Opening a Texican Food Joint...in Ohio

LunchBox

LunchBox

I've been cooking for years. I love it...it's a passion. My main area of interest is "Mexican" food...not the fully authentic...and not Tex-Mex...but a variant centered around the chile. That's what I like...that's what I make. For years, other teachers at my school have asked me to jar up salsa for sale. Every time I have people over, they fall all over themselves over the food. When I go to friends' get togethers, I make salsas, and people rave. Everyone always seems to love the stuff I make. Great...I love it too.

Now, it looks like I'll be moving to a college town in Ohio in 2 years. The place has no viable "Mexican" food places. My wife, and her mom are dead set on me opening a Texican (my own little style) place. My wife lived there for years, and swears it'll be a smash hit. I am obsessed with cooking...but never envisioned myself in the restaurant business. Everyone around me has been telling me for years to do it. I tell them..."that's exactly what all the failed EX-restaurant owners heard as well".

I guess I should add...by the time this could happen, I'll have almost a decade of teaching experience, and my masters degree...and my wife will probably be finishing her phd...so there is a safety net.


i dunno...What do you think?
 
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Given that it's a college town I wonder if there might be another way for you to explore this without going "all in" first up. Any chance it would be an option to get like a mobile food van you could take to events (football games, markets, whatever) and use to deploy 4 or 5 dishes. I'm thinking you could be "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers" people stop off at whenever they get a chance, when I was in London a few people used to do this I think, could do a fair bit of prep in advance, keep some income doing your normal stuff part time, cut your menu right down, have maybe one of your experiments on the menu everytime you deploy the van and so on. IT might be a way in without the overheads of restaurant ownership and if you find you love it, it becomes a case of "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers now has a restaurant we can all go to all the time!!"
 
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rooze said:
I'm 48 years old with a long list of ventures under my belt, some successful, some not so. The one thing I'll never have to do when I'm old and grey is sit in my chair looking out of the window thinking "If only I'd tried that".

To me, that would be the biggest failure of all.

To have had a real passion for something, an idea, anything, but not had the courage to give it a shot....then time runs out on you....that's gotta be the most painful thing to live with right there.

However, if your passion is for cooking great food for appreciative family, and nothing more, then I would leave it at that and walk away from the idea. I've seen renowned chefs with extensive culinary training and experience go belly up with a failed restaurant. Then there's the hoards of unappreciative slobs who you'd be cooking for on a weekly basis, those that just don't get what you're trying to do, they'll suck the life out of you.

Anyway, if you REALLY WANT TO DO IT BAD, do it with 100% commitment. Otherwise I say forget it.
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Rooze...that's what I told my wife. I don't think I'd ever look back and say, "I wish I had started a restaurant." I love to cook...my goal is to improve, and create good food. I can do that without the risk of opening a restaurant.

tai haku said:
Given that it's a college town I wonder if there might be another way for you to explore this without going "all in" first up. Any chance it would be an option to get like a mobile food van you could take to events (football games, markets, whatever) and use to deploy 4 or 5 dishes. I'm thinking you could be "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers" people stop off at whenever they get a chance, when I was in London a few people used to do this I think, could do a fair bit of prep in advance, keep some income doing your normal stuff part time, cut your menu right down, have maybe one of your experiments on the menu everytime you deploy the van and so on. IT might be a way in without the overheads of restaurant ownership and if you find you love it, it becomes a case of "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers now has a restaurant we can all go to all the time!!"
Click to expand...

That's another option I thought about. Make basic tacos; beef, chicken, pork, and center the cart around different salsas. Deploy on the weekends at the football games...might be enough to 'get it out of my system'.
 
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tai haku said:
Given that it's a college town I wonder if there might be another way for you to explore this without going "all in" first up. Any chance it would be an option to get like a mobile food van you could take to events (football games, markets, whatever) and use to deploy 4 or 5 dishes. I'm thinking you could be "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers" people stop off at whenever they get a chance, when I was in London a few people used to do this I think, could do a fair bit of prep in advance, keep some income doing your normal stuff part time, cut your menu right down, have maybe one of your experiments on the menu everytime you deploy the van and so on. IT might be a way in without the overheads of restaurant ownership and if you find you love it, it becomes a case of "that guy that makes the awesome tacos/fajitas/whatevers now has a restaurant we can all go to all the time!!"
Click to expand...

I think that is a great idea! Leasing a restaurant space in a good location is very expensive. A food cart would also allow you to hit some local events and such. Just remember, college kids seek out large portions for cheap, and word gets around fast.
 
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LunchBox said:
Rooze...that's what I told my wife. I don't think I'd ever look back and say, "I wish I had started a restaurant." I love to cook...my goal is to improve, and create good food. I can do that without the risk of opening a restaurant.



That's another option I thought about. Make basic tacos; beef, chicken, pork, and center the cart around different salsas. Deploy on the weekends at the football games...might be enough to 'get it out of my system'.
Click to expand...
I love the idea of a texican food joint and had a similar idea about a mexican fast food business 10yrs ago and wanted to call it "Mexigo".
But,I think you know the right answer and just needed the reasons put in words to tell your wife. However if you want to do it part time, The food van sounds good or you could even do a catering business.

