A line of no more than 5 people waits for Natividad Méndez and her son Omar Reyes, while they prepare an assortment of meats before opening ‘Tacos del Tigre’ near the corner of Humboldt and Ave 26 streets in Lincoln Heights, in Los Angeles
On a cold Thursday night, Reyes is in charge of preparing the suadero, roast, pastor, buche, head, chicken and tripe meats; while his mother prepares the pot where they cook the food with butter and other condiments.
After taking the first order, Reyes throws a splash of butter with his spatula onto the flat grill, makes the meat and tortillas, cuts the meat, prepares a plate on which he places the tortillas and finally throws the pieces of meat with the delicacy of a painter and the precision of a surgeon.
According to Reyes, he works six days a week, but on Friday, Saturday and Sunday he gets so many clients that he closes until three in the morning.
“As Vicente Fernández says ‘Until people stop applauding, they stop singing’, so here sometimes they go over schedule, but we take advantage to continue serving because I don’t like people leaving without eating,” said Reyes. barely 20 years old.
The name of the business comes from the nickname Reyes’ father, César Reyes, gave him when he was a child.
“They called me ‘the Tiger’ because I liked to dress up a lot as the Tigger character from Winnie the Pooh… Whenever we went to Disneyland they put makeup on me, they painted my tiger face like that and it stuck,” Reyes said about the name of the business. .
Recently arrived from Oaxaca, Méndez met the father of her children, César Reyes, at a taco stand where they both worked 26 years ago in Los Angeles.
According to Méndez, 54 years old, César Reyes already had experience working in taquerias in Puebla, so he learned a lot about the business with him.
“I didn’t know anything about this, to be honest, I started here with my children’s father,” he explains. “He was the one who taught me to work this way with food.”
Just a year later she started a business with César Reyes, now her ex-husband, who owns the ‘Ave 26’ taco shop with her daughter, while Méndez and her son have taken over ‘Tacos del Tigre’.
When Reyes was 12 years old, he began helping his father by charging customers, serving drinks and doing a bit of food preparation.
“I always asked my dad to let me work with him or else I would go with my mom,” said the young entrepreneur. “I have always liked this because I earned about $20 from the tip they gave me.”
As a beginner, Reyes remembers how hard he was to flip the tortillas, but he has improved, he says, and something that used to take him a minute now takes him 30 seconds.
Although he works with great speed, impossible for any mortal who does not work in the business to emulate, he says that he always seeks to improve and learn as much as he can.
Today the family owns two taco stands, with the second business near Cypress Park on Ave 27. However, there is no shortage of challenges.
Reyes explained that on some occasions Health has come to throw away the food, which results in great losses for the family.
“If they take everything, you’re talking about about 10,000 dollars,” Méndez emphasizes.
That would include: garbage, the gas tank, meats, sauce, drinks and the tables, among other things.
Reyes is very proud of what he does, mainly because of what it represents for him and his mother.
“I’m working for something that will stay with me for my future,” says Reyes. “Also, I like to help my mother so she can rest more days.”
Schedules
‘Tacos del Tigre’ is open on Ave 26 and Humboldt Street from Sunday to Thursday from 5 pm to 1:30 am, while on Fridays and Saturdays from 5 pm to 2:30 am The stand in Cypress Park is open from Sunday to Thursday from 4 pm to 12:30 am and Fridays and Saturdays from 4 pm to 1:30 pm