What Chef Oscar Diaz Loves About Durham

Chef Oscar Diaz never intended to turn Durham into the home of his many restaurants. He worked all over the country, crisscrossing the United States from LA to his hometown of Chicago before relocating temporarily to North Carolina to help a friend and never left.

Today, Diaz is the chef and owner of an ever-expanding empire of restaurants across Durham. There’s Little Bull, a global tapas restaurant that takes inspiration from his Mexican heritage. There’s Aaktun, an all-day café with coffee, breakfast and a Tulum-style tiki bar by night. And, most recently, there’s TaTaco, the most classic Mexican of Diaz’s restaurants, where he serves towering Caesar salads, stacked enchiladas and his mother’s mole. Here, we sit down with Diaz to learn more about his inspiration, why he fell in love with Durham and where he likes to go when he gets a rare day off.

An Interview With Chef Oscar Diaz

You grew up in Chicago and cooked in Las Vegas and L.A. What convinced you to plant roots—and three restaurants—in Durham?

Oscar Diaz: I actually landed in North Carolina by accident. A friend lured me here for a three-month menu consulting gig, and I figured I’d leave when it wrapped. But one of my future partners said, “Come look at Durham before you go.” The minute I walked around the neighborhoods—especially the little spot that would become Little Bull—I got that goose-bump feeling. Durham felt energetic yet personal, big enough for ambition but small enough that the community notices when you do something from the heart. Two years later I’m still here, and it was the best impulse decision I’ve made.

How does the city shape the food you cook?

One of the things that kept me here is the produce. I remember going to the farmer's market and seeing, like, all kinds of tomatoes, incredible produce. I lived in California and it reminded me of being out there, but I sometimes feel like there’s actually more produce here and it’s easier to get it on your menu. I also feel so grateful to Durham – every time I open a new spot, I’m so scared no one will like it, but they just always embrace it.

Little Bull, Aaktun and TaTaco each have distinct personalities. How does Durham show up in them?

Durham lets me try new things. Opening Little Bull felt kind of like freshman year in college. It’s the place most inspired by how I grew up eating - we love Thai food, we love Korean food, we love Puerto Rican food, we love Colombian food. Obviously, we love Mexican food. All those flavors show up at Little Bull. With Aaktun I felt even more creative – there were no windows in the space, and Aaktun means cave in Mayan. But the idea was kind of a cenote, like in Tulum, those like caves that you jump in and there's water. So the tables have a greenish bluish look, which look like water. We put in skylights so that light can come in. And then I wanted the food to be just more tropical, more Latin American. Then, TaTaco was born from the fact that I've always wanted to represent Mexican food in this region a little bit differently. I didn't grow up eating Tex Mex food, but I love it, and I knew I wanted to work with masa, so that’s where the idea for TaTaco came from.

Where do you like to eat when you’re off-duty in Durham?

I love Rose’s Noodles, Dumplings & Sweets. I love going in there and then getting their belt noodles, or just whatever they have. I order too much when I go. My partners and I always go to M Kokko or M Sushi for lunch. I like to pick up wings from Tasty Stop. They do really good garlic-parmesan wings. Another place I like going to, especially, like, early on Sundays, is Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant. It’s an assuming place but it’s fantastic. They do little shrimp siu mai, I like the crab claw with shrimp mousse. There's some crazy talent and labor going in making all this stuff. Boricua Soul has patacones and arroz con gandules that remind me of Chicago’s Puerto Rican neighborhood. And if I need a sandwich, I bribe someone to stand in line at Ideal’s for the Italian or the turkey.

Beyond food, what Durham spots do you show out-of-towners?

Definitely the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. I basically live at the American Tobacco Campus, and that’s fun to walk around in.

The Michelin Guide is headed to the American South. What does that mean for a chef in Durham?

I think it's awesome that they're going to come out here. Obviously I think a lot of people might be like, ‘Oh God, I gotta do all these extra crazy things and try to get a star’ or whatever. But I just think that it’s about time that the people representing this part of the country, especially when it comes to cuisine, get recognized.

Your calendar is packed—What keeps you reaching for more instead of coasting?

I think for a long time I was very comfortable running one really good restaurant. And I was like, ‘Oh, this is like, this is easy.’ But I can't stay in a comfortable place too long, because I need to be doing something. I told my partners, I have all these ideas. I just feel like now is the time to push. We’re actually building a bar called Bardo with underground barbacoa pits next to American-style smokers so guests can taste the whole diaspora of smoke. It’s hectic, but Durham keeps catching every new thing we throw, so we keep throwing things at them.

Follow Chef Oscar on Instagram @buenosdias, and check out his restaurants Little Bull, Aaktun, Cielito Taqueria and TaTaco.