Interview: La Calle Tacos & Snacks
"Hi, my name is Maria Lucrecia Greguol, I am originally from the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León in Mexico. My mother is Mexican and my father was Italian, it's from my father from whom I inherit the seasoning and love of food preparation." Maria Lucrecia started telling us. "When I was fourteen, things started to get a little bad in Monterrey and my parents decided to come live with the family in America. We arrived and, I started going to school, but I left when I was a few years old without finishing high school.
She continued telling us, "I started working very young in a chicken wings restaurant, in a short time they made me manager, there I learned a lot during the three years while I was working with them for example I learned:
To analyze the finances.
To make a business plan.
To know the quality of the ingredients.
Contracts and personnel management.
The cleaning protocols.
To make schedules for employees.
At the end of three years of working all week in the restaurant and on weekends and free days as a model, I decided to stop, I thought that I wanted a change and decided to return to Mexico. I was there for two years before I came back to the US. When I returned, I got a job in a restaurant, there I met Kiko who was the Bar-Tender and owner of the bar. We started a relationship. I was 21 and had a son named William. Kiko and I were married in 2010, and in 2017 we had a religious ceremony. We had two daughters Luna and Azul.
Kiko had to close the bar and bought a small American restaurant, worked in the restaurant and also in construction to pay off the debt. Gradually he was transforming it into a taqueria.
I did not work for more than two years because I got pregnant, but I was helping with accounting. I went back to school because I wanted to learn more, I got my GED, then attended college and got my degree in Business. I wanted to be better prepared for the business I was thinking of having in the future”
Maria Lucrecia continued narrating her experiences. "After these years of enjoying my children but at the same time working here and there, taking care of some old couple, as a manager in a dry cleaners and studying, I decided to go back into business, but I wanted my own business.
I dreamed of a snacks place! I didn't want to sell more than snacks, party decorations and maybe ice cream. Kiko insisted that I had to have TACOS! I objected but in the end he won. So I opened my business, La Calle Tacos y Snacks in May 2018. Interestingly I saw it very easy until I realized that I could not get a cook and I had to get into the kitchen and although I love cooking, doing it as a business, it is quite different but I did and learned a lot.
My idea was to bring something different to the American community because 95 percent of the clients at first were of American origin, now our Latin American clientele has increased by 15 percent and we have been increasing the menu little by little as well, because the clientele have been asking us for different things"
What can you tell us4 respect the Covid-19 we asked? "Sales had dropped a lot, it was all uncertainty. I had to close for two weeks because of the pandemic issue, I spent those days planning all the strategy we had to implement, studying what the Health Department was asking for, and to educate myself on everything that needed to be done in order to reopen. We started making home deliveries, we hired a company for this. I personally made deliveries also. Things have improved a lot."
To which she responded "Sales had dropped a lot, it was all uncertainty. I had to close for two weeks because of the pandemic issues, I spent those days planning all the strategy we had to implement, studying what the Health Department was asking for, and to educate myself on everything that needed to be done in order to reopen. We started making home deliveries, we hired a company to help us. I did deliveries myself as well.
What makes La Calle Tacos and Snacks different from other restaurants? We asked her,
"All our ingredients are fresh! We make our own tortillas! Our customer service is great! One hundred percent authentic Mexican food” She answered proudly.
If you went backwards, what would you change in the way you did things?
she thought about for a few seconds and said, "Well, at one point I hired a manager so I could have time for my family, that's where I understood, perfectly what the Spanish saying says ........ Whoever wants a store must take care of it or if not possible to sell it! The restaurant was falling apart. I had to grab the reins again. Someday I would love to go back to school to study Law. I will love to become a Criminal or an Immigration Lawyer, I know I can do it if I propose it to myself.
For now, I ended up being what all my family has been.... A HAPPY MERCHANT!
Congratulations Maria Lucrecia!
Tacos Street & Snacks
5915 Trussville Crossings Parkway Suite 101-A
Birmingham, AL 35235 - P-205 382-1037