District Taco Puts Down Roots

At the end of the grand opening day of District Taco's new storefront restaurant on Lee Highway in Arlington on Thursday, some of Osiris Hoil's regular customers congratulated him on the new place as they walked out the door. It was well-deserved praise––the restaurant had been jammed full all day, and was busy the preceding few days during an unadvertised soft open.

People weren't always so friendly, though. "At first, people didn't talk to or look at me," Hoil says of the first few weeks after he opened his immensely popular taco cart that makes the rounds in Rosslyn, Ballston, Clarendon and Crystal City. He remembers customers being dismissive,  like one man who ordered his food, paid, and took his tacos without looking Hoil in the eyes at all.

Hoil opened the cart in 2009 after losing his job in the construction business. He started out as the only employee, making his own recipes. He wanted to make his food fresher and better than what you normally think of for a food cart or a generic hot dog stand.

The plan of making delicious, fresh food paid off. Things started picking up––customers kept coming back, Hoil developed a dedicated Twitter following, and people were friendlier. Hoil says the cart, which District Taco calls "El Torito" on their Twitter feed, can serve about 150 people per day. People will sometimes wait 40 minutes for their tacos, which astounds him.  Having to turn people away from the cart was part of the impetus for opening the restaurant, which has a big kitchen in the back and ample grill space out front to serve a much larger crowd. 

At the cart, Hoil knows his regulars' names and orders, and they know the product. But the new restaurant brought in crowds of new faces, and Hoil wonders how they'll react: "I can see their faces when they have their first bite, if they like it or not," he said.

He did the construction of the restaurant himself with the help of his own crew of people, instead of hiring someone else, saving money if not time. Last Saturday the restaurant did a soft open, and Hoil couldn't believe how busy it was. "People around the neighborhood knew something was coming up," he explained. They came in as soon as the place looked open.

The restaurant's opening has made things come full circle for Hoil in some ways, as he now hires and manages a large number of people. "I want to give opportunities to other people who got laid off," he says. Managing more employees is more of a mental game for him than the physical work required by preparing and serving hundreds of tacos in El Torito. Looking around his restaurant, Hoil says he's thankful for the people of Arlington for being so enthusiastic about his food.

"I didn't know I was gonna get to this point to be honest with you. You got to have faith sometimes—you've got to take risks to get to the point you want," he said.

The storefront serves quesadillas, burritos, salads, and nachos in addition to tacos. The roving El Torito serves up a changing daily special—"Everyday something different just like my mom cooks in Mexico, so you don't get bored," Hoil explains. The brick-and-mortar restaurant will likely have weekly specials, because Hoil knows his customers can't make a daily trek there like they can with the cart. As the restuarant grows in popularity, Hoil hopes his Twitter feed will also get bigger.

 "Whenever we get 10,000 people on Twitter, we'll give free tacos to everyone for a day," he pledges.