Sandra Lopez and her husband Jorge Chagoya are betting that Americans love Mexican food. And they want a chunk of the $75 billion a year that we spend on ethnic foods in this country.
Lopez and Chagoya are not newcomers to the highly-volatile, labor-intensive fast food biz, they already own two thriving Mexican food businesses in the greater Greenville area, Las Meras Tortas in Berea and Taylors. Now they are launching Uncle Berto’s Burritos in Greenville.
“My husband and I come from parents who had small businesses, and entrepreneurship is in our blood. Jorge always wanted to open his own Mexican restaurant. Six years ago, we decided to develop a business plan for a Mexican restaurant and four months later we opened Las Meras Tortas in Berea, serving all kinds of Mexican food to the Latino community. Two years later we opened a second location in Taylors. We realized that Greenville has been growing and there is a big potential in the Mexican fast food industry.”
Sandra Lopez is Colombian, her husband Jorge is Mexican and they have settled in Greenville after graduating from college in Columbia, then Lopez got a second degree in Management Sciences in New Jersey. To expand their restaurant business further in Greenville, the couple bought an already existing Mexican restaurant, Uncle Berto’s Burritos in Five Forks. And that’s when they realized it was probably easier to start from scratch than to reopen an existing restaurant. “Buying an existing business has more challenges than we initially thought. First of all, it is always difficult to fill someone else’s place, especially since Uncle Berto’s previous owners that were so well liked by their customers. But through all this time, we have shown them that we are also reliable and we have the same standards and passion for Mexican food as the old owners. Another challenge we faced was the need to refresh the place, but keeping at the same time the relaxed atmosphere the customers were accustomed to. We needed to come up with a new dining layout so we can accommodate a salsa bar and self service area, maximizing the number of seats for our customers, and giving the place a much more sophisticated look,” says Lopez.
Lopez and her husband are as excited as new parents about their latest venture. “Every night my husband and I go to bed talking about our business and the big potential it has. We believe in Uncle Berto’s like a parent believes in a small child. Even though there is a tough economy, we never lose our faith. We didn’t come to the United States to have a better life, but to build a better life day by day. In this process, we are not only helping ourselves, but also helping our employees and the other local businesses we deal with.”
Lopez’ long-range plan includes opening at least one other Mexican restaurant in downtown Greenville, followed by perhaps one in Charleston and Columbia. “The Mexican fast food market is a new and growing segment, and we want to be part of it,” she says. Uncle Berto's is located at 100 Batesville Road in Simpsonville, 864-234-6501.