February 14, 2025 • 19 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Osiris Hoil lost his construction job in 2008, he thought his American dream was over—but through his fantastic cooking, a generous neighbor, and the high standards he learned from his mother in Mexico, he started District Taco—D.C.'s best taco chain. This is his story.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is our American stories. If you've ever been around Washington, DC,
you can find food trucks and stands on almost every
imaginable corner selling almost everything. Osiris Hoil was one of
the many in Arlington, Virginia to run such as stand,
but one of few to turn it into a successful restaurant.
(00:30):
Jane called District Taco. Monte Montgomery brings us the story.
Here's Osiris.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
My name is Osirus Hoyle. I'm from Yucata, Mexico, and
I learned how to cook with my mom. Every single
day she will wake me up and ask me what
I wanted to eat. But of course I had to
help her. My mom, she's extremely picky, but that's why
her food is so delicious. She used to send me
(01:01):
to the yard, right and I'll pick tomatoes, have an arrows,
anything that she needed for her meal. And I'll come
with tomatoes and she fills them and she's like, nope,
this is not right, and I'm like, what a mean
is now? It looks good and she'll feel it and
she's like feel it, you know, and so soft, And
for me it looked fine. You know the same thing
(01:22):
with limes. She would just see it and feel it,
and she's like, no, it's not good. You have to
go get more. These standards were so high, and since then,
my standards are high. In Mexico, you cannot choose what
kind of life you want to live, you know what
I mean. I remember that I didn't know I was
poor until I met you know, rich kids. When I
(01:43):
went to my friends, probably when I was maybe fourteen
thirteen years old, I realized that they had the toys
and games, or they have a better bathrooms than we did.
And then I was like, man, I think, you know,
we struggle. So when I came to the United States
with a tourist visa and I decided to stay. When
(02:04):
I was two thousand, I was working as a discwasher,
you know, I was making minimum wage at that point.
And I met my wife at work and she was
the waitress, and I needed to learn English so I
can ask her out right, So I decided to learn
this system. And I used to work at this restaurant
(02:27):
bar in Denver, Colorado, And even though I was under age,
they let me stay at the bar right because I
was helping them with the cake, you know, and bringing
in and I wasn't drinking, but I stay at the
bar talking to drunk people. They were my best teachers.
I remember, you know. I was asking questions like how
(02:49):
do you say this? And then I'll write it down,
And for some reason they I think they felt important,
you know what I mean. I don't know. If you're
drinking every day at the bar, something going on, right,
so they felt important. I think they liked the way
that I was asking them questions. And they were my
best teachers, you know. I mean the first week I thought, oh,
(03:10):
they're gonna hate it, and now I was. I was
very welcome, and I did it for several years. But
it got to the point where my birthday, Jamie Ferd said, hey,
what are you doing today? You want to go for lunch?
And I was like, yeah, I cancel everything, and you know,
so I went for it. I was asking her out
(03:32):
during that time for two years, three years, I think,
and she never accepted it for some reason, probably because
my English wasn't that good. But I was trying, right,
And since then we got married and now we have
three kids and it was great. And two thousand and
(03:54):
six we moved to DC, you know, because things were
going well and I was excited to try something new,
and I found this construction job that I was paying
a lot more than if I was just a cook,
So that was great. You know. I took the job
even though I didn't have that much experience. But the
construction company saw my potential all day. They saw that
(04:15):
I could do more than just be a service guy
or so they sent me to school so I can
learn how to read blueprints. And for me, I started
seeing the potential to be something else than just a cook,
you know in the kitchen, something professional, where I can
be the superintendent for the company and I can run projects.
(04:39):
And I felt good. Everything was going well. You know,
I did projects where I actually was finishing before schedule,
under budget, working my butt off, and I felt like,
oh yeah, bonuses were coming. This is great. So we
buy our house in two thousand and seven, and then
(05:00):
and you know, we had a baby. Everything was going
so well, but in two thousand and eight, I got
laid off when the economy was really really bad. I
still remember that moment because it was on a Friday afternoon.
