ROCK ISLAND, ILLINOIS (April 9, 2024) — One of the Quad Cities' most authentic Mexican restaurants will host an open house and meet-and-greet on April 13, 12-3PM, at their Rock Island restaurant, located at 3850 Blackhawk Road Rock Island, Illinois 61201. The eight-year-old restaurant, founded by Roly Gerardo and his wife Martha in 2015, relocated from Moline to the current Rock Island location in 2022, after serving the Quad Cities in Moline for seven years.
Owner Roly said, “We met Jibri last month, when he came in to try our famous Quesabirria tacos. He declared them to be the best he had ever had, which is a huge honor for us considering that he is a world traveler!” Gerardo added, “most of our dishes are a collaboration between my wife and I, she makes the best homemade corn tortillas which we then fill up with our slow cooked birria meat made with my secret seasoning and consume [broth].”
Jibri Bell, a social-media influencer, international artist, and star of the reality show “90 Day Fiancé,” traveled to the Quad Cities recently, straight from Asia, to work with a well-known Quad City music producer and also train for an upcoming martial-arts fight. Last month, after an intense training day, he found himself craving some birria tacos and remembered that he heard from a friend about the birria tacos at Taqueria Roly’s. This was confirmed after a visit to the restaurant where he found himself enjoying the best quesabirria tacos he had ever had. “I fell in love with this great local spot the moment I stepped in the door. Roly, Martha, and family are a wonderful local business to support. They put a lot of love into their food and you can tell.” According to Bell, “These quesabirria tacos are fire, I can’t get enough of them! Be warned though, they are addictive!”
After posting about Bell’s visit to their restaurant, customers were excited and wanted to meet Jibri in person. Roly contacted Jibri and asked him to come back to the restaurant for an open house. Bell was happy to lend his support and wanted to help this independent restaurant, “I know how hard it has been for locally owned independent restaurants in the last few years, considering the rising food costs and the pandemic. We have to support these places that make our cities unique. Small businesses are the fabric of our communities and if we don’t support them, they disappear.”
Roly and Martha are excited to host an open house and introduce people of the Quad Cities see to their new location. “We have moved to Rock Island, but still are serving the traditional homemade food from our hometown of Michoacán, Mexico. We serve dine in and take out and also specialize in catering and special events.”
They will be serving free appetizers 12-3PM, Saturday, April 13, and will have a raffle for a free taco dinner for six guests delivered to the winner’s home, to be drawn at 3PM by Jibri. Customers can enter to win by liking the Facebook page of the restaurant and sharing the event.
