What Does Horror Taste Like? ‘Carnage Asada’ and Bloody Cocktails
The New York Times
An unlikely side effect of the pandemic: An uptick in terror-themed restaurants with creative names and even more creative menus.
There are many ways restaurant décor can say welcome: fresh flowers, linen tablecloths, soft lighting.
At Terror Tacos in St. Louis, the welcome is rendered in blood — actually, lurid red paint that covers one wall in long drips, like the macabre drapery that Satan’s gnarled hand might pull back to usher the damned into hell.
Bradley Roach and Brian Roash, brothers and self-described horror-movie geeks, opened Terror Tacos in March. (They spell their surnames differently.) As head chef, Mr. Roach put together an all-vegan menu of tacos and burritos featuring his housemade “carnage asada” seitan. Mr. Roash, an artist who handles the restaurant’s marketing, painted the frightful artwork, including a screaming woman’s face that resembles Shelley Duvall’s in “The Shining.” The band Cradle of Filth often growls over the speakers.