Vegas Circle

How a Mexico City Dreamer Built 7 Restaurants in Vegas. Meet the Owner of Tacotarian & Good Morning

• The Vegas Circle

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A working trip to Mexico City turned into a bold idea: serve the soul of Mexican food with plant-based craft so good that non-vegans line up for it. We sit down with co-owner Regina Simmons to trace how Tacotarian grew from a teased opening to six busy locations across Las Vegas and San Diego, all while keeping flavor first and labels second.

Regina breaks down the playbook: position as plant-based to lower the barrier, design a menu that delights both meat-memory seekers and veg-forward purists, and build a commissary that safeguards consistency, controls food cost, and cuts waste. From seitan techniques for carne asada and al pastor to jackfruit birria that holds its own, every item is engineered to taste right before it reads right. That approach fuels a surprising stat—about 70% of guests aren’t vegan—and that’s exactly the point.

We also get into the real engine behind the brand’s momentum: community-first marketing, roles with clear ownership, and a service culture that empowers fixes in the moment. Regina shares how Good Morning Kitchen leverages a second-generation space with breakfast, cocktails, and nighttime commissary production, why franchising starts close to home, and how distributor alignment and ingredient parity shape expansion. Plus, a look at their growing retail line bringing birria and barbacoa jackfruit to grocery shelves. It’s a masterclass in building a resilient restaurant brand in a tough market: lead with flavor, scale with systems, and earn trust one guest at a time.

If the story resonates, follow the show, share this episode with a friend who loves great food, and leave a review so more people can discover these Vegas-grown insights.

SPEAKER_04:

Welcome to Vegas Circle Podcast with your hosts, Paki and Chris. We are people who are passionate about business, success, and culture. And this is our platform to showcase the people in our city who are making it happen. And on today's podcast, we have a special guest who's making a big impact on uh the Vegas food scene, is the co-owner of one of my personal favorites, Tacotarian, and is also the co-owner of Good Morning Kitchen and Cocktail Bar. So welcome to the circle, Regina Simmons. Welcome, welcome. So big fan, big fan of your restaurant, man. You've been killing it.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, we've been doing amazing. And thanks for inviting me and for the opportunity to be here and share my story.

SPEAKER_04:

Appreciate it, man. So family. So we had Chef John. We were talking a little bit about this. We won't go down that route, Rob, but that's family of yours, right? So this is a family business of couples of taco terrorists.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so we we kind of met at Firefly when we were working all for John.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Which is like very crazy because it was my husband worked for him, I worked for him, and then my partner, Carlos, worked for him.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So we actually took this trip to Mexico City. I'm from Mexico City. Awesome. And we needed to do this work trip, and we were all all together. And Carlos's wife, Kristen, she is vegan. So I needed to put an itinerary for her in Mexico City. And I was like, oh my God, this girl's gonna starve. She's not gonna eat anything, it's gonna be so hard. But then when I put the whole itinerary together and I call these restaurants and I look at all these taco shops and I realized it was like the food that we ate at Wiccan was amazing. It was like so, so, so cool and unique that when we came back, I was like, guys, we we need to do something. So we just got together, and I always had this dream of opening a Mexican restaurant. My family in Mexico owns restaurants, so I've always seen that. So naturally moving to the States and working for restaurants, I was like, I want to own my own restaurant.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, good for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so yeah, then we put together the business plan, the concept, and we came up with Tacotarian.

SPEAKER_05:

That's awesome. It was like great timing. You know, I think at that I remember when the first one opened up. It was like a really big vegan movement, like in Vegas at that point in time, too. So, like, even like it's almost like a kizmen a little bit that you went and had this experience, identified these cuisines and foods, and it really and brought it here where I remember when it came up, it was like all everybody could talk about locally. It was like a big deal for locals here to to go and try it and experience that.

SPEAKER_01:

And I feel we did a very good job with the marketing, like we were just teasing people. I think there there was a gap in Vegas, like there was room, and actually, like I feel the community, the vegan community needed more vegan concepts, right? So when we start like putting you know on Instagram and Facebook and start telling people we're gonna open this concept, and we we start teasing them a little bit, that helped us a lot because when we opened the doors of the first Equatorian, it was wild, guys. It was so crazy. There were lines, people, it was so, so, so easy.

