Inspiring Conversations with Chris Blanchard of Chicas Tacos | Sante Social

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Blanchard.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Chicas Tacos and our founders from their youth to today. From camping trips to Coahuila to youth ministry projects in Ensenada to shared stories over delicious food, Mexico has enriched our lives and is the fabric which binds us together. Chicas Tacos was born in DTLA in 2016 while searching for healthy, organic versions of the Southern California street tacos we grew up with and love so much. Our promise is to serve the highest quality ingredients in a warm homestyle environment. Bold yet balanced tacos made fresh daily with organic ingredients rooted in Mexican traditions and wrapped in love – that’s Chicas Tacos.

Chicas Tacos was Founded by Chef Eduardo Ruiz, Chris & Jon Blanchard, Nico Rusconi and Margaret Mentaberry, Chicas has remained committed to its core promise of serving a better taco. At Chicas, it’s about more than great food and great hospitality. It’s about honoring the taqueros and chefs who came before us. It’s about finding partners like La Princesita for our award-winning hand-pressed corn tortillas. It’s about putting in care, love, and time that you can taste, like our slow-braised marinated barbacoa or our 9-ingredient Caesar dressing.

Bold yet balanced tacos rooted in Mexican tradition, made fresh daily with better ingredients and wrapped in love, that’s Chicas Tacos.

Chicas Tacos proudly serves the heart of Los Angeles from our Miracle Mile location, with pickup, delivery, and catering available throughout Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, Century City, Koreatown, Hollywood, West Hollywood, Downtown LA and everywhere in between.

Whether you’re dining in, ordering online, or planning your next event, Chicas Tacos brings the same dedication and bold flavors to every bite.

Chicas Tacos Growth, Today and Tomorrow: While our offsite catering continues to grow we listened to our customer regarding additions they would like to have solved or made easier. As a result we launched our first Chicas Tacos mobile bar vehicle. The beautiful bar cart has 7 taps and can serve a wide array of drinks from ice cold beers, cocktails, mocktails and aguas frescas. Customers can now visit ChicasTacos.com for a turnkey food and drink catering solution.

And if you are looking for just a beautiful bar cart option, you can visit our sister company SanteSocial.net.

Chicas Tacos Partner and VP of Marketing and Partnerships Margaret Mentaberry said, “For me, entrepreneurship is about creating spaces where people feel connected -whether that’s through food, drinks, or community. Santé Social and Chicas Tacos are both built on the idea that memorable experiences bring people together.”

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The restaurant business is not one paved in gold on a straight line to success. Yes, we have experienced great challenges. From forced closures in 2020 to the film and TV strikes to labor, food costs and insurance rate hikes etc. As a brick and mortar restaurant owner there is a threshold for which customers are welling to pay for a taco for example in a fast casual environment. While costs continue to increase and business is taken away, it is hard to manage a profitable business. Thankfully, we are resilient and look to push beyond our 4 walls for opportunities beyond.

As you know, we’re big fans of Chicas Tacos | Sante Social . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Chicas Tacos is a family run, family owned business. We built the company on our family values and experiences. We love food, people and having a great time. We believe in hard work, dedication, and good procedures all built on a strong foundation. Running a restaurant is not easy, but having the right procedures, practices and team makes all the difference.

At Chicas we focus on the guest experience, the team interaction, the ingredients and how our food is presented. We believe our difference is in the care and attention we place on our guest experience and the ingredients in our food. Our food is healthy for you, I want you to eat what we ourselves would eat and would feed our children.

Chicas Tacos specializes in high quality food from our Ensenada style beer battered fish taco topped with the TJ created Caesar salad to our plant-based queso made without dairy, nuts or seed oils. We also have fun with our menu items where chef created our version of a Mexican Pizza using our Michelin awarded Mejorado flour tortillas, house made BBQ chipotle sauce topped with chicken and a three cheese blend.

As a brand I am proud that we have built a reputation on high quality food and a customer first experience. We deliver on our promise to bring bold and balanced flavors in a warm welcoming environment. We also bring consistency along with your meal being prepared quickly.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My favorite childhood memories are sitting, laughing and connecting with my family over meals. We share, we joke, we try new things all while together. Service is big in my family, our uncle introduced via our church a program where we were able to contribute to building homes for deserving families. We traveled to Ensenada and surrounding areas to help bring connection under a roof to other families, and to this day I hold these experiences close to my heart.

Contact Info:

• Website: chicastacos.com and santesocial.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicastacos/ and https://www.instagram.com/santesocialca/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/chicas-tacos-los-angeles?start=320