I was sweeping the project because everybody just was leaving
(05:24):
and I like to keep my projects clean for the weekend,
and the actual owner of the company came and he
gave me the news. It was very emotional. I started crying.
I never had never been fired before, and you know,
I asked for my job back. My health insurance was
through the company, and I just I felt defeated. I
(05:46):
felt not being a man anymore, the man that my
parents raised, the kid. You know, all these responsibilities, all
my hard work. What just happened. I didn't understand it.
So I said, look, just pay me whatever you want.
Pay me, okay, just keep me on the on payroll,
(06:07):
but keep my insurance. Right, my wife she's pregnant. We'll
we'll figure out later. And they just couldn't keep me
on under payroll. I took my truck, drove away and
I had to park in a parking lot. I was
actually crying that moment because how I'm going to go
to my wife right now and told her that I
(06:29):
just lost my job. I'm gonna do that. I've never
been prepared for these moments, right, I have a house,
a kid, she's pregnant, and what I'm gonna say. So
I went to her job. I said, Jenny, I need
to talk to you, and I had said I got
I got laid off, I got fire, and the only
(06:53):
thing that she came out of her mouth she hugged
me and she said, don't worry, We'll be okay. Man.
That was that was so powerful, you know, that was
so powerful. For six months, seven months, maybe I was
(07:18):
an employed. I was looking for construction job because I
knew I know how to read blueprints now, but there
was nothing available. I was getting depressed, all right. I
was getting extremely depressed because I don't have a job.
I'm babysitting my son. But in the weekends I will
(07:39):
invite my friends so we can have some beers and
make carneres of Sallas and this sells us so but
my friends, you know, used to say, oh, sorryus this
is so good. You should bottle this, you know, and
sell it and all my units. And I'm like, I'll
go home and I'll tell my wife. I think we
I think people like my food. We might have something
(08:02):
going on here. So then then I was making it
for Mark Wallace two, a.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Man who would go on to have a profound impact
on Osirus's life.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, when we move in. I remember that day
when he was trying to put his play set or
for his kids, and I offer my help and we
became very good friends. And he loved my food. He
always said, oh, Cyrus should open your restaurant. And there
was one day I was drinking beer and eating savita
(08:35):
with Mark and he said, hey, Cyrus, do you know
all the time when I go to Austin, Texas, there's
always food trucks, right, and they saw these amazing Mexican
food breakfast, tacos, you know, and all that, and he's
so delicious, and it's like he turns around and it's like, Cyrus,
do you want to do it? And I'm like, well, yeah,
(08:57):
if you know, I mean the food truck, there's a
lot of money, you know, but the tacos, they it's
only twenty five thousand dollars. And it's like, well, if
you want to do it, I'll give you the money.
And I'm like, wait, you want to give me the money?
You know? I was like, what person give you? You know,
(09:18):
that much money? First of all, I didn't finish my
high school. Okay. I went home and I couldn't believe it, right.
I talked to my wife about it, and at that
point I didn't have anything else going on. So I
went back to Mark and I said, let's do it.
Let's do it, and let's do it.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Indeed, and what a story this is so far when
we come back more from Osiris Hoyle and District Taco
and how that all happened here on our American story,
(10:08):
and we returned with our American stories and the story
of Osiris Boil. We had just been given a generous
gift from his friend Mark Wallace to start his own
taco stand, and at the lowest point of his life,
here's Osiris.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We bought the taco stand, you know, we named District
Taco and it was born in two thousand and nine.
And I went straight to Rosslyn, Rosslyn, Virginia. That was
the first place we went. And I didn't do any research.
The only thing I knew there were big buildings, That's
all what I knew. I'm like, oh, there's big buildings,
(10:48):
there's a lot of people here, and we're going to
be here. But there was Chipole right next door to me, okay,
and there was Baha Fresh all right. So I was
in the middle man. I was like, what I'm doing here.
