'Thrilled to have been a part of it': After 10 years, popular Five Points taco spot closing

A Five Points restaurant popular for its tacos is closing its doors a decade after making the successful transition from food truck to brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Corner Taco will shut its doors when its lease expires in the coming weeks, chef and owner Chris Dickerson announced Tuesday morning on social media.

"We will be winding down over the next several weeks, as we assist our esteemed team in finding suitable employment elsewhere," Dickerson posted on Facebook.

No closing date was announced.

Dickerson said the decision not to renew their lease resulted from his focus on his family in Savannah as well as his restaurants there.

"As some of you know, I moved to Savannah 7 years ago to help raise my then-newborn son.  We have 2 restaurants there, with more planned," he posted.

Dickerson couldn't be reached immediately for comment.

Corner Taco among Jacksonville's first food trucks

Dickerson launched his Corner Taco concept in 2012 as Jacksonville's food truck scene movement was gaining steam.

In a 20-foot-long, 1965 Airstream Globetrotter trailer converted into a food truck, Dickerson served up his "semi-swanky street food," including tacos, burritos, quesadillas and nachos, all made from scratch to order with fresh ingredients. That included the corn tortillas, made with a special machine and cooked on a 750-degree griddle.

"I always wanted to own my own restaurant and the food truck really was a stepping stone," Dickerson previously told the Times-Union, noting that back then, food trucks "were kind of edgy and new and the market wasn't saturated at all."

When Corner Taco opened, Dickerson said his food truck sometimes attracted long lines of customers including one queue that was 150 yards long.

"It was fun and exciting and a way for me to be my own boss. So it just was a logical way to start without a lot of debt," said Dickerson.

Two years later, Dickerson became one of the first Jacksonville restaurateurs to take his concept from food truck to brick-and-mortar restaurant, opening his Corner Taco restaurant at 818 Post St. in Five Points in February 2014.

He financed the restaurant without investors — a feat that might not be feasible now.

"I don't think we could do Corner Taco now, at least without investors. Just the cost of doing a brick-and-mortar is so astronomical now. It's hard to do a brick-and-mortar for less than a million dollars … It's just very challenging," said Dickerson, who's also established two Squirrel's Pizza restaurants in Savannah.

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Corner Taco patrons responded on social media by wishing Dickerson well, but also bemoaned the fact that now they would have to find another "go-to" Mexican restaurant.

Teresa Stepzinski is the dining reporter for the Times-Union. Follow her on Twitter @TeresaStepz or reach her via email at tstepzinski@jacksonville.com.

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This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Corner Taco set to close restaurant in Jacksonville's Five Points