What started as a college project and dream to own a business for Jesus Santoyo has become a reality. While attending Cal State University, Long Beach State Jesus Santoyo created a restaurant named Just Tacos Mexican Grill. In this project he detailed how we would travel different regions of Mexico to aquire the most authentic receipes to asking his grandmother “grande” for her receipes, which have been passed down for several generations. With the encouragement and great feedback from his professor Jesus was determine to open up Just Tacos. Mr. Santoyo set out to get finances for the restaurant, but only to be meet with rejection from several banks stating, “no restaurant can succeced by just selling tacos”. If only Jesus had kept the bank's contact information he would have loved to call them and tell them how well his restaurant is doing.

 

In 2005 after saving enough money and with his parents financial support Jesus Santoyo decided to pursue his life time dream and open his own business. He started by following his college project and began to travel to different regions of Mexico aquiring authentic recipes. Each time he arrived at a different Pueblo (city) he would ask local people were he could find some good authentic food the city had to offer. In Mexico like other places in the world each region is known for a particular plate or dish. Once Mr. Santoyo tasted the food and enjoyed the taste he would then negotiate with the owners to purchase the recipe. Jesus didn't just purchase the recipe but would work for free along with the kitchen staff or grandmothers “abuelitas” at the restaurant/family homes for two weeks writing his own recipe down capturing the true essence of the dish. Mr. Santoyo traveled several regions of Mexico for months and came back home with the essentials for a successful restaurant, authentic Mexican delicious food! Along with his travel he acquired a 200+ year old recipe to make fresh corn tortillas from his grandmother “grande” and “Tia Anita”.

 

The first Just Tacos Mexican Grill opened in Downtown Honolulu in the heart of the business district. The response from the customers was overwhelming good. At that point Mr. Santoyo knew he had something special and started to imagine a franchise. He said “If In-N-out, that sells only burgers can become so successful why not a franchise that specializes in selling tacos”.