Chef Stories: Adolfo Gonzalez
In his own words, the owner of Taco Cantina shares his journey from dishwasher to award-winning restaurateur
Right down the street from the new Braves’ stadium construction zone, tiny Taco Cantina has been hitting it out of the park since July 2015 with carefully crafted tortas and tacos. Chef Adolfo Gonzalez opened the shop with the help of his wife and brother, not to mention the lessons he learned growing up in his mother’s kitchen in Zacatlan, Mexico. Here, Gonzalez shares his story of opening a restaurant built on equal parts ambition and patience.
I came to Atlanta from Mexico when I was just 15 years old with my brother. I started working at Atlanta Fish Market in Buckhead as a dishwasher. I spent six months as a cleaner in the morning, washing the floors, looking at the stations, trying to learn, because I didn’t want to stay a cleaner for the rest of my life. My brother told me it might not be the job you want, but it’s a job that’s going to get you where you want to be.
So I learned the appetizer station, and one day, someone quit out of the blue. I raised my hand, with the little English I spoke, and they looked at me like a crazy person. But they gave me a chance — they had no choice. It was a little rough at first, but I never looked back. At the tender age of 18, I was already a sous chef at a multi-million dollar restaurant. I just wanted to make my mother proud. You have no school, no education, you just do what you can do with your hands and your brains and deal with it in a gracious way.
I worked at Atlanta Fish Market for four years then moved to Charleston as a chef de cuisine for Coast Bar & Grill. I was there almost three years, until my brother went back to Mexico and they needed another chef at the Fish Market. So I came back in 2004, and they named me chef de cuisine.
No value assignedI always had a dream of opening one little thing. I wanted to open a seafood restaurant, but that requires thousands of dollars — hundreds of thousands of dollars — and having three kids and a wife and a house, it’s hard to save money. I went to a popular taco shop near my house to check them out. Sure enough, the line was long, but I wasn’t impressed. I took my wife, my brother, and we knew we could do better.
One day, I stopped by a pizza shop I saw for sale and called the number on the sign. I heard nothing. But three weeks went by, and out of the blue, they called me and asked if I was interested. She told me if I had the money and could come by in half an hour, it was mine. I told her that was not possible, but I went and looked at the place, and it was in good shape with good kitchen equipment, so I told the lady I was interested. But I couldn’t buy it that day.
She gave me the weekend to think about it. I talked it over with my wife and my brother. We knew it would be tough, but we did it.
It took me seven months to get where we were breaking even and doing well. Now, thank God, it’s becoming an establishment known by the locals, especially the offices nearby. I am a bit more expensive than some other places, but my kitchen is open, anyone can see it. Anyone can walk in the back and see my coolers and see the fresh, quality ingredients we use.
We knew we’d have people ask for hard shell tacos with ground beef, and I would have to tell them, unfortunately, I will never sell that. But I say, give us a try. If you don’t like mine, I tell them straight up — if you don’t like it, I’ll give you something you like. I know my food is good.
No value assignedPeople ask about authenticity, but my approach is a mix of growing up in Puebla and working in restaurants with chefs like Robert Holley, Pano Karatassos, and Kevin Rathbun — it’s authentic to me, to the way I cook, the way my mother used to cook. We came from a very poor background with eight brothers and sisters. My mother had a produce store, and she used anything going bad, things she couldn’t sell, to make our meals at home. But she made everything taste so good!
My barbacoa? It’s not my barbacoa — it’s hers. The pork? Same thing. I try to recreate it as much as I can. At the end of the day, though, I just want people to like it and come back again and again.
Right now, the stadium construction is killing my lunches. I knew that going in it would be tough, opening a small business near the new stadium. But I know when you have good food, people will come. People will drive. I have a customer who comes every week from Columbus and gets three Cuban tortas, two to eat and one to go!
That Cuban was one of the top 20 sandwiches in Atlanta in a recent Atlanta magazine article. Mine is a hybrid between a Mexican torta and a Cuban sandwich. I do my pork carnitas style, and my bread is a white Mexican hoagie, a little softer, and I crisp it with butter on the flat top. What makes it great, though, is my dressing, which is made with a lot of love — I won’t give away the recipe!
This is a country of great opportunities if you set your mind to it. My mother used to say, it doesn’t matter what you do — do it well, do it graciously, to the best of your abilities, and it will translate to great things.
Taco Cantina. 2517 Spring Rd S.E. #101, Smyrna. 678-424-1826. mytacocantina.com