If you think a restaurant is something you really want to do I would suggest that you actually go out and work at one as a kitchenhand or something so you can get an idea of the ins and outs, how its run,etc. Work there for a minimum of 6months.
Another thing is if you were to have a restaurant you wouldnt be having friends and family over for dinner parties anymore, you would be working non stop! I don't know anyone in the business that gets to "choose" their hours and have the freedom they want. You may end up hating it and killing your passion which was once enjoyable...
 
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Make sure you are willing to give up your life and live in the kitchen 15 hours a day every day, because it's not an auto-pilot business if you care about the food and business.

Also, sounds like New Mexican cuisine.
 
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I smoke a lot of stuff and bring it with me when I go out fishing on fishing charters or backyard BBQ's.
I once made up cards that I gave out when people asked if I sell stuff.
Until I got tired of it - it turned into work...

I sold all kinds of stuff,did BBQ's etc. whenever I felt like it.

When I didn't feel like doing more stuff than I felt like doing I just told people I was booked up for a while.
Selling just smoked stuff was easy.

The BBQ's/parties got old fast.Especially for repeat customers.
Old or repeat customers start wanting more and more stuff from me than just food and the parties got to be from 20 or so people get togethers to wedding type stuff with well over 100+ guests.

They wanted me to do tables,dishes ,drinks etc.

Something I wanted no part of.

I just liked selling a few smoked goodies and making a few bucks.
I just kept a smoker going at a bbq to keep stuff warm and sliced some meat and drank a few beers at parties.

A couple guys at different times wanted to finnance a small hole in the wall type take out/catering joint to sell my smoked stuff out of.
I'm glad I didn't let them talk me into cooking for them.
I mostly stopped smoking stuff for people because it started being too much like work.

I do have commercial kitchen experiance.I worked in several kitchens in a national park for 5 yrs and did just about everything from mop floors to cook,prep kitchen and pantry.
I liked that but I only had to work 8-10 hrs a day,5 days a week.
I didn't pay the bills...

I think I'd go for the roach coach or food cart thing if I wanted to get my feet wet.But not here in Los Angeles.

You can't,at least in this city/possibly state , park your cart or coach anywhere you want to.
You're license is only good for a specific area/route or whatever.

The better areas are baught and sold and you open a nasty can of worms if you try and sell in some other persons area or what they consider their area.Doesn't matter to them what your license says.

People are VERY protective about their territory.
Cab companies are the same thing.

A friend had a few carts for about 6-8 months here in Los Angeles.

He never found a place that he didn't get hassled for trying to set up at and sold his carts.

Even freeway off ramps are staked out and if some other cart owner sees you actually getting enough sales in the middle of nowhere you are screwed.

Accidents happen.
Your cart gets hit by a car among other things if you don't leave when told to.

One spot my friend went to and got chased off of was a spot I never saw a cart at in all the years I've lived here(most of my life).
After whoever it was saw that the place was selling stuff they chased my friend off and now keep a cart there and a stand selling sunglasses.
He lost 2 carts due to car accidents (that weren't so accidental)in the process and had the health guys camping out wherever he went until he gave up.

Independants here in Los Angeles aren't very welcome...
They want you to lease a cart from the company and use their food along with taking part of your take.

The established companies have guys who just check out the area and kick off any independants they see making decent sales then set up their own cart there when you are gone.

I don't know about other places but I'd check out if there are any commercial cart/catering truck companies around and if things are as I wrote above in the town you are thinking about selling from a cart or roach coach in.

I don't know if it passed but the city recently had a bill limiting the number of roack coaches and carts per block or whatever.
I think the bigger companies wanted to get rid of new people getting licenses.
A lot of resturaunts are starting to set up coaches to sit outside of factories or wherever at lunch time.
High end foods,not regular roach coach stuff.
If it passed the guys with the older licenses could stay and new guys can't move in because of the limit they were going to set on how many carts etc. could be in any given area.
 
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IF I do anything...it'll be a roach-coach in SE Ohio...college town, football games, mardis gras, etc. That's it. I have hobbies that actually make me money, but I don't do them for a living...knowing the fun will get sucked out of it.
 
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I say go for it! Johnny and I love food/cooking/spicy products and that is why we started our company. I am still in school, starting a Masters program this fall. If you are able to balance bills etc then there is no reason you should not persue your dream. It is extremely rewarding "working"...and I put that in quotes because if you love it, it doesnt feel like work, which is an amazing thing!

Just do your research and have a plan so you're prepared. :o)


Nicole xo
 
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Move to SW Ohio so I can support your business venture. My wife and I eat mexican food 2-3 times a week. There are a few "good" places here, but the quality is often hit or miss. Even though we frequent the family mexican restaurants, they have americanized their offerings. Luckily they have the "El Yucateco" on the tables so I can get my hot fix.

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
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