A Highland Park taco stand just got a big honor: a $100,000 grant that will make it possible for a brick-and-mortar restaurant to open soon.
The 29-year-old owner credits his mom for pushing him to take the leap.
It’s not your normal line for street tacos on York Boulevard. Every night, Victor Villa pumps up the crowd as his family business gets down to work.
“You won’t find any tacos like this in Mexico and you won’t find any like this in the U.S.,” Villa said.
He calls it “Villa style tacos,” his take on family recipes from Michoacán, Mexico with special organic blue corn dough, melted cheese and marinated meat. Some of the secrets come from his grandfather.
Villa says his family has really been the backbone of his dream.
Recipes come from his grandpa and his grandma, who recently passed, along with his mom. She saw him waiting tables after college with a business degree, and took him to a business seminar where he learned to take a leap of faith and become his own boss.
“We sold our first taco in Highland Park, open up a restaurant,” Villa said.
And now he is one step closer to that restaurant after he won a contest for entrepreneurs from Estrella Jalisco Beer to “vive tu estrella,” or “live your dream,” earning a grant worth $100,000 dollars.
It’s that love and that positive energy that is also part of the draw of Villas Tacos.
Villa says he wants his first restaurant to be in Highland Park and hopes to expand across the city.