Entrepreneurs Miguel Hernandez and Damian Otero have created a marriage of the authentic flavors of Mexican street food along with the experience of a modern, high-energy taqueria at Rreal Tacos.
Hernandez and Otero acquired the restaurant’s original Midtown Atlanta location in August 2021 from Adrian Villarreal, the brand’s founder and namesake. Since the purchase, they have taken the metro area by storm, expanding into three additional locations in West Midtown, Chamblee, and Sandy Springs, growing their business with a 1200% increase in sales, all without shouldering the burden of debt.
“We’re completely debt-free. All the expansion that we’ve done so far has been with our profits,” says Hernandez. “We save the profits from every taco and every margarita that we sell, and when the time is right, we pull the trigger on another location.”
Hernandez grew up in Texas and was exposed to the authentic flavors of Mexican food. His interest in music brought him to Atlanta six years ago where he established himself as a DJ and worked as a producer/sound engineer. When the COVID-19 pandemic affected his livelihood, he worked in a friend’s Mexican restaurant to make ends meet and ended up falling in love with the industry.
“My dream was never to be in the restaurant business; it just sort of happened,” says Hernandez. “I got really good at the service aspect of hospitality, managing and training people, then I got into the back-of-the-house (kitchen) where I learned simple kitchen procedures, how to pass rigorous inspections, where food comes from and how to manage food and labor costs. I became obsessed with learning as much as I could about the business, and this is when I knew what I wanted to do moving forward.”
Otero was born in Uruguay and immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 10 years old. He began his career as a salesperson at 18 and then opened a business operating specialty retail kiosks in malls across the…
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