Culinary sensation Tacoria expands with fresh Mexican fare

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The basics:

• Tacoria grows from one New Brunswick shop to 12 New Jersey locations
• Founded by Rutgers alumni, the chain serves 100,000 tacos annually
• Menu features made-from-scratch Mexican street food with fresh ingredients
• Founders focus on community, quality and maintaining “family” culture

After starting out as a single shop in New Brunswick that opened nearly a decade ago to lines out the door, Tacoria Mexican Street Kitchen has expanded to a 12-location chain across New Jersey that doles out over 100,000 tacos annually.

Despite the larger footprint and growing fandom, co-founder Chuck Patel said the brand has remained true to its mission of inspiring and improving communities via fun, fresh food and warm hospitality.

“We’re still just four guys that kind of love tacos, and we just have a much bigger team that helps us on a daily basis to execute,” he said.

Inspired by their travels to Mexico and California, the group of Rutgers University alumni established Tacoria with the goal of offering a fresh, flavorful dining experience close to home.

Seeing a gap in the local market for high-quality, fast-casual Mexican street food, they set out to craft their own concept offering a hip atmosphere with high-quality food. Along with customizable tacos, mission-style burritos, nachos, quesadillas and salads, the made-fresh-daily menu includes inventive small bites, like crispy flour tortillas drizzled in Nutella and lightly breaded fried avocados.

After Chuck Patel co-created the business with his childhood buddy Vishal Patel, the duo handles day-to-day operations across Tacoria. The other two co-founders are Vishal Patel’s brother, Haz Patel, and their friend, Dip Patel. Despite the same last name, there is no relation except for siblings Vishal and Haz.

Both Vishal Patel and Chuck Patel always kicked around the idea of going into business together. However, after their 2005 graduation from Rutgers, Vishal Patel went into medical administration while Chuck Patel began a five-year stint at JPMorgan Chase in New York City.

While working in finance, Chuck Patel helped start a sandwich shop chain built around offering affordable, yet high-quality, subs. Following the 2010 opening in South Plainfield, Mr. Subs expanded to East Brunswick, Bound Brook, Cranbury, North Brunswick, Rahway and Englishtown. Chuck Patel went to work with Mr. Subs full time and remains involved.

Chuck Patel and Vishal Patel got serious about developing their own venture after seeing a successful burrito and taco joint in downtown Raleigh when they were in town for a friend’s wedding.

“We were like, ‘You know what? This would do really well in New Brunswick.’ So, we got back, we talked about it, we started focusing our cooking efforts on Mexican stuff and Mexican food,” Chuck Patel said.

Vishal Patel added, “We love to travel, so we got a lot of ideas from everywhere and kind of put a little spin on what we thought would be a good take on Mexican food.”

Let’s taco about the menu

Ahead of the February 2016 grand opening on Easton Avenue in New Brunswick, the four founders spent weeks experimenting with different flavors, ingredients and recipes to come up with a core lineup of dishes, Vishal Patel said.

“Our menu isn’t traditional … We’re just [give] our take and … our vision on what Mexican food could be and should be; just a very creative cuisine. And I think there’s so many things you can play around with just the flavor profiles of super fresh and vibrant,” said Vishal Patel, who noted that he grew up in a household that was “very passionate about food.”

And while neither he nor his parents professionally trained as chefs, Vishal Patel said, “We have a good sense of food and flavor profiles, and we get super creative with ingredients.”

Tacoria’s menu remains unchanged today. It includes vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free dishes, with many items naturally prepared gluten-free on corn tortillas. That ranges from Beyond meatless crumbles for burritos, salads, tacos and nachos to a brussels sprouts taco to a breaded, fried avocado taco.

As a way to “give a little bit more variety for the guys and girls that are coming in multiple times a week or multiple times a month,” Chuck Patel said Tacoria will soon incorporate seasonal rotating protein options.

When it comes to what makes Tacoria stand out, Chuck Patel believes its “the freshness and the quality of the food ingredients we use.”