SPEAKER_04:

That's an awesome problem to have, though.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh no, it was amazing. That's what like got us so excited. That's why we've been opening a location every year. So we we took advantage of the momentum and seen like the people were liking our concept, and you know, we just duplicated it and like open downtown, then Henderson, then Blue Diamond, then San Diego, then Miracle Mount.

SPEAKER_04:

So you guys have six now, right?

SPEAKER_01:

We have six locations, like five in Las Vegas, one in San Diego. Okay, but we have been we've done a good job with that. We we listen, we we understand what people want, and we we are just doing a good job at what we know that people like, right? So we're just focusing like if is this working? No, like eliminate it. If this were if this is working, then we say yes, and then we polish it and make sure we're doing a good job in it, and that's why we're able to open stores so fast.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. I was gonna ask you, probably Chris was gonna probably ask about the scaling. So, how how do you do that? Were you able to scale every year? Because that's that's very hard to do when one restaurant doesn't work. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. We we first got the we were confident that what we were serving was working, right? So we we knew that we can we have a demand for the product. Something that we work on since the beginning is to focus on non-vegans.

SPEAKER_05:

That was gonna be my question, is like, how do you bridge that gap?

SPEAKER_01:

We we never promote veganism, we never like if you see our name is tacoitarian, plant-based Mexican food, you know, that's how you got me.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm not vegan, and I I'm there like every month.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so so even the plant-based and not saying vegan, it's uh it's a good move from us because we want people to try their food, right? A lot of times, I mean, we get this all the time. It's like, oh sorry, I cannot eat it. I'm not vegan. I'm like, do you like guacamole? You like margaritas? You're vegan, yeah. You know, like that. A lot of times people have this misconception about veganism, and vegan food is just like broccoli or salads. Yeah, so we want people to try us, so we don't push in that veganism part because it's it's it's not what we're made of. We what we are proud about is we serve good Mexican food. And our food is delicious, our seasonings are good, so we we know that if you try our food, you're gonna come back. Yes, yeah, and till today, like 70% of our customers are not vegan. That's why we open so many stores. Because you're not able to survive with this concept with just vegans, and we understand it, and we do want people to understand that you don't have to be vegan to eat vegan food. Yeah, you know, anybody can eat enchiladas or you know, tacos or whatever. It's just especially because of the health movement, right?

SPEAKER_04:

Like everybody's trying to get health kinds as you get older, you know what I mean? You got all of that. We're in a great, you're picking a great area, Vegas, San Diego, great markets, but I just love the fact of having a different option. You know what I mean? That's the biggest thing for me is I can't eat like beef and steak all the time, so it's nice to just have that option and switch it up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and that's what we want people to like understand. It's like you can still eat good food, delicious food, but healthy food, you know. And don't get me wrong, not all vegan food is all healthy, you know. Like if you stuff yourself with like chips and macho cheese all day long, it ain't gonna be good.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

But but we we have a lot of great options there that you know it's it's just good for people.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and when you're developing that concept, so you know, kind of go back a little bit when you went to Mexico City and you kind of eat uh had this you know experience navigating where tacos are Hispanic food or Mexican food in general, it seems to be a great mix for vegan food because it's there's a very big focus on meat, but also to your point, I could have just a cheese quesadilla and that's a vegan and that's totally fine, and it and it's great. So when you're developing that concept, you know, how hard do you push on being more plant-based versus trying to mimic like the experience of people that are not vegan that have a meat alternative?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, there's there's like a combination there because we we understand that there's half of the people that want to remember how taste tastes like, and we have people that hate fake meat, and they would be like, I would not eat that. Uh so that's something that we understood since the beginning, and that's why we have 14 different tacos where you can have, you know, the carne sala that we make, or you can have an avocado taco or a vegg taco, or you know, like there's really variety for everyone. But respecting the the culture and the recipes and and that part, it's it's a lot of fun. We've had a lot of fun, especially me being Mexican, trying to represent like the Mexican food and just be like, oh, this has to be good, but also making it vegan. It's it's been it's been fun. It's difficult.