I'm dead. But you know, like I said before, I'm
a great sales guy, and I think I can I
can sell tacos, and I made pretty good tacos. It
(11:13):
started to two people inside the cart and I was
the cashier. I had one full runner, one guy that
was helping us, you know, and someone else that it
was just making sure nothing is missing. The first week,
we started making breakfast tacos, you know, in the morning,
in the morning, six am, right, and he wasn't working.
(11:38):
You know, people around DC don't know about breakfast tacos.
But in Mexico we always eat tacos with eggs, you know,
so so be it, you know, and I grew up
with it. But people run here preferred, you know, a
bagel or a donut or you know, or I don't know,
or something else right for breakfast, not a breakfast tacos.
(11:59):
So he said, okay, well breakfast is now it's not
helping me all the way, you know. Let me. Let
me stay introducing what I'm really good at. For lunch,
people don't want to eat breakfast tackles. So I'm gonna
start making puyo saldo. The other day. I was making
moli problano. Every single day, I was changing the menu,
just like how my mom would asked me, what do
(12:20):
you want to eat today. I was changing it right,
and I figured out, also, okay, I want to I
want to make my carnals sada. So I pretty much
welded a grill that I bought a home deepot, you know,
just like a small grill. So I was grilling, you know,
in front of people, when people walking into their jobs
(12:41):
to the office. Man, we're grilling out there, right, We're
grilling or salt saus We had a table where were
blending the saltsas you know, we're roasting or tomatoes and everything.
There was a party. Oh my goodness, not everything, you know,
work perfectly. For two months, I wasn't making any money
because I pretty much was making everything fresh. So I
(13:03):
was making my guacamola fresh. I was making my pickle
of the io fresh. So I was going to a
restaurant depot every single day and I'll get back, watch
the tacos tand and drop everything, eat dinner with my family,
and then cook whatever. It takes a long time, and
my refrigerator full of avocados. And my wife didn't like
(13:26):
that very much, but she knew that that was the
only option we had. Here's another thing. I used to
drink so I can go sleep, so I'll have like
a couple of beers. Write one beer. And one night
I was cooking the beans and I turned the TV on,
right was like eight pm. I fall asleep. Family was sleeping,
(13:47):
so around eleven o'clock. I don't know about you, but
when you burn beans, I don't know if you've done
this before, but it's not so bad, right, Just the
smell is really bad. And I woke up and I'm like,
oh my UITs, what I've done. Where a waste of product?
You know, it's money, and I couldn't just burned the house,
(14:07):
my family, you know what I'm doing. And I was
pretty angry. But at that moment, you know, I was
extremely tired, extremely disappointed, right, and I was just praying
because I was like, what I'm doing, I'm just wasting
my time here, Okay, I almost burned the house. I'm
extremely tired. I'm overweight because you know, it's just I've
(14:31):
been eating a lot and exercising, working long, long, long
hours and this is I don't know, this is not working.
So I was praying and I said God should send
me a message because I don't know what else to do.
And then my daughter started crying, and I remember I
was like, I guess that's the message I have to continue,
(14:55):
you know, for the family. Right, So I tie my
shoes and get back to work.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Location. Location, Location, it's something real to say matters in
the value of a house or a property. But it
also turns out it matters if you own, say a
food truck or a taco stand, a movable location. And
it became the key to Osyrus's success.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So we used to set up so early. And what
we used to set up is the ABC Channel seven.
We used to get there like five point fifty and
the weather man will get out right start telling you
about the weather. And but and then we're cooking bacon, right,
Oh man, we're cooking bacon. And I don't know about you,
(15:50):
but when you're cooking bacon, oh, it's not so good. Right.
So he's he always talk about us like a six am.
