Some Background on Our Business 🤙🏻 , TUCKEDito
Get acquainted with our business, so you have some framing for what we write about going forward!
By: James
Why TUCKEDito?
Two brothers who yearned to start a business together. That's the short answer. The particulars of the business didn't matter too much. We wanted was something that was ours, that we could use to impact people, and we were proud of.
For 5 years following college we threw ideas around, more seriously in the latter 2 than the first 3. During this time we had jobs at large corporations, Brendan in engineering and James in supply chain. We lived all over the place. Lansdale (James), Hoboken (Brendan), Philly (James), Morristown (Brendan), Baton Rouge (Brendan), Encinitas (James), Baltimore (Brendan). We stayed in constant contact, sharing any ideas that came to mind.
While at the last two stops we really started to feel that we needed to get out of the large companies that we were plugged into. We had weekly FaceTime calls to discuss ideas we determined had potential and researched. The ideas were all over the map. Physical products, apps, learning platforms, etc.
The idea for the taquitos came about when we made them for a party and, unprovoked, received rave reviews from our friends. After that we thought, "maybe this could be something".
Long story short, we settled on selling the taquitos because of the feasibility, lower start-up overhead, and positive feedback. The name TUCKEDito came about a few months later!
Here's a little more succinct story on our website!
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Our Food
We serve our own unique take on a taquito.
Please don't think 7-eleven taquitos (our thought on them)
Ours are freshly rolled, tucked, and seared on a griddle opposed to open-ended and fried, so that they are soft yet crispy and a little less messy and heavy.
To get a better look you can check out all we have to offer here 👇🏻
And here are some pictures if you don't feel like heading to our site!
So, What's the Operation Look Like?
Here's a quick breakdown of how we went from an empty kitchen, to slinging taquitos at your favorite breweries, festivals, and private parties. 🤙🏻
Kitchen
"Where the magic happens", as the say.
After we gather up all the materials (more on this in another post) we bring it all to our kitchen and start getting ready for our events! As a food tent we are required to have a commissary kitchen, which is a health inspected kitchen we do our prep in. Many trucks share space, luckily we found our own.
We rent the kitchen of a members-only bar. They don't use their kitchen, so we pay them to use it. We have a kitchen to ourselves, they get rent money, we both benefit.
Anyway, getting back to the food. We get ready to serve at events in three stages, listed below.
Cooking Prep
This is where we divide up everything we've bought and put it in its assigned space in the kitchen. Once that's done we cut and marinate the meats, so they can sit overnight. Depending on how busy the week is going to be we will make some sauces or prep some produce, otherwise this is done on our cook day.
Cooking
This is the day and time we get down to it. Cooking meats, making sauces, making the mixture for our taquitos. We're in the kitchen usually anywhere from 4 to 7 hours, depending on how many people we're cooking for.
It looks something like this
On-site Prep
We package up our sauces, get our tortillas ready, and start heating our food, so that taquitos can be freshly rolled on-site at whatever brewery, festival, or party we are serving for that day.
I've included a visual of our kitchen below, and labeled some of the main items/equipment. It's small but it gets the job done, and most importantly, it's our own! (kind of)
Van
Once all the food is ready, we start packing up the van. We transport the food inside steam pans, within food warmers. Almost anything that's not food will already be in the van, so there's not too much to load.
Pop-up Taquito Shop
We pop up under a canopy tent on-site! Set up takes about 20-30 minutes. We just listen to some tunes and each do our part.
Below is a picture of the entire set up. The food is kept and made on our precious taco cart, custom made by LA Taco Carts, which is a griddle and a steam table on wheels!
I just included a picture of our setup below as it's much better than me just listing everything else.
From Order to Service
- Brendan writes the orders on a slip and charges the customer (with a smile 🤠) on our Square POS system.
- Then he puts the order slip on the board in front of me.
- I check it out (if I hadn't heard the customer's order already) and then scoop, tuck, and roll.
- I then put a colored toothpick in, to know which flavor it its, and pop it on the griddle.
- Either Brendan or I will turn the taquitos once perfectly browned and crispy, to do the same to the other side
- Then Brendan pulls the orders off, calls the customer's name, and hand delivers them.
Summary
So yea, that's a quick look at how, why, and what we operate. We'll have more in depth insight into all those processes in future posts.
If You're Wondering What's the Future Look Like?
Do some food festivals, expand the menu, pass on the good vibes 🤙🏻. We have longer-term goals as well, but I won't get into those just yet.
All major updates we'll probably record on here and our social media.
Peace love and good vibes - James