“Everything is prepared from scratch daily and we don’t have any freezers. We don’t use any preservatives or anything like that. It’s all fresh and you can taste it when you eat the pico de gallo — it’s not a day old. Or when you eat the guacamole, it’s tart. And some of the vegetables, when they come from different farms, sometimes peppers are hotter than other times when the growing season’s different,” he explained. “You strive for consistency but it’s a side effect of just having the freshest possible ingredients all the time. And I think that’s a really big part of what sets us apart from every other restaurant.”

Tacoria has made its way onto multiple NJ.com lists over the years, including best burrito and taco. It has also been recognized as one of the top ranked restaurants in New Brunswick.

Let’s taco about growth

A year-and-a-half after opening in New Brunswick, Tacoria set its sights on one of the state’s most competitive areas for restaurants – Montclair. With over 100 eateries across a range of cuisines, the Essex County municipality is easily one of the most diverse food scenes in New Jersey.

Vishal Patel admitted it was a little intimidating to establish a presence in such a big foodie town.

“In New Brunswick, as Rutgers grads, we had support from everyone. But Montclair was a huge leap of faith. We honestly didn’t think it would be as successful as it is – as it became – because we were a little hesitant of the different demographic, etc.,” Vishal Patel said.

In the days and weeks that followed July 2017 launch, Tacoria had lines out the door and was running out of food – reinforcing the decision to stake a claim in Montclair, he said.

In New Brunswick, as Rutgers grads, we had support from everyone. But Montclair was a huge leap of faith. We honestly didn’t think it would be as successful as it is …
–Vishal Patel, Tacoria Mexican Street Kitchen co-founder

“It was a great experience overall. We’ve been in that community now for seven-and-a-half, eight years, and it’s been amazing there,” he said.

Vishal Patel went on to say the instant success of both New Brunswick and Montclair showed them that consumers “wanted something that was fresh, fun and cool” that was “not going to break the bank.”

“When you come with your family, you get great value. And I think the market was missing that,” he said, adding, “The main focus is we are still creating a brand and food that we ourselves enjoy and seek.”

Chuck Patel agreed, saying, “We like to prepare food that we want our children and our families to eat.”

Tacoria has since gone on to add restaurants in Piscataway, Hoboken, Paramus, Marlton, Edgewater, Ridgewood, Cherry Hill, Morristown, Princeton and Jersey City.

As for determining where to open, Chuck Patel said, “It’s not really that complicated.”

“We really look at the community … A lot of times you see marketing materials from bigger machines and they have all these complicated metrics … We will go spend a couple afternoons in the town, walk around, see what kind of activity there is, maybe how many schools there are in proximity because some of the younger kids do the schools let out for lunch and just get a feel that way,” he said.

“For the most part, it’s just like … how do you feel in the town? Does it have a good energy? That kind of unofficial, very informal sniff test has worked for us pretty well,” Chuck Patel said.

“Some of the more suburban locations for us have been a little bit different because typically we’re in downtowns. With the strip malls, we’re still learning about them and what makes a good site for us,” Chuck Patel said.

For example, Tacoria is preparing to relocate its Paramus store from Paramus Crossroads, an Advance Realty Investors-owned commercial property on Route 17, across town to Bergen Town Center on Route 4.

Considered to be Urban Edge Properties’ flagship retail destination, the Paramus outlet mall has a lineup that generates more than 11 million visits annually. Its 70-plus tenants include Whole Foods Market, CVS Pharmacy, Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls, Nike, Adidas, Bluestone Lane, Cava, Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, Target and Old Navy.

At Bergen Town Center, Tacoria is taking over space formerly occupied by Sprint and adjacent to Mediterranean-inspired restaurant chain Cava Grill.

Vishal Patel said, “We always liked Bergen Town Center mall and that location. When we first opened our Paramus location, those sites were not available. So, we always kept an eye on it. We had a great opportunity to kind of pop up and we seized it. We had a great five-year run here in our current location on 17. And I think it’s going to be just easier for our guests to get in and out of that mall as opposed to Route 17. If you miss the exit, it’s like a 10-minute trip to get back. So, I think it’ll just be better for business.”

