Taco Soigneur

A soigneur is a French word for one who cares for the needs of others. In cycling, this means taking care of everything, from transportation, baggage, accommodations, and other personal assistant needs, etc...

I'm a soigneur of sorts. To be accurate, I am a taco soigneur. I'll gladly port tacos for anyone doing the UP taco ride lunch ride to the Dos de Oro taco trucks on S 24th St.

I don't mind being a taco soigneur. I use a Timbuktu messenger bag that Shim gave me last year to haul the goods in. He had previously purchased the bag about 15 years ago from the Bike Way shop, when they were located in Benson. Shim used the bag for a while before he gave up being a hipster/commuter. That was also around the same time he quit smoking and wearing turtlenecks*. After that, the bag sat in his garage  collecting cobwebs and hornets nests.

When he heard that I was looking to get a new one, he chimed up, "I've got a messenger bag you can have."

And wallah. The next day, there it was.

It's a very nice bag. It's roomy with a main compartment, a laptop sleeve and another divider. It has two visible pockets and a secret pocket, too. To secure the contents inside the bag, it has two straps that buckle down the fold over flap. The shoulder strap is thickly padded, and best of all, it has a cross over strap that cinches the bag to rider snugly.

After a good cleaning, including removing the hornet's nest, that old Timbuktu bag looked practically brand new. It's been my daily companion on my commutes and taco rides for over a year now.

What I didn't know when I received the bag was that I was being passively foo'd into being the taco soigneur  too. The truth is that Shim has never asked me to carry his tacos. He's not like that.

The real reason why I ended up being the taco soigneur is because of what happened the last time he carried the tacos for the group. He used a paper sack. Just a paper sack. Now a paper sack's all fine and dandy when your carnitas and chorizo burritos are to be immediately consumed in the parking lot where your car sits. But carrying them in a paper sack while riding a bicycle over five miles of rough roads is asking for trouble. On that particular day -- bless his dear heart -- Shim made it all the way to 16th and Harney, where upon rounding the corner, the drippings of carnitas had long since marinated the paper sack enough to spray its contents all over Harney Street.

That gave a new meaning to the term street tacos.

Since then, I've gladly accepted the role as taco soigneur, using Shim's old Timbuktu messenger bag to haul the goods. Everyone's all smiley and stuff because they know that not only will the tacos arrive safely, but they will be handled well in transit. With contents snug down and cinched firmly, there is no tearing of the moist corn tortillas, no co-mingling of meats and sauces. Just everything as it should be, warm, delicious tacos that some claim to be the best ever.

¡Gracias, y de nada!

* He still wears turtlenecks