Today we’d like to introduce you to Mario Melendez.
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?
I developed the taco catering business plan while I was in Jamaica in 2005.
When I came back to the States, I launched the Rasta Taco business in 2006.
When we first launched the Taco Catering side of the business, we were literally the first company to ever have a website for Taco Catering.
As a matter of fact, in my office, a framed Google screenshot of the search engine term “taco cart catering”, and Rasta Taco is the ONLY company on the entire front page.
As soon as we launched the website, the phone was ringing within minutes.
We launched with a really basic HTML website. When the phone first rang, I thought it was a friend of mine pulling a joke on me. But that’s how quickly business took off.
Over the years, Rasta Taco has been responsible for the formation of hundreds of competing companies. Either people that work for me or took the structure of what we were doing and copied it.
Rasta Taco was the first taco catering company to take it from a “ma and pa” model to the Catering standard within the Food and Beverage industry as we see it today and made it a standard for any event, i.e., weddings, corporate, or private backyard parties.
We launched the Margarita Truck Rasta Rita in 2012.
The Rasta Rita Margarita and Beverage Truck is literally the FIRST Margarita truck in the world. We have four trucks in total now.
Rita as we call our main truck, A 65 GMC, has been meme’ed millions of times. The iconic truck I created has become a party favorite up and down California. We cater events from San Francisco to San Diego and as far east as Las Vegas and Arizona.
I opened our brick-and-mortar Rasta Taco restaurant in downtown Laguna Beach in 2016. We are celebrating eight years this January. We are the smallest restaurant in California at 220 ft.².
Rasta Taco, Ocho Rios, Jamaica opened in 2018. Due to Covid restrictions, we shut down in 2020.
Rasta Rita Cantina and Venue opened 2020 in Twentynine Palms, CA. A full service Cantina, Rastaruant and Private Wedding Venue (www.rastaritacantina.com).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The biggest challenge and obstacle I have faced in business is imitation.
Because there’s such a low barrier to entry, anybody who is out of work or feels that they are the “next best thing” for food catering can easily enter into the taco catering field.
As a result, they drive prices down, and quality suffers. And that puts everybody in the Taco Catering industry in a position where one is competing with people that are lower price, low quality, uninsured, unlicensed, etc.
Ultimately, this cheapens the experience of having an “on-site made-to-order” Taco Catering company serve at your event.
And because there’s no copyright or trademark protection, it’s not a business that you can protect legally.
Over the years, we have had so many people steal our idea and launch a competing company. This experience has been super hurtful. We even had a group of individuals whom worked for us steal our equipment only to launch a competing company months after they stole the equipment.
The biggest challenge that I’ve had for the margarita truck is obtaining the proper liquor license.
As a result, I was forced to build and self-finance a restaurant in order to obtain a liquor license. All in, the build-out number was close to $700,000 to ensure that the Margarita trucks were properly licensed by the state of California.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
After I received my Masters in Business Administration from the University of Alicante, in Spain, I came back to California and launched a clothing business.
I designed, produced, and sold a Men’s streetwear a line of clothing under my own name.
The brand was very successful, and we had approximately 70 doors selling my clothing and apparel.
However, because of consequences revolving around 9/11, and as a smaller business, I was a product of downsizing within the industry after the 9/11 catastrophe happened.
As a result, I was forced to close the business down.
I always consider myself, first and foremost, a designer.
Everything I do comes from a very aesthetic approach.
Branding and marketing drive the business.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
It’s difficult to identify a singular most important lesson; however, if I had to generalize, I would always say just keep moving forward.
Every day I go to work, and every day I try to be a little better than the day prior.
I think it’s critical to have a backstory.
I think a story will ultimately drive the business. Because of the ingenuity of a great back-story, it will propel the business to do well.
When I meet somebody, I’m always interested to hear how they got to be where they got to be.
Their story always intrigues me.
A great story behind a business will drive the business.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rastarita.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rastaritamargarita/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rastaritamargarita/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melendezmario/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rasta-rita-margarita-and-beverage-truck-laguna-beach-6
- Other: http://mariomelendez.com/