Over the summer, Tacoria added stores in Cherry Hill and Ridgewood. Looking ahead, a location is coming soon in downtown Summit, they said.

The partners also noted that their expansion strategy is partially guided by customer feedback.

“Marlton and Cherry Hill locations, those were most requested,” Chuck Patel said. “Those are the emails we’d get most often – opening in South Jersey. And to be honest, it’s really far from our other closest store and it’s not something that we would’ve even considered if we didn’t get so many inquiries from customers.”

Let’s taco about franchising

As for whether Tacoria will develop a franchise model, Chuck Patel said, “We’re a family-owned company through and through. I mean, while Vishal and I aren’t related by blood, we pretty much are related. We probably speak to each other 10 times a day. I would like to say it’s mostly about business, but my wife would say otherwise.”

“I think the challenge with franchising is our model is very labor intensive because we prepare everything fresh. We had somebody come in with a study that said, ‘Hey, you can save ‘X’ amount of dollars by moving it to a commissary,” he said. “But we don’t believe in that. The quality, the flavor and the freshness of the food — it really comes through by it being prepared onsite daily. And when you franchise, a lot of times that goes away because franchisees – and there’s nothing wrong with it – they’re looking to make a certain return on their investment. And what’s the easiest way to do that? It’s to say, ‘Well, why would I serve this beef that’s $14.99 a pound when there’s a pretty good one that’s $5.99 a pound. And for those reasons … we don’t think we will franchise,” he said.

Several other New Jersey-born chains have gone into franchising after starting out as a single storefront, including Tony Boys Sandwich House, Salad House and Bang Cookies, as a way to fuel growth. Gregorys Coffee, started by Holmdel native Gregory Zamfotis, was recently acquired by Craveworthy Brands and expects to begin franchising later this year.

Vishal Patel noted that some customers assume Tacoria is already a franchise or owned by some big corporate entity.

“And, maybe that’s just a testament to how we run business. Maybe I guess we come off very professional and our shops are done the right way, but we’re still a family-owned brand. We’re still the same brand from nine and a half years ago,” he said.

“For us, it’s a prideful business … we’ve had opportunities along the way to take shortcuts that other brands have taken, but to us it’s more than a business. It’s essentially our name. I never thought starting a business; I never expected the pride part of it, but it’s given us everything that we have today. It’s made a huge impact on the communities we’re in,” Vishal Patel continued.

“We love the communities we’re in … they have really taken is under their wings and supported us. And we’re just super grateful for that. It is such a high turnover business and it has a high failure rate … And for us to be almost 10 years and still have people from day one working in our shops, that’s that most amazing fact to me,” he said. “A lot of our managers are with us five, six, seven, eight, nine years.”

Let’s taco about success

Given that nationwide failure rate for restaurants is estimated at about 30%, Tacoria says it has managed to beat the odds time and time again by focusing on quality not quantity.

Vishal Patel said, “We could stamp out more stores and have 30 in a year-and-a-half, but I’m not sure if that is the equation to success for us. I think for us, the main thing is that this brand from day one has been very community driven. I think the impact that we have in the communities that we open in, that, to me, is our success.”

Chuck Patel said, “Our focus isn’t to say ‘Hey, we’re going to have 25 stores next year.’ That’s not how we measure success. Are we able to provide great quality, great service to all our existing customers? I think that’s a better measure.”

Our focus isn’t to say ‘Hey, we’re going to have 25 stores next year.’ That’s not how we measure success. Are we able to provide great quality, great service to all our existing customers? I think that’s a better measure.
– Chuck Patel, Tacoria Mexican Street Kitchen co-founder

Community outreach remains a central part of the brand’s identity, the partners said.

