Nixta Taqueria chef Edgar Rico's tasting menu concept, Flor Xakali, opens in East Austin

After captivating local diners (and this critic) and garnering praise from national media outlets over his restaurant’s first several years, chef Edgar Rico of Nixta Taqueria has expanded his scope to include a new tasting menu concept called Flor Xakali.

The initial seven-course menu from Rico, who says he has created the personal Flor Xakali as a way to explore his family’s history and how they made it in the United States, includes a selection of snacks like rabbit barbacoa, a masa tart with vegetables grown on site, an al pastor gordita, a bean tamal with mesquite mole and snapper with salsa Veracruzana.

"The new place will be a little more refined, an incredible mixture of local Texas ingredients with ingredients from the motherland, as well. Kind of like what we already do at Nixta but a little sexier," Rico said earlier this year about the concept that is named as a nod to both Rico's mother, Flor, and the Nahuatl word for "home."

Hosted in the newly renovated private patio space of the small taqueria on East 12th St., Flor Xakali was designed by Rico, Sara Mardanbigi and Emily Reid of Gypsy Floral Designs to be a “multi-sensory experience.”

Reservations are released via Tock for the 6 and 8:30 p.m. two seatings that take place Tuesday-Friday. The meal costs $125, with wine pairings available for an additional cost. July is almost completely booked, and August reservations become available at noon on July 16.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Nixta Taqueria opens tasting menu concept, Flor Xakali, in East Austin