SPEAKER_04:

It is it is difficult, but it's doable. I'm hearing Mexico City is becoming like a mecca for food too. Is that what I'm hearing right? It's amazing. That's what I'm hearing.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it's beautiful, like the amount of restaurants, like very talented chefs, or but even like street food. It's like I love going to Mexico City. I go, my grandma and my family's still there, so like I go there often, but I love going there because you get a lot of ideas and you get a lot of like kind of like the vibe that you want to bring to your restaurant, what what you want them to feel when they come. So yeah, go to Mexico City is amazing. That's on my list.

SPEAKER_04:

That is on my list. What would you say? So, what's your favorite thing on the menu? So, if we were to go in a taco terrium, what what would you recommend somebody to eat?

SPEAKER_01:

Like, if you go for tacos, I always recommend the pastor tacos.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

The best seller will be the carne asada tacos. It's just like people just recognize the name, so they go for that. I personally really like the enchiladas with molesos.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That's very, very good. But I love asada fries. Okay. Just as so it depends on the day, you know. You can just have a salad one day, you can have a soup another day, or you can just have like some asada fries the third day.

SPEAKER_04:

What is the meat made of? I'm always like trying to figure that out. Like, how the how does I'm on a curse, but how the hell does it look like that? And like it looks like it tastes like real meat.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, like like some of them, well, we make them with different things. But for instance, our carne asada and our pastor, it's called Saitan. So it's visualize this like you're making a bread. Like, have you ever baked bread before? It's kind of like the same wave, but it's the flour that we use is a lot stronger. So, like, it's not soggy in the middle when you bake it. We of course put some veggies like mushrooms, but that's gonna be like when it comes out of the oven, it's a loaf of bread, and then we cut it uh to get the texture, and then we season it with one of our seasonings, then we get it out, and then we season it again with another like there's steps in it to get the textures. Then we use jackfruit.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, jackfruit. I'm familiar with that.

SPEAKER_01:

Jackfruit is amazing, like it's a crazy. We actually just launched our retail line, and it's a shelf stable pouch, and it has our birria and our barbacoa. And we so it we're trying to like get it out in different stores so people can have more options when they go to grocer grocery shopping. But yeah, it's just like jackfruit. Jackfruit kind of looks like shredded chicken when when you when you and it depends on the time or the season of it. It could be very sweet, it could be very bitter, but what we do is we fry it. After you fry it, it gives you more like a texture of like kind of like pork. Okay, and then we just do ours too, kind of like that, the same way you do a barbacoa, you just cook it for the longest time. So it's a lot of steps, so much love in it. But you have say tan, you have chakfruit, you have avocados, you we use beyond beef, beyond everybody knows beyond beef. We just finish it our way, you know, like we season it like the way we want it to taste because we don't love the beyond beef by itself, so we just make that make it our own, you know.

SPEAKER_04:

That's awesome, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So, but yeah, options, we have a 13 different options.

SPEAKER_04:

That's amazing. Yeah, what's the biggest misconception about running a restaurant? Because everybody thinks that they, you know, my mom cooks or I cook or whatever, and it's one of the hardest business, but what would you say is the biggest misconception?

SPEAKER_01:

I always give this example to people. Just because you love your mom's food doesn't mean that everyone's gonna love your mom's food, right?

SPEAKER_02:

That is very true.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's so many steps that you have to think about when you open a restaurant. It's not just about the food, it's about do you have the money? Do you have the right team? Do you have the vibe? Like, like even like the vibe that you're gonna get people to come back.

SPEAKER_04:

The energy when you come in, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_01:

Totally, because it's like, do you want them to come pick up food and leave, or do you want them to stay and spend more money in your restaurant, you know?

SPEAKER_04:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

And the food that it has to be good and it has to make sense. Like we are working right now where with our front, we're gonna start selling franchises, right? So we are working with our recipes and the products that we're buying and what makes sense, what people are gonna, what people are really appreciating or will miss if you remove it. Like it's very interesting when you're starting to scale. Yep, it's hard for me because like I'm in charge of the kitchen, so I want to make sure like everything is traditional and this has to be like my grandma told me it has to be done. And when you're scaling and where you're growing, it what's important to you doesn't mean it's important for everyone. So I think people think that when you open a restaurant, it's just super easy and it's just because you love your food, but you have to analyze so many parts of opening a restaurant just to make sure that you're gonna do it correctly. I think I every time my people ask me, like, what should I do? I'm like, create a business plan. Just put everything on paper and make sure everything makes sense. When you check everything on your business plan and it's like, okay, perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect, then open it. But don't just open to open because you love your mom's Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

I remember we had Natalia on remember from Big B's barbecue, she said the same thing. Was actually she was in your you guys' plaza there. Remember Big B's barbecue? Oh, yeah. She moved, so we had Natalia on her and her and her husband and I, and she said the same thing. It's like the finances have literally gotta be right. And if you don't, that's how they fall apart so quick.

