Tacos Mexicanos food truck owners are opening two new restaurants. Here's what we know.

It has been a busy couple of years for Gabriel Hernandez and his wife, Gabriela Ramirez, founders of Pensacola’s fast-growing Tacos Mexicanos.

The couple started on a humble quest to serve the kind of tacos they enjoy eating at home, like Hernandez’s best-selling “awesome taco,” which was designed to include all his personal favorite toppings, like fresh avocado, cilantro, grilled onions and queso fresco paired with a homemade salsa.

The venture has since matured into two food trucks, a new brick-and-mortar restaurant that opened just days ago and a mysterious brand-new concept called Gaby’s Taqueria slated to open on 104 E. Gregory St. this month.

“It’s definitely like a baby, it’s like trying to raise kids,” Hernandez said. “It all becomes what your life turns into, it’s all about that. It’s all about the business now.”

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Lots of restaurants, little time

Hernandez had worked for corporate restaurants in Houston, Texas where the two met, but opening his own restaurant was never in the original plans.

“A year into being in Pensacola — we couldn’t find the spot to get tacos. There were a couple places, but we just didn’t know of them,” Hernandez said. “We were like, ‘we have to open a taco place because we want to eat tacos.’”

The couple started out by serving the East Hill community with a truck at 3000 N.12th Ave., which still exists today, before catching the eye of D.C. Reeves, who brought them on in a partnership for a second truck to park in the Garden & Grain courtyard on 50 E. Garden St. in 2020.

Their business took off to new heights during the pandemic, where they could easily adapt to the COVID-19 necessities, like online ordering, delivery and carry-out.

Since then, the brand has continued to expand even more. Hernandez was able to secure its first sit-down restaurant, also called Tacos Mexicanos, next to Pensacola State College on 1014 Underwood Ave. that just opened its doors to the public last week.

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The restaurant will still carry over a fast-casual format of ordering at the counter, but the employees will now give the guest a number and bring the food out to the table. He anticipates to-go orders will still dominate the day over dine-in, as many customers enjoy the restaurant’s online ordering system, he said.

The new restaurant's menu offers a lot of the familiar favorites, like the street tacos, burrito bowls, quesadillas and wraps. However, the larger space does allow for potential new additions with time.

“We are definitely going to entertain the idea of rolling out menu items that if they stick, they can live in a space like this,” Hernandez said. “We hope that people who live and work in this area will not have to drive all the way to 12th Avenue to enjoy our food, but it’s literally going to be the exact same thing for the first couple of months.”

One of the biggest differences is that Hernandez and Ramirez are not on their own anymore and have created Artisan Restaurant Group as a way to manage and open more locations.

“It was like (Gaby) and I doing just doing everything every day, open to close,” Hernandez said of their early beginnings. “We brought in a team from Texas with people we used to work with with a lot of experience.”

Transitioning from the truck

Hernandez said there has been a bit of a learning curve though in making the transition from truck to restaurant. One of which being how to design a physical space when all they had known were the close quarters of the truck's kitchen.

“We tried one thing, had to paint the walls a couple times because we couldn’t get it right,” Hernandez said. “Then our new partners who helped us from Artisan Restaurant Group came in with a lot of vision for design and they have really good taste when it comes to designing spaces.”

Now the restaