Nacho Average Tacos! Chef Puts Twist on Mexican Culinary Classics

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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The restaurant startup life is not one that we look at very often, if ever, here on the program. South Central School is all about starting quickly, starting affordably, not taking a lot of risks. And when you think about the restaurant world, well, it is expensive to start a restaurant, at least usually. It is hard to make it work, almost always. And if it doesn't work, the costs of failure can be high, at least compared to many other projects.

So that's why overall, I tend to steer people in a different direction. But to be fair, what if it's your life dream to open a restaurant? And what if you want to do it? You have to do it without much access to capital. So that's what we'll look at today in the form of a catering biz turned brick and mortar establishment in San Diego, California.

Actually very close to the border of Tijuana, Mexico. We're calling this story Nacho Average Tacos. A chef puts a twist on Mexican culinary classics. I love that title, by the way, Nacho Average Tacos. You'll also learn how this young chef and child of immigrants overcame a last minute snafu that cost $6,000 or almost cost $6,000.

Stay tuned for the story and threatened to close down the business before it ever opened. But she figured it out and now the business is off to a great start. Stay tuned for once more Nacho Average Tacos. [Music]

Priscilla Curiel is no stranger to the food industry. Her parents have been running classic Mexican restaurants in Tijuana for over 30 years.

It's part of her upbringing. A decade ago, her family migrated north to Chula Vista, California, a suburb of San Diego just across the border. They opened a restaurant called Talavera Azul. This combination of growing up in the business and jumping into work as a teenager gave her an insider's glimpse into how the industry works. A few years later, Priscilla started her own part-time catering business.

It was only on the weekends, but it gave her a chance to exercise her culinary creativity and bring in some extra cash. It also helped her make local connections in the restaurant industry. She kept her startup costs low, just around $200 at first, and this bought her enough for some basic ingredients and a table to prepare her food. At first, her catering brought in a few hundred dollars on the weekends, but she kept at it and by 2016, she was bringing in $10,000 on the side each year. Priscilla said she'd always save her money and reinvest back into the business.

She's a firm believer in giving every dollar a job. Put that money to work. Even as a single mom working two jobs, she kept saving. Before long, she had saved $20,000. Then one day, she was selling her tacos outside a brewery when a customer liked them so much, he agreed to help her set up her own brick-and-mortar restaurant.

With the help of that perfect stranger and the money she'd saved, Tutu no Takariya was born. Priscilla doesn't burrito around the bush with her ingredients. In her words, less is more. You have to get the most out of everything. Accordingly, her menu offers a small selection of dishes featuring tacos served with a modern twist.

Her trademark taco, Tutu no, means roasted bone marrow. It's one of her most popular items. The bulk of business to the new restaurant comes from either word of mouth or her Instagram account. She mentioned that it's important to maintain quality and consistency, both in the dishes she prepares and on the social media she shares. Her advice, don't take pretty pictures and then sell an inferior quality product.

Unfortunately, that's what so many restaurants do. Snapping pictures of herself preparing meals, the dishes themselves, or street side selling tacos were key factors in growing her following. It doesn't hurt that Tutu no is located right near the crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, so she gets plenty of foot traffic from both sides of the border. The Takariya has only been open for four months, but is already achieving $1,000 a day in sales. Margins are tight because it is the food business, but she's off to a great start.

So what's next? Well, Priscilla would like to open a small chain of Takariyas and move her catering business under the umbrella of Tutu no. Her cooking has been described as passionate, precise, soulful, and balanced. And it's all giving customers something to talk about. [Music]

Okay, so as I said, the restaurant startup life is definitely not the easiest side hustle.

If you're out there and you want to be a foodpreneur, there might be other options that are not as challenging. There might be other ways to still work in the food industry, but not open an actual restaurant. Still, we all have to eat. I go to restaurants every day myself, and this is Priscilla's passion. So good for her.

And the fact that she was able to save the money she needed as a young single mom and navigate the bureaucracy associated with opening a restaurant, and then begin building a loyal fan base, that is impressive. And to illustrate this lesson in perseverance, here's one example of something she had to figure out. So about six weeks before opening the restaurant, she had a required inspection, and that inspection revealed that she needed to replace the sprinklers. A contractor she talked to told her it would cost $7,000. Now at that point, she was kind of capped out.

She didn't have a lot of money to invest, and other people around her were telling her, maybe do something different, maybe just give up and come back to this later. But she thought otherwise she was already working two jobs, but decided to pick up a third. Also critically, she decided to get a second quote just in case. Now that was a good idea because the second contractor said they do it for half the price. So naturally she took that lower quote.

She managed to earn the money within the month, earn a grade A on the inspection, and open three days later. So lesson number one, keep going. Lesson number two, always get another quote. Thank you for listening today, my friends. I hope you do one thing to get closer to something you believe in.

Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Today's show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/749. Also, if you are in the San Diego area or happen to be passing through, be sure to go and visit her restaurant. We will include links and directions on that page. And meanwhile, I'll be back again tomorrow with a weekly recap.

Okay, I'm out. Chris Guillebeau for Side Hustle School. [Music]