I visited Austin, TX recently and found a great local eatery, OneTaco. Taquería, when I was out for a run. I'd never heard of it before, but I knew immediately that I had found something special. There were a few initial signs: - the line was LONG but moved FAST, - the line was full of VARIOUS kinds of buyers (construction workers, office workers, tourists, etc), and - buyers were willing to STAND and eat in order to make sure they got their meal. Clearly OneTaco. Taquería had something figured out about their constituency, and when I looked closer I confirmed what I initially suspected, they were a successful Austin food truck that had expanded their footprint locally to multiple brick-and-mortars over the course of the last number of years. "Expand-local" is a model that lies close to the heart of some of the questions Elle Ramel and I are trying to understand at One More Store: - What helps LOCAL stores expand intelligently and effectively in-place? - How can ANY store leverage their LOCAL IDENTITY inside their business? - Where do owners/operators go to BUILD on this kind of momentum? We've been asking ourselves these questions for a little while now. What do you think?
You should try Tacodeli at 301 congress ave next time. Would love to meet up.
You visited Austin, TX… and didn’t tell me 😔 Great tacos though 😋
I think no matter where you live, it's exciting to see a business embrace local pride. Fascinating stuff. I'd love to hear thoughts from my new friend Crystal Vilkaitis on this.
Love OneTaco. Taquería !
Uhhh yes How can I help.
Managing Director & Investor in Private Markets, Alternatives, & Impact Investments
11moWe've got a similar place near us, Burrito Parrilla Mexicana in Chicago's western burbs. They've expanded very successfully. Quality food and great service is table stakes. They seem to have a knack for finding locations that border their core markets, but also push into new demographics. They started in heavily Latinx and multicultural neighborhoods. They've expanded just far enough into adjacent geographies so that they're not cannibalizing existing stores. BUT, close enough to pull some of their base over and create word of mouth. 11 locations now with an amazingly diverse clientele like OneTaco. Contrast that with another favorite local place that expanded by jumping to a new location three suburbs away. Not a happy ending. 😢 My thought is that managerial span of control and thoughtful customer migration have been the keys to success. And an amazing torta. 🥙