A name and telephone number scrawled across a napkin became the genesis of a small restaurant chain in Mexico expanding into the U.S. marketplace.
Doug Thomas had regularly traveled throughout Mexico, always on the lookout for authentic tacos, particularly the nation’s signature tacos al pastor – marinated pork cooked on a vertical rotisserie and thinly sliced from the spit, similar to Greek gyros.
In 2005, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua while eating at a restaurant, Thomas asked a server to pass along the fateful napkin to the owner of Chih’ua Tacos y Cortes in Chihuahua City. Thomas also left several messages, and a month later Victor Hugo Pacheco called.
Two years later, the first U.S. franchise of Chih’ua Tacos y Cortes has opened in Salt Lake County. Construction of a Provo restaurant is scheduled to be completed this fall, and franchise owners are working to open locations in New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona and Idaho.
“It began on a whim,” said Thomas. “I just liked the food.”
For his part, Pacheco had worked as a small meat supplier when a little taco stand in Chihuahua City became available in 1994. He worked to create a special marinade for the pork “because in Mexico, many copy others,” he said through an interpreter. “I wanted to be honest, so I put together my own.”
The recipe, a trade secret, is difficult to discern. It has a taste of ginger, or perhaps a bacon flavor, with a hint of a kick.
Pacheco says simply: “It makes people smile. That’s the taste.”
Soon, customers were lining up to buy tacos. The stand had no tables or chairs, so Pacheco moved to a new location because “food tastes better sitting down.”
Today, Pacheco owns four restaurants in Mexico and employs more than 200 people. He continues to work with wife Kriss and their two daughters. He describes meeting Thomas as a gift from God.
Thomas, a business professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, knew that franchising a firm from Mexico would be difficult. Regulatory requirements were complicated, food had to be replicated and cultural differences had to be addressed.
He called former student Tom Hunsaker, an MBA graduate with restaurant experience, and the two formed a franchisor, DTB International. They decided to open the first U.S. franchise in Utah, where both had attended LDS-affiliated Brigham Young University.
The two knew many Utahns had served church missions to Mexico and were familiar with its authentic foods. In addition, there are about 300,000 Latinos statewide, making up 11 percent of Utah’s population.
Among the first Utah customers last week were David and Shannon Whipple. The couple learned about the restaurant from a neighbor in Mesa, Ariz., who had raved about the chain in Mexico.
“It’s as good as our friend said it was,” said David Whipple.
Whipple was talking about the tacos al pastor, served with roasted pineapple, thinly sliced onions and cilantro, with sides of warm tortillas, hot sauce and wedges of lime.
The cheese is imported Menonita, translated poorly on the menu as “fondue.” It seems the restaurant operators struggled with the description of the distinctive white cheese, which does not separate when it melts.
Tacos contain no ground beef – that’s not authentic, said the restaurant’s operator, Martin Herrera. The menu includes a variety of tacos, cortes (steaks and fajitas), quesadillas and appetizers served with pork, beef or chicken marinated and topped with sauces created by Pacheco.
The market looks good for authentic foods, said partner Hunsaker.
From 1997 to 2002, Latinos in the United States spent $31.06 billion, or 22 percent of their food budget, on meals outside the home, according to HispanTelligence, the research arm of Hispanic Business Inc. Most of that, about $14 billion, went to full-service restaurants.
By Dawn House for The Salt Lake Tribune