It's like he'll turn the cameras, you know, and we're
cooking bacon and were like saying hi, you know, and
that was oh man, that was great, great time. So
things were going so good. There were long lines to
(16:11):
order from us. We were like six people in the
tacos and working and we probably served about two hundred people,
and the actual press start writing about us and from
being laid off to have a Tacos, then I think
there was a wake up call that actually it can
be done. And then I, you know, came to my
(16:32):
business partner, Mark Wallace, and I say, hey, Mark, I
think we got something going on right here. That just
opened a restaurant. We opened the restaurant in twenty ten
in Arlington, Virginia, and from there, you know, we bought
a lot of equipment from Craigslist, so we pretty much
built the restaurants by ourselves. But we didn't know what
(16:54):
we were doing. I remember reviews online that said, don't think
because you came from attack, because then you're going to
be able to control a restaurant. But those reviews I remember,
I was like, okay, just wait, I'm going to show you.
And then after a year we felt like, okay, we
have a model. And then we hire for second store
(17:17):
in DC. We hire contractors, okay to build that store.
But then I was like, well, you know, maybe I
should call the guys up, you know, lay me off
and see if they want to work with me. So
I went and I hired them back It's funny because
I used to be their employee, now i'm their client.
That the way things work out, right, And from there,
(17:39):
you know, now we have twelve stores open and over
just a little bit over four hundred and fifty employees,
and we're going from there. You know. I think all
my life is always being about what older people had
and we didn't have. And I think I'm really thankful
that I didn't have it at all in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And a great job, as always to Monty Montgomery. And
my goodness, what a story. And it's every immigrant story
is in some ways the same, right from different places.
This story started in Yucatan, Mexico, but learned about standards
from his mom. He'd come in with a tomato from
the garden and she'd just shake her head. And I
know that feeling because my father, my grandfather, was a
(18:26):
great cook, and I'd go out to the garden and
bring it a tomato and he'd shake his head. And
to this day I do it now to my daughter. Thoh,
standards get passed along, folks. And by the way, he said,
in Mexico, you can't choose the life you want to lead.
And so we came to the United States versus a
dishwasher earning minimum wage and built a family, learned a
new trade, started that food truck thanks to the generosity
(18:48):
of a friend. And look where we are in this story.
And it's a story that happens time and again in
this great country. Osyrus Hoyle's story, District Taco's story, have
one in d C. Here on our American story.
This is our American stories. If you've ever been around Washington, DC,
you can find food trucks and stands on almost every
imaginable corner selling almost everything. Osiris Hoil was one of
the many in Arlington, Virginia to run such as stand,
but one of few to turn it into a successful restaurant.
(00:30):
Jane called District Taco. Monte Montgomery brings us the story.
Here's Osiris.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
My name is Osirus Hoyle. I'm from Yucata, Mexico, and
I learned how to cook with my mom. Every single
day she will wake me up and ask me what
I wanted to eat. But of course I had to
help her. My mom, she's extremely picky, but that's why
her food is so delicious. She used to send me
(01:01):
to the yard, right and I'll pick tomatoes, have an arrows,
anything that she needed for her meal. And I'll come
with tomatoes and she fills them and she's like, nope,
this is not right, and I'm like, what a mean
is now? It looks good and she'll feel it and
she's like feel it, you know, and so soft, And
for me it looked fine. You know the same thing
(01:22):
with limes. She would just see it and feel it,
and she's like, no, it's not good. You have to
go get more. These standards were so high, and since then,
my standards are high. In Mexico, you cannot choose what
kind of life you want to live, you know what
I mean. I remember that I didn't know I was
poor until I met you know, rich kids. When I
(01:43):
went to my friends, probably when I was maybe fourteen
thirteen years old, I realized that they had the toys
and games, or they have a better bathrooms than we did.
And then I was like, man, I think, you know,
we struggle. So when I came to the United States
with a tourist visa and I decided to stay. When
(02:04):
I was two thousand, I was working as a discwasher,
you know, I was making minimum wage at that point.
And I met my wife at work and she was
the waitress, and I needed to learn English so I
can ask her out right, So I decided to learn
this system. And I used to work at this restaurant
(02:27):
bar in Denver, Colorado, And even though I was under age,
they let me stay at the bar right because I
was helping them with the cake, you know, and bringing
in and I wasn't drinking, but I stay at the
bar talking to drunk people. They were my best teachers.