“We try to do as much as we can,” Chuck Patel said. “One cool thing that we started around the beginning of COVID is Tacoria Cares … We’ll donate 50,000 tacos a year to all different parts of the community. We try to focus on community helpers, but it could be anybody. It could be somebody that is doing an event for a fundraiser or something like that.

“I think a lot of the community helpers are really underappreciated teachers, law enforcement officers, first aid people and firefighters. I feel like everybody expects the world and nobody appreciates what these people do. So, I feel like it’s our little part of what we can do and maybe put a smile on their face and say, ‘Hey, you know what? You are appreciated.’ … People are always very surprised and grateful and it’s nice,” he said.

Let’s taco about challenges

One of the toughest parts of starting out was “learning the business side,” Vishal Patel said.

“I was in the stores a hundred hours a week learning the business itself. But I never ran a business prior to this, so learning the business aspect was the biggest challenge for me. But we had great support of each and all the partners,” Vishal said. “Chuck’s experience from Mr. Subs definitely helped out a lot.

“And on the actual Tacoria side and on actual operations side, just we did not anticipate to be that busy. We were kind of basing our model off of Mr. Subs, and I think we were probably seeing maybe three to four times the volume,” he said.

According to the partners, Tacoria sold out daily for the first week-and-a-half it was open in New Brunswick.

Vishal Patel said, “We kept preparing more, like ‘OK, there’s no way in hell we’re selling out again.’ And then before we know it, we’re sold out again. And I think it was just one of those things that shocked us all, surprised us, and we had to adapt. But Chuck and I always say, ‘These were all great problems to have.’”

Chuck Patel said, “We never anticipated to be as busy. Early on, I would do the math in my head. Just to do $1,000 in sales, we would have to sell 300 tacos, and that would mean [we] have to have a hundred customers. And I was just like, ‘That’s a lot of people walking in the door every day.’ But we far exceeded that. The walk-in box that we had originally did not have enough space for us. So, we had to close early for the first 10 days we opened in New Brunswick. The walk-in box that’s in the store now is three times the size of that original walk-in box and it’s outside.”

As Tacoria has unveiled new outposts, its owners have made some operational adjustments, such as finding vendors who can keep up with the chain’s supply needs. And, now with about 300 employees, they have needed to implement “a lot of structure around our people with policies and procedures,” Vishal Patel said.

“There were things that are easily adapted to at store one and store two, but when you try to do that for 12 stores, it’s a huge challenge logistically,” he said.

When it comes to current obstacles, Chuck Patel said, “The biggest one coming out of COVID is just inflation and the cost of food.”

In the wake of the pandemic, fast-casual restaurants continue to face significant financial pressure due to inflation and tariffs. With food and supply costs rising between at least 5% to 10%, many eateries have been forced to raise menu prices, FastCasual.com reported. Despite these increases, many operators report shrinking profit margins.

“I think that’s the biggest challenge is just the constriction on the margin profiles of pretty much every category of the business, whether it’s labor, food, electricity and insurance. It’s not 10% higher, it’s way higher,” Chuck Patel said.

To continue to “provide a product at a reasonable price,” he said they have been able to stave off any menu increases over the past six months by renegotiating with some vendors to mitigate costs.

Let’s taco about the vibes

Beyond just food, Tacoria’s founders sought to build a fun, community-focused space that reflected their passion and brought people together.

As they developed their concept, Vishal Patel said, “We wanted the brand to take on this fun, light, bright, hip type of persona. We always joke that we wanted to make the brand cool because we ourselves are not that cool. So, we wanted to create a reflection of what we thought was cool.”

“And also, just getting funky ideas and having fun with it. We don’t take ourselves too seriously as individuals. Others do say we should take our business a little bit seriously. But I think when you have fun, it lets creativity flow and that’s what you see as a final product,” he said.

Chuck Patel also praised Tacoria’s team as being key to the feel of the brand.

“We have by far the best group of individuals that work with us. They are all passionate about the brand. They’re all passionate about giving customers a really good product,” he said.