SPEAKER_01:

Is that yeah, no, and it has to make sense. Like, I feel sometimes people have so much passion to open the restaurants that they're like, okay, I'm right. It's like, no, you're not ready. Like, they're like what if nobody comes in for the first six months? Do you have enough money to support those six months with no one here?

SPEAKER_04:

So, yeah, it's I think a lot of us learn that during the pandemic. Yes, like how to get through because you guys fought through the pandemic and things like that. It's extremely hard.

SPEAKER_01:

It was very, very hard. And even now, the times that we're leaving right now, like uh the restaurant industry for everyone, like everyone's probably 20% down on sales right now. So it's it's difficult for for small businesses because you have to get creative and you know find ways to bring people in. Why are you gonna why why is this customer gonna pick you and not someone else if money's tight in our community, right? So so it's it's a tricky time, but it's the moment where you get creative and work as a team and like try to figure out ways to keep your customers happy and make sure they come back and they pick you as a place that they're gonna go out that way.

SPEAKER_05:

And how do you kind of create that consistency? I know a lot you talked about, you know, kind of establishing these recipes and these plans and you know, continuity a little bit, but as we all know, if somebody goes to a restaurant and have one bad experience, right? They have one bad taco, write a review on everything, write a review and they're gone and never coming back. And you know, obviously the most important thing to me in a restaurant is I want to you know have the same experience when I'm going and picking and choosing this restaurant. You know, as you're expanding now at six restaurants and trying to take this a larger scale, you know, you it's you have your hands less in the pot. And I know that's for anybody who creates something as unique as this, it's hard to navigate that. But you know, how do you ensure that consistency just all the time? Like to make sure you're always given that best experience.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, that's a good question because it happens like definitely when we started growing, that was one of our frustrations because you will go to a store, you will do your training at a store, and like missing something. Yeah. Yep, and then and we'll have very, I was saying like very passionate Mexican women in our kitchen that will be like, no, no, no, this is wrong. You should do more of this here and the and it'll be like, no, you mess up the whole concept. I'll be like, I appreciate your feedback, but like we need to all agree on it, you know, because there's like so many locations that have to be on the same page. So first being involved, you know, like you have to be present or train the team that is gonna be present for for your locations, right? And they create systems. We we have very good systems with our kitchens front of the house for training, communication, just telling them like if this is not working out, I appreciate your feedback, you bring it out to me, then we change the recipe and then we communicate it to all the teams, right? Like, there's steps in every way, but also listening to them. Yeah, because I think it's always important that we get feedback, like so many specials that we put on our menu, they were like literally specials that were staff made for employee meals, and we loved it and like we incorporate it in our menu.

SPEAKER_02:

So creative, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I think part of our growth, I mean, I always tell people like our staff has been so supportive and so nice to us that help us grow. We're where we are because of them as well. Yeah, but it's it's really being present and creating good systems where where you are able to see if something's wrong or something, and with customers too. We listen to our customers. So, yes, we hate Yelp. Yes, we hate like all the like like just like any restaurant owner, but we don't like them, okay?

SPEAKER_04:

I love that you're being honest about that. Yeah, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01:

It's it is true because like again, like you'll have a customer says, like, I've been to Taco Charian a hundred times, and today they gave me the wrong tackle. I will never go back again. And you're like, what about the 99 other times? It's like what happened here? But we are hands-on, we'll communicate with them right away, and we'll be like, Look, like, let us make this right. We want you to come back. Even with our staff on the floor, we train our front of the house staff to act in the moment. If you see someone is upset, so you someone didn't eat their food, you have to fix it. Like I always tell people, we don't make money because people come one time. The only way we make money is we convince them to come back, right? So we're gonna do anything in our power as a team to convince every person here to come back. So that's how we think about it. So if you are not happy today, my goal is to convince you to come back and give me a chance again.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So we're we're very like hands-on in that part, making sure you know we give a good experience and our staff has the confidence, you know, maybe give a free margarita for next time, a free tech, or like, or sometimes even comp your check if it's necessary. Yeah, but if you act what you're in the restaurant, most likely we you will save a bad review.