I remember, you know. I was asking questions like how
(02:49):
do you say this? And then I'll write it down,
And for some reason they I think they felt important,
you know what I mean. I don't know. If you're
drinking every day at the bar, something going on, right,
so they felt important. I think they liked the way
that I was asking them questions. And they were my
best teachers, you know. I mean the first week I thought, oh,
(03:10):
they're gonna hate it, and now I was. I was
very welcome, and I did it for several years. But
it got to the point where my birthday, Jamie Ferd said, hey,
what are you doing today? You want to go for lunch?
And I was like, yeah, I cancel everything, and you know,
so I went for it. I was asking her out
(03:32):
during that time for two years, three years, I think,
and she never accepted it for some reason, probably because
my English wasn't that good. But I was trying, right,
And since then we got married and now we have
three kids and it was great. And two thousand and
(03:54):
six we moved to DC, you know, because things were
going well and I was excited to try something new,
and I found this construction job that I was paying
a lot more than if I was just a cook,
So that was great. You know. I took the job
even though I didn't have that much experience. But the
construction company saw my potential all day. They saw that
(04:15):
I could do more than just be a service guy
or so they sent me to school so I can
learn how to read blueprints. And for me, I started
seeing the potential to be something else than just a cook,
you know in the kitchen, something professional, where I can
be the superintendent for the company and I can run projects.
(04:39):
And I felt good. Everything was going well. You know,
I did projects where I actually was finishing before schedule,
under budget, working my butt off, and I felt like,
oh yeah, bonuses were coming. This is great. So we
buy our house in two thousand and seven, and then
(05:00):
and you know, we had a baby. Everything was going
so well, but in two thousand and eight, I got
laid off when the economy was really really bad. I
still remember that moment because it was on a Friday afternoon.
I was sweeping the project because everybody just was leaving
(05:24):
and I like to keep my projects clean for the weekend,
and the actual owner of the company came and he
gave me the news. It was very emotional. I started crying.
I never had never been fired before, and you know,
I asked for my job back. My health insurance was
through the company, and I just I felt defeated. I
(05:46):
felt not being a man anymore, the man that my
parents raised, the kid. You know, all these responsibilities, all
my hard work. What just happened. I didn't understand it.
So I said, look, just pay me whatever you want.
Pay me, okay, just keep me on the on payroll,
(06:07):
but keep my insurance. Right, my wife she's pregnant. We'll
we'll figure out later. And they just couldn't keep me
on under payroll. I took my truck, drove away and
I had to park in a parking lot. I was
actually crying that moment because how I'm going to go
to my wife right now and told her that I
(06:29):
just lost my job. I'm gonna do that. I've never
been prepared for these moments, right, I have a house,
a kid, she's pregnant, and what I'm gonna say. So
I went to her job. I said, Jenny, I need
to talk to you, and I had said I got
I got laid off, I got fire, and the only
(06:53):
thing that she came out of her mouth she hugged
me and she said, don't worry, We'll be okay. Man.
That was that was so powerful, you know, that was
so powerful. For six months, seven months, maybe I was
(07:18):
an employed. I was looking for construction job because I
knew I know how to read blueprints now, but there
was nothing available. I was getting depressed, all right. I
was getting extremely depressed because I don't have a job.
