83Dinner with the Departed

Around the walls of this Valley Mills Drive taqueria, the Day of the Dead is going wonderfully. A dark-haired woman in the style of a certain Mexican painter you're thinking of shares a laid table with a calavera mariachi in his black charro suit — guitar up, grin permanent — while painted platters of tacos and botanas and frosty micheladas crowd the tablecloth between them. Nearby a catrina wears a headdress of marigolds, roses and feathers piled higher than any hat has a right to go.

The best door in West Waco is around the side: CANTINA, announced in painted letters, with painted brick crumbling away around a full-length skeleton señor mid-serenade — on the door itself, so he swings open with it. And because this is Waco, a cheerful cartoon bear throws its arms up beside the painted social-media icons: BEAR'S are welcome! The afterlife, it turns out, accommodates Baylor fans.