SPEAKER_04:

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, so you really gotta pay attention to people's body language and see what they're all about. That's because the sales done is the experience is done, and that's not really how good experiences are made. Like, you have to get them through the process.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and it's and what are we gonna do so these people come back? Like that, that's always my goal. Like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_04:

And I heard you say you're in the kitchen, so we are you a chef by trade?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I am like it's so crazy because we we are two couples, right? That own Tacotarian. And we kind of like started like organically, we all started to take in like our positions. I speak Spanish, so obviously I always help the kitchen more because most of our people in our kitchen speak Spanish. So I organically just started moving to, you know, recipes, purchase, distribution. We have two commissaries, so like creating all the recipes for commissaries. They plan for the distribution for all the stores every day, like all that stuff. I just started doing it, and I just very got very good at it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, you always figured it out. It's great that you said organically, it just came came together. It seems like a lot of businesses come that way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I think that's how it has to go. Like it has to be like, what's working? And just being open to change, you know. Like, if this is not working, like we always say, there's no problems, just solutions, right? So if this is not working out, how are we gonna fix it? How are we gonna work through it? Just so we we have Kristen, who is in charge of marketing, we have Carlos, which is in charge of front of the house, then my husband, which is like the brain, so he's us, all the numbers and back of the house. And then I do all the kitchen, specialty bands, purchase and distribution. So we just find our our our and that's another reason why we grow fast too. Because we found our corners, we just focus on what we're supposed to do, and we do a very good job on what we're supposed to do. So we just move and grow. That's great.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's hard to be able to do. Yeah, do you think that you know, because this is a uh a vegan restaurant by you know design, but does it create like less like inflationary pressures like you're seeing like now with the cost of you know, chicken chicken increasing very dramatically? Like, does this kind of hedge you a little bit against some of that experience, or do you feel that same pressure when you start to see that food supply constraints together?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, we we also have a breakfast concept, right? So I see the struggle with my team there with our food cluster, yeah, and I'm just like, what are what's happening here? You know, where yes, price prices are going up on veggies and stuff like that. Since we have a commissary, we can control a little bit more of that. Like I think opening the commissary was brilliant for us because we not only have the control of the recipe and consistency with our six stores, we can control the food coaster as well. So a lot of times when you have so many locations, the waste in a kitchen that could kill you. So imagine, yeah. So we are very like there's very minimal that uh our small locations have to do because everything comes pretty much finished for them. So I only have to really focus on commissaries and their food guts because the rest are only gonna get deliveries. That makes sense. So it makes my life so much easier.

SPEAKER_04:

You lose your mind. Uh, I do got a question about just marketing-wise, man. Like, what's the smartest investment you guys have made made on building the brand? And maybe if advertising, I know you guys probably do a lot of word of mouth, you know, marketing, but what do you guys spend, you know, for marketing side, or is there a specific area that you guys we we don't really spend that much money in marketing.

SPEAKER_01:

So Kristen too, like organically just learned her way in through through well, having Tacotarian.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, she's taking like tons of classes and stuff, but most of it is just our social media that that we use.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And uh and being in the community, I think like people don't really understand how important it is to be part of the community because the word amount really happens there.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So we partner with a charity every month and we donate a percentage of our sales to them, which is good too, because we don't only bring awareness to the charity and tell people about it, but you know, you're out and you're doing events within a people seeing you, you care about your community. And then, you know, any events from a tiny little school asking us, like uh, we were talking, we have a minute today. I'm like, oh yeah, I'm doing like a chili competition. And they're like, What? And oh yeah, I'm going to this school in San Diego and we're gonna do a chili competition. And like people will be like, Why are you wasting your time going to a chili competition for a school? But it's like that impact it that makes such difference.

SPEAKER_04:

I get what you I get it.

SPEAKER_01:

When people see you, when people talk to you, it's a totally different experience than me sending you a flyer to your house, right? So there's a different, kind of like you know, when when when I give you something, you give me something back. It kind of works like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Very much.

