Portland Taco Bar Bird & Co. Bottles Its Avocado Taco Oil for Home Cooks

Originally reported by El Restaurante.

Bird & Co., the taco bar Wills Dowd and Jared Dinsmore opened in Portland, Maine, in 2019, has bottled a taco oil born in its kitchen and is selling it to home cooks. Portland Food Map reported the launch of the Original Taco Oil on April 9, and Mainebiz reported on May 1 that the oil is sold online and at the restaurant at 539 Deering Ave. in the Woodfords Corner neighborhood, with nationwide shipping available.

The line has two flavors, both made with 100% avocado oil steeped with whole spices and herbs, per the company: Roja, a red chile and garlic oil, and Verde, built on cilantro and jalapeño. Each bottle is $15.00 on the brand's own storefront, or $28.00 for the two together, and the company says the oils are crafted and bottled in Portland. The brand pitches them first for pan-frying tortillas, including birria-style tacos, and then for sautéing, marinades, dressings and sauces.

El Restaurante, which previewed the product in a February profile of Dowd, described it as the brand's first entry into the national retail market. "I wanted people to have better tacos at home," Dowd told the magazine, adding that a garlic oil the team tested tasted too Italian, so they leaned on chiles instead.

Why it matters

Bird & Co. is a restaurant brand moving onto the shelf, not a packaged-food startup. Dowd told El Restaurante that catering and events, including about 70 weddings a year, account for roughly 40 percent of the business's summer revenue, so the taco bar had already grown well past its dining room before the oil arrived. A bottle lets the restaurant sell its flavor to customers who will never visit Woodfords Corner, with a product the company says was born in its own kitchen.

What to watch

Mainebiz's May report listed two channels: the brand's own site and the restaurant. The next test is whether the oils reach other stores, and whether home cooks who buy a bottle for taco night come back for a second one.

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Sources

• El Restaurante: Bird & Co.: Creativity in Motion, From the Taco Bar to Grocery Shelves
• Portland Food Map: Bird & Co. Taco Oils
• Mainebiz: Friday Food Insider: Maine businesses roll out fresh products from avocado oil to boozy snacks
• Shop The Bird & Co
• Roja Taco Oil - Bird & Co
• Verde Taco Oil - Bird & Co
• Contact - Shop The Bird & Co