When Jose and Griselda Ramirez set up Taqueria Zacatecas on LaSalle Avenue in 1995, their authentic Central Mexican tacos stood out in a Tex-Mex town.

Their little trailer supplied a late-night crowd with tacos made of ingredients, such as barbacoa and braised beef tongue, wrapped in corn tortillas.

“We were the first to sell these kind of tacos, with onions, cilantro and green and red salsa,” said Griselda Ramirez, a native of the Mexican state of Zacatecas.

Baylor students Courtney Mauze, Tara Ganji and Caroline Leban catch a mid-afternoon snack at Taqueria Zacatecas.
J.B. Smith/Waco Tribune-Herald

Now, because of food trailers, it’s easy to find such tacos in Waco, along with Mexican specialties such as chicharrones, roasted spicy corn, hibiscus iced tea known as “agua de jamaica,” or sweet rice milk, called “horchata.”

Other trailers sell smoked chicken or snow cones with exotic flavors.

The Ramirezes have upgraded Taqueria Zacatecas to a permanent outdoor cafe at the same site. It sports a limestone facade, a covered patio, a large kitchen, a drive-through window and restrooms. It has expanded its clientele in recent years.

“When we started, our customers were 95 percent Hispanic,” Jose Ramirez said. “Now we’ve got white, black and Chinese, and a lot come from Baylor.”

A quandary

As food-vending trailers have become more popular in Waco, they pose both an entrepreneurial opportunity and a regulatory challenge.

Fans of food trailers say they are incubators for small businesses and an opportunity to introduce more variety into the local menu.

“It’s a great way for people to start a business, because of its low barriers to entry,” said Chris McGowan, urban development director for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a new model of the food business.”

McGowan said a master plan now being developed for the “Greater Downtown” area will likely recommend ways to encourage more food trailers, perhaps in a designated zone.

But city officials say the success of food trailers has brought headaches for those trying to enforce regulations.

The Waco-McLennan County Health District inspects the trailers regularly and holds them to the same standard as conventional restaurants. Vendors also have to get an outdoor vending permit from the city inspection department.

Randy Childers, head of the city inspection department, said Waco has about 30 mobile food vendors with permits. He said it’s hard to keep track of the trailers, and some blur the line between temporary and permanent.

Marcos Torres-Martinez serves a plate of tacos at Las Trancas, a taqueria on Bosque Boulevard.
J.B. Smith/Waco Tribune-Herald

“It gets a little out of control,” he said. “You’ll go by one week and they’re a mobile vendor, and the next week they’ve taken the wheels off and attached it to the ground and built a carport.”

The city is beginning to require the trailers to renew their permits every four months instead of yearly. The permits cost $150 to renew, and neighbors are notified in case they want to object.

“A year wasn’t working,” Childers said. “Experience has shown the need to get a better handle on it.

“You’re going to have to be a little more choosy about what location you’re in. Now it’s going to cost more money to stay for a longer period of time.”

The city inspection department also is asking the health district to begin requiring the trailers to apply for a vending permit at the same time they get their health license because many owners didn’t realize both were required.

City inspectors recently found a couple of taco trailers that not only lacked vendor permits but were also in the wrong zoning category.

Instead of shutting them down, the city rezoned the lots and revised the zoning ordinance to help them stay in business. One was a trailer next to Oasis de Bendicion Church at 2000 Dutton Avenue; the other was Las Trancas, at Parkwood Drive and Bosque Boulevard.

They were both in residential zoning categories, but the Waco City Council this month rezoned the lots as O-3 office.

With the taco vendors in mind, the council also tweaked the requirements of the O-3 zone, allowing retail businesses with special permits to stay open from 5 a.m. to midnight, instead of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The city can deny the permits if neighbors complain.

Support from neighbors

So far, neither of the two rezoned taco stands have seen any objection.

Clifford Allen, a real estate broker who leases land to Las Trancas, said 12 neighbors actually petitioned to allow the taqueria to stay. Allen commended the council for working with the owners, the family of Luis Gonzales.

“They came here and saw a need, and they’re being entrepreneurial,” he said. “It’s not easy work.”

Gonzales said he doesn’t mind the new, tougher permit requirements, and he hopes to someday build a permanent restaurant at the site.