SPEAKER_01:

And and we we've done that, like any event or festival, we do a lot of festivals, we do a lot of events, and we work a lot with you know, Clark County and the CD, and like you they have events. We're always putting our list in it. Festivals like you know, like EDC, when we were young, all that we do it because you know they put your name, they put their name on their websites, they have a huge following, and you know, all these festivals don't really have vegan options. So like a little different piece, yeah, yeah. A lot of these festivals like having us because they want to give variety to the people that are going to their events, right? Very much so, yeah. So I think that like marketing-wise, I think people don't really understand how much value it has to be part of the community.

SPEAKER_04:

That's good. That's a good gotta talk about Good Morning Kitchen. What can you share the concept? I have I've I was on our list to check out because I've heard great things, but what can you kind of share what it's all about?

SPEAKER_01:

Good morning, it was interesting because we were looking for a commissary for a taquetarian, okay, and it was during COVID time.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So we're like, so we found this place, and it was these people just left because after COVID, and kitchen was like built, like equipment, everything in there. But it was huge for another taquetarian, too close to another location that we had. So we're like, okay, we can do the commissary at night, but let's just open a breakfast concept in the morning so we can like take advantage of the space.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So that's how good morning like started. Yeah, yeah. And then we're like, okay, we can just do breakfast and coffee, but then that's like a hundred coffee shops and all rainbow. So we're like, let's just do breakfast and cocktails. You know, who doesn't like to drink at 10 a.m.?

SPEAKER_03:

So he said at 10 a.m. Yeah. Especially uh that's uh Buddy Mary. I mean so we we're in Vegas, so I get it. That makes so much sense.

SPEAKER_01:

We build a very good like uh cocktail program, and then we just pair it, we'd like breakfast, and I think that's what pulls apart from everyone else on the same street.

SPEAKER_00:

Sure.

SPEAKER_01:

And then you know, at night after we close, then our commissary teams come in and they just produce the food for all the other Tagotarians.

SPEAKER_04:

So it it really has a great smart business people, very smart business people take advantage of that whole real estate.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, like we we just and it's a huge kitchen, and it was all built out for us. So we're like, whoa, this is great. Like as a business owner, when you see a second gen, you're just like, this is mine. I like this.

SPEAKER_05:

Awesome. Because of that, you know, honestly, how do you start a whole brand new concept? But it's almost like running these two independently would be very challenging. But when you're combining both of them, that's like really genius. It's really smart to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and and we know about restaurants. You know, we we've worked, uh, Carlos and I work in restaurants forever. So we understand restaurants, we understand like how to you know create systems and making putting teams together and recipes and all that. So as far as you surround yourself with the right people and you, you know, continue to bring people that support your ideas and your vision, I think you can grow.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, you guys are great, man. I can talk with you for hours. So business advice, life advice. I always ask people this. Just I just want to understand your mind. Like, what's one lesson as a that every entrepreneur should hear that's made the biggest impact on yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

I think when you are, you know, an entrepreneur, when you're a leader, you think you have to do everything yourself, right? But I think something I learned throughout the years the hard way, because I'm like a perfectionist and I want everything my way or the highway. So you don't necessarily have to do everything, you can surround yourself with the right people that understand your vision and help you grow. I think there's like a phrase is like if you wanna, I don't even remember how it was, but you wanna grow fast. Well, the idea go by yourself, or if you want to grow, like you have to be surrounded by the right people. So I I think that if I have to give an advice to someone, it's just like you don't have to do everything, surround or say with surround yourself with the right people, and things would just awesome.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and that's definitely been y'all's story, having the four different people in the business that the experts in their lane is.

SPEAKER_01:

And the people that we have found throughout the years for our stores. I give a lot of credit to our staff. I think our staff has been loyal to us, and they have been very supportive to us, and we have still people on our team from day one. Really? How long have you guys been at Taco Terry now? How many years? It's seven years now. That's only been seven years.

SPEAKER_04:

Wow, yeah, it feels like it's not like it's a Las Vegas staple for 20 years.