I'm babysitting my son. But in the weekends I will
(07:39):
invite my friends so we can have some beers and
make carneres of Sallas and this sells us so but
my friends, you know, used to say, oh, sorryus this
is so good. You should bottle this, you know, and
sell it and all my units. And I'm like, I'll
go home and I'll tell my wife. I think we
I think people like my food. We might have something
(08:02):
going on here. So then then I was making it
for Mark Wallace two, a.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Man who would go on to have a profound impact
on Osirus's life.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, when we move in. I remember that day
when he was trying to put his play set or
for his kids, and I offer my help and we
became very good friends. And he loved my food. He
always said, oh, Cyrus should open your restaurant. And there
was one day I was drinking beer and eating savita
(08:35):
with Mark and he said, hey, Cyrus, do you know
all the time when I go to Austin, Texas, there's
always food trucks, right, and they saw these amazing Mexican
food breakfast, tacos, you know, and all that, and he's
so delicious, and it's like he turns around and it's like, Cyrus,
do you want to do it? And I'm like, well, yeah,
(08:57):
if you know, I mean the food truck, there's a
lot of money, you know, but the tacos, they it's
only twenty five thousand dollars. And it's like, well, if
you want to do it, I'll give you the money.
And I'm like, wait, you want to give me the money?
You know? I was like, what person give you? You know,
(09:18):
that much money? First of all, I didn't finish my
high school. Okay. I went home and I couldn't believe it, right.
I talked to my wife about it, and at that
point I didn't have anything else going on. So I
went back to Mark and I said, let's do it.
Let's do it, and let's do it.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Indeed, and what a story this is so far when
we come back more from Osiris Hoyle and District Taco
and how that all happened here on our American story,
(10:08):
and we returned with our American stories and the story
of Osiris Boil. We had just been given a generous
gift from his friend Mark Wallace to start his own
taco stand, and at the lowest point of his life,
here's Osiris.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
We bought the taco stand, you know, we named District
Taco and it was born in two thousand and nine.
And I went straight to Rosslyn, Rosslyn, Virginia. That was
the first place we went. And I didn't do any research.
The only thing I knew there were big buildings, That's
all what I knew. I'm like, oh, there's big buildings,
(10:48):
there's a lot of people here, and we're going to
be here. But there was Chipole right next door to me, okay,
and there was Baha Fresh all right. So I was
in the middle man. I was like, what I'm doing here.
I'm dead. But you know, like I said before, I'm
a great sales guy, and I think I can I
can sell tacos, and I made pretty good tacos. It
(11:13):
started to two people inside the cart and I was
the cashier. I had one full runner, one guy that
was helping us, you know, and someone else that it
was just making sure nothing is missing. The first week,
we started making breakfast tacos, you know, in the morning,
in the morning, six am, right, and he wasn't working.
(11:38):
You know, people around DC don't know about breakfast tacos.
But in Mexico we always eat tacos with eggs, you know,
so so be it, you know, and I grew up
with it. But people run here preferred, you know, a
bagel or a donut or you know, or I don't know,
or something else right for breakfast, not a breakfast tacos.
(11:59):
So he said, okay, well breakfast is now it's not
helping me all the way, you know. Let me. Let
me stay introducing what I'm really good at. For lunch,
people don't want to eat breakfast tackles. So I'm gonna
start making puyo saldo. The other day. I was making
moli problano. Every single day, I was changing the menu,
just like how my mom would asked me, what do
(12:20):
you want to eat today. I was changing it right,
and I figured out, also, okay, I want to I
want to make my carnals sada. So I pretty much
welded a grill that I bought a home deepot, you know,
just like a small grill. So I was grilling, you know,
in front of people, when people walking into their jobs
(12:41):
to the office. Man, we're grilling out there, right, We're
grilling or salt saus We had a table where were
blending the saltsas you know, we're roasting or tomatoes and everything.
There was a party. Oh my goodness, not everything, you know,
work perfectly. For two months, I wasn't making any money
because I pretty much was making everything fresh. So I
(13:03):
was making my guacamola fresh. I was making my pickle
of the io fresh. So I was going to a
restaurant depot every single day and I'll get back, watch
the tacos tand and drop everything, eat dinner with my family,
and then cook whatever. It takes a long time, and
my refrigerator full of avocados. And my wife didn't like
(13:26):
that very much, but she knew that that was the
only option we had. Here's another thing. I used to
drink so I can go sleep, so I'll have like
a couple of beers. Write one beer. And one night
I was cooking the beans and I turned the TV on,
right was like eight pm. I fall asleep. Family was sleeping,
(13:47):
so around eleven o'clock. I don't know about you, but
when you burn beans, I don't know if you've done
this before, but it's not so bad, right, Just the
smell is really bad. And I woke up and I'm like,
oh my UITs, what I've done. Where a waste of product?
