been supportive.

Excellent tacos help. Chef Keiji Tsukasaki has bought Cometa tacos as a surprise addition to round out his now-famed omakase meals at nearby LTD on Nagle near where the brothers set up their stand every weekend. Tsukasaki has also invited Tacos Cometa to be part of the upcoming four-year anniversary party for the sushi restaurant that was named to the New York Times 50 Best Restaurants in America in 2023 only two years after it opened at the height of COVID-19 shutdowns.

Tsukasaki and LTD’s path is an inspiration. The original plan for the Gastelum brothers was to make their name in Seattle’s street food scene with outstanding tacos while gathering resources and shaping a fine dining venture that would celebrate their Sinaloan culture and the seafood of their new Pacific Northwest home. The street food challenges have put a different plan into motion as Tacos Cometa is now ready to burn brighter than the brothers could have envisioned. But the chefs are still dreaming.

“Maybe we will have a fine dining restaurant here some day,” Rey Gastelum says. “The taco stand just happened. Things have shifted a little bit.”

Tacos Cometa sets up on Friday and Saturday nights at Nagle and Pine. You can find them at 1620 Broadway in early 2026. Learn more at tacoscometa.com.

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