SPEAKER_01:

It's seven years. Yeah, this year will be seven years.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, that's why you said a year. Every year you guys are growing. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

So every year we open a concept, and we right now we understand we can continue opening more of ourselves. That's why doing franchising is smart too, because you bring more people to your team that you know have a dream, and then you just teach them how to do it and you just show them the path.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, and you guys got a great system. We always ask somebody about food, man. So other than your restaurant, because I'm a big foodie, what what's your favorite restaurant in Vegas?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, there's like a lot of good places. A lot of good places. I okay. I I wanna like throw out my my brother-in-law's restaurant because I love it. And I really, really, it's not because I like the guy, I really like his food. Yep, and I really think Firefly just has amazing.

SPEAKER_04:

Shout out to Firefly John Simmons, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And it has a very like people don't even know this, but they have a great vegan menu. They have like a like a very, very good vegan menu there. Casaplaya. Have you guys been to Casa Playa?

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah, we went to Casa Playa, yeah. Very good.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't appreciate the pricing.

SPEAKER_04:

It's very because it's on a strip.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I do not appreciate the pricing, but the food is legit. It's very good. It's really, really legit. And it's like sometimes like like I go with my friend and she's Mexican too, and I'm like, oh my god, this this tastes like a market in Mexico. And she's like, Yeah, very expensive market. I'm like, yes, but but it's good food. Yeah, I think I will give it to them.

SPEAKER_04:

I don't think anybody's mentioned Cassify or Fire. Well, Fireflies, we had Chef John on. Yeah, but um, but that's good. Those two great ones. Yeah. What else is what else is next for you, man? So you franchise is what I what I caught out of that, right? So that's next.

SPEAKER_01:

So our goal is to sell at least two franchises this year.

SPEAKER_04:

Good.

SPEAKER_01:

And you know, just like see. And and just for growth, and like when you start like strategizing distributors and like the brands that you want to use, something that it's very hard is like when you have I don't know, a cheese, like a vegan cheese. Like you can't just swap it from one to the other. You know, like if you run out of steak, yeah, if you run out of steak, you just go to the store and buy a steak, right? With us, you can't. Everything is very strategic, so it makes it makes the growth a little bit more difficult because you had to coordinate so much with you know your. Distributor with a small, yeah, it's it's very, very interesting. So closer the better. Yeah, just at least at the beginning until we figure out how to do it great, and then we can expand and do more. And then we are putting a lot of love and energy into our retail line. So we have our two birrian barbacoa already finished, and we're working with our two Satans right now to have them in stores. So we're in about 30 different stores right now. So we're just trying to push that in. That's exciting. Yeah, that's like very community.

SPEAKER_04:

I salute what you guys are doing, and it was it's great to have you know locals on just like yourself. This is literally why you know Chris and I, my wife, we started this is exactly this. You know, I appreciate it. What you guys are doing, making an impact and and providing great food. You know, yes. That's the biggest piece, is providing great food.

SPEAKER_01:

And I I feel Vegas has like just so many small businesses that that it's amazing that you know I do a lot of events and I love seeing all the small businesses thrive and you know, like do things and like I think it's very, very cool.

SPEAKER_04:

We just had this conversation with a friend of ours, Patrick Brennan, a developer, and uh it's it's so great, like everything is coming off the strip because we're getting, you know what I mean? I know you have a place on the strip, obviously Miracle Mile, which is awesome, you know, but but it's nice for locals to have something off the strip that has to deal with the traffic, and and we're getting so much great food.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And and it's nice to see also this like chefs getting opportunities like coming from the strip and like you know, like living their dream and opening their concepts and their own restaurants and and they're being successful.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that's the other thing.

SPEAKER_01:

That's the coolest part, and they're working for themselves. I mean, yeah, that's always cool to see.

SPEAKER_05:

That's a great point because you don't very, very rarely see an off the strip go to the strip. You see from other states coming to the strip, but it's very nice to start seeing the internal dynamic moving to that and give that local experience more national exposure.

SPEAKER_04:

100%. Well, we applaud you. Where can people reach out? What's the social handles people can reach out to you guys on?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, it's at eat Tagutarian.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay, perfect. So check them out, guys, and then what's uh Good Ma Good Morning Kitchen?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh Good Morning Kitchen.

SPEAKER_04:

That's it. That's it. Perfect. Yep. So check them out. We support what they're doing and check us out at the biggest circle.com. So appreciate your time, man. That was great. Thank you so much for thinking.