You know, it's money, and I couldn't just burned the house,
(14:07):
my family, you know what I'm doing. And I was
pretty angry. But at that moment, you know, I was
extremely tired, extremely disappointed, right, and I was just praying
because I was like, what I'm doing, I'm just wasting
my time here, Okay, I almost burned the house. I'm
extremely tired. I'm overweight because you know, it's just I've
(14:31):
been eating a lot and exercising, working long, long, long
hours and this is I don't know, this is not working.
So I was praying and I said God should send
me a message because I don't know what else to do.
And then my daughter started crying, and I remember I
was like, I guess that's the message I have to continue,
(14:55):
you know, for the family. Right, So I tie my
shoes and get back to work.
Speaker 3 (15:06):
Location. Location, Location, it's something real to say matters in
the value of a house or a property. But it
also turns out it matters if you own, say a
food truck or a taco stand, a movable location. And
it became the key to Osyrus's success.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
So we used to set up so early. And what
we used to set up is the ABC Channel seven.
We used to get there like five point fifty and
the weather man will get out right start telling you
about the weather. And but and then we're cooking bacon, right,
Oh man, we're cooking bacon. And I don't know about you,
(15:50):
but when you're cooking bacon, oh, it's not so good. Right.
So he's he always talk about us like a six am.
It's like he'll turn the cameras, you know, and we're
cooking bacon and were like saying hi, you know, and
that was oh man, that was great, great time. So
things were going so good. There were long lines to
(16:11):
order from us. We were like six people in the
tacos and working and we probably served about two hundred people,
and the actual press start writing about us and from
being laid off to have a Tacos, then I think
there was a wake up call that actually it can
be done. And then I, you know, came to my
(16:32):
business partner, Mark Wallace, and I say, hey, Mark, I
think we got something going on right here. That just
opened a restaurant. We opened the restaurant in twenty ten
in Arlington, Virginia, and from there, you know, we bought
a lot of equipment from Craigslist, so we pretty much
built the restaurants by ourselves. But we didn't know what
(16:54):
we were doing. I remember reviews online that said, don't think
because you came from attack, because then you're going to
be able to control a restaurant. But those reviews I remember,
I was like, okay, just wait, I'm going to show you.
And then after a year we felt like, okay, we
have a model. And then we hire for second store
(17:17):
in DC. We hire contractors, okay to build that store.
But then I was like, well, you know, maybe I
should call the guys up, you know, lay me off
and see if they want to work with me. So
I went and I hired them back It's funny because
I used to be their employee, now i'm their client.
That the way things work out, right, And from there,
(17:39):
you know, now we have twelve stores open and over
just a little bit over four hundred and fifty employees,
and we're going from there. You know. I think all
my life is always being about what older people had
and we didn't have. And I think I'm really thankful
that I didn't have it at all in the beginning.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
And a great job, as always to Monty Montgomery. And
my goodness, what a story. And it's every immigrant story
is in some ways the same, right from different places.
This story started in Yucatan, Mexico, but learned about standards
from his mom. He'd come in with a tomato from
the garden and she'd just shake her head. And I
know that feeling because my father, my grandfather, was a
(18:26):
great cook, and I'd go out to the garden and
bring it a tomato and he'd shake his head. And
to this day I do it now to my daughter. Thoh,
standards get passed along, folks. And by the way, he said,
in Mexico, you can't choose the life you want to lead.
And so we came to the United States versus a
dishwasher earning minimum wage and built a family, learned a
new trade, started that food truck thanks to the generosity
(18:48):
of a friend. And look where we are in this story.
And it's a story that happens time and again in
this great country. Osyrus Hoyle's story, District Taco's story, have
one in d C. Here on our American story.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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