Tacotarian

Local plant-based Mexican eatery Tacotarian, hit hard by the pandemic, brings to light a largely unknown issue related to delivery services fees. 

Founded in August of 2018, Tacotarian features “the largest selection of vegan tacos in the universe.”

Kristen Corral, the co-founder of Tacotarian and Marketing/Public Relations Manager, shared how the pandemic impacted Tacotarian.

“We closed for six weeks starting in March and reopened for takeout on May 5th,” Corral said. With new guidelines, they reduced their dining room capacity to 50%. Despite this change, she said, “Things are different, but we are fortunate that our product is great for carryout.”

In addition to the capacity change, the restaurant was already going above and beyond with local safety standards before the pandemic. When Tacotarian opened back up in May, there wasn’t much of a change needed other than doing additional deep-cleanings at night and requiring staff and guests who are not presently eating to wear masks.

Having taken those six weeks off during the state shutdown, Corral shared that she and her team used that time to focus on the systems and processes needed to continue growing their brand. 

As a result, the extra time helped the business, Corral said. “Now we’re focused on implementing all those processes and expanding.” 

The Problem with 3rd-Party Delivery Apps

As Corral mentioned, Tacotarian equipped themselves for take-out and delivery during the reopening process. The biggest thing that impacted the restaurant was the very thing that they have to rely on – delivery services. 

“Before the pandemic, third-party apps like Postmates, Grubhub, and Uber were considered a necessary evil,” Corral said. “When the pandemic hit, it really put a spotlight on how unethical these big tech companies are.”

To elaborate, Corral shared how these services take “30% of every single order placed on their platforms.”

“There’s no transparency to customers,” she said. They don’t know how much these apps charge restaurants to use the service.

This means that “when restaurants are forced to offer nearly all to-go, those corporations take 30% of someone’s revenue,” she said. “It’s not sustainable.”

“Tacotarian paid $6,500 in delivery commissions in June, just at one location. That’s double our rent and could easily put some businesses out of business for good.”

In response to this issue, Corral shared how people could help out local businesses. 

“Customers can best support all their favorite restaurants by ordering direct,” Corral said. 

Order straight from Tacotarian’s website, by phone, or through Facebook messenger. 

Combating the high delivery fees by third-party applications the best way to help Tacotarian and other restaurants is by ordering personal carryout and pickup; rather than ordering delivery. 

Corral continued by saying that people who are concerned about the issue of unethically high fees by delivery services can also contact their representatives, both locally and nationally, to “put a cap on 3rd party apps like the county already enacted.” 

You can read more about this issue on Corral’s blog post on the Tacotarian website.

#GetinMotion with Tacotarian!

If you’re looking for a delicious, healthy, and authentic Mexican meal, head on down to Tacotarian. Both locations open from 11 AM to 9 PM, 7 days a week. 

You can view Tacotarian’s menu and order online here.

They call their special for the month of September the “Shroom Cocktail.” It’s their “twist on an epic shrimp cocktail.”

This special is for a fundraiser benefiting R.E.A.C.H., an organization helping the Latin and other underserved communities access health services. Twenty percent of every order of the cocktail will go to the organization. 

Corral concluded by saying, “Support local businesses!”, and to follow Tacotarian on their Instagram and Facebook.