NOTE: The restaurant offers a weekday lunch buffet and Sunday brunch. If you like live rock music, Cafe Tacuba wants to be your weekend destination. If you prefer to dance to salsa, don't worry -- they've got that covered, too. Every Friday, the Mexican restaurant hosts Rock Night, which can mean Spanish-speaking alternative groups or English-language punk taking the stage in the medium-size bar area. Since the performers are local, there's generally no cover. One warning: DJs might replace the band, so it's best to check the bar's Web site or call first; I showed up one Friday and found myself watching salsa videos. Saturday's Latin Night features salsa or merengue bands and DJs that get the crowd moving toward the small dance floor in front of the stage. (Between sets, audience members sometimes get up to sing karaoke, which is a fun touch.) Most of the acts are from the Washington region, though groups from Colombia and Venezuela are on the schedule for the next two months. Regardless of the headliner, the cover is $10. A Thursday night karaoke contest kicked off recently, and at the end of the eight-week competition, the winner will go home with $1,000. (Runners-up get $500 and $250.) If you want to participate, arrive early this Thursday to sign up. Judges will cut the field to 20 contestants by the end of the night. Music on weekends goes until 2 a.m. and so does the kitchen, dishing out hearty appetizers such as crispy crabmeat flautas and chorizo-filled tortillas. (The full menu is served until 11, but it's easy to make a meal of the quesadillas.) Daily happy-hour specials include $2.50 domestic drafts and $3 margaritas. Given those prices, the bucket of six Corona bottles for $20 doesn't seem like much of a deal. Even without live entertainment, Cafe Tacuba is a fun place. The bar, which has never met a Corona promotional item it didn't love, has plenty of seats and a foosball table, and the margaritas and frozen cocktails are crowd pleasers. --Fritz Hahn (August 3, 2007)
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