City planning director Bill Falco said the city doesn’t want to discourage outdoor vendors.

Jose and Griselda Ramirez started Taqueria Zacatecas in a trailer in 1995. Last year they turned it into a permanent outdoor cafe.
J.B. Smith/Waco Tribune-Herald

“It gives people another option for dining out, and sometimes they will develop into full-blown restaurants,” he said. “I think the thinking is that it’s a legitimate way for someone to get into business, as long as they can do it in a manner we have some control over and it’s not negatively impacting the neighborhood.”

Model for future

McGowan enjoys the mobile taco stands but would like to see more trailers offering a wide range of ethnic food. He points to places like New York City, Austin and Portland, Ore., as models.

Portland has turned old parking lots into de facto food courts offering everything from Japanese noodles to South American empanadas and Indian curry. Several well-known restaurants have set up their own carts to sell cheaper, more convenient versions of their food.

The trend has also hit Austin, which has seen its mobile food vendor permits double from 648 to 1,350 since 2006, according to the Austin American-Statesman. The Austin City Council is considering more stringent regulation of the popular businesses.

Waco restaurateur Sammy Citrano is impressed with the quality and creativity of many of the Austin vendors and wouldn’t mind seeing more of the trend here.

“That’s the hottest thing going in the country,” said Citrano, owner of George’s and spokesman for the Waco Restaurant Association.

“That’s different from your typical roach coach,” Citrano said. “I have no problem with that, as long as they are abiding by the all the rules. It would be a great idea (for Waco) when the river gets developed.”

Sergio Garcia, owner of El Siete Mares Mexican seafood restaurant, got his start selling seafood cocktails from an ice chest at local soccer games.

Now that he owns a permanent restaurant, he’s considering hitting the streets again, this time with a downtown trailer selling healthy food prepared in cooperation with nutritional chef Robin Jeep.

Not all fans

Garcia said he’s not a fan of most local taco trailers.

“I don’t eat a lot of meat or grease,” he said. “When my kids get those tacos, the foil is pretty greasy and disgusting.”

Still, he said he has no problem with the taco trailer across the street from him at Oasis de Bendicion: It serves a different clientele from El Siete Mares, he said.

A handful of Waco trailer owners have made the switch to permanent locations. One is Coco’s, the dessert emporium next to Las Trancas on Bosque Boulevard. The seasonal outdoor venue offers ice cream and 80 varieties of snow cones, with exotic names like “tiger’s blood” and “wedding cake.”

Owner Manuel Mendez came to Waco in 1986 as an 18-year-old escaping El Salvador’s brutal civil war. After working at a local box factory for seven years, he bought and refurbished some old ice cream trucks and began an ice cream business. He moved on to a snow cone and ice cream trailer.

Manuel Mendez, owner of Coco’s, got his start with ice cream trucks and a snow cone trailer. The Salvadoran immigrant now has two permanent locations for his icy treats.
J.B. Smith/Waco Tribune-Herald

Six years ago, he sold his house to raise the capital to renovate a Bosque Boulevard gas station for the first permanent Coco’s. Mendez is proud that he has never had to go into debt for his business.

Recently, he opened a second Coco’s at 1201 Hewitt Drive, where he has branched into frozen yogurt.

“If I can, someday I’d like to do some franchising,” he said.

Still hard work

But it’s not always easy to make it in the competitive world of mobile food vending.

When Jose Ramirez started Taqueria Zacatecas, he worked full-time at H&B Packing during the day and worked 25 hours on the weekends at his taco trailer, serving the late-night party crowd.

“When I started it was hard,” he said. “I would stay open all night and make $80 to $100.”

He and his wife went full-time seven years ago, and now their staff has grown to 10.

“Every year it grows a little more,” Griselda Ramirez said.

Regular customer Luis Patena said mobile taquerias like Zacatecas have helped change Waco’s tastes in Mexican food.

“I think we’re tasting more authentically Mexican food in the last 10 to 15 years,” said Patena, an electrician. “More people are getting the taste of this kind of food. It’s real simple, but everything is made fresh daily.”

Christian Wink, a Baylor University senior from Sioux City, Iowa, said the chorizo burritos keep him coming back.

“I come here about three times a week,” he said. “The breakfast burritos are incredible.”

jbsmith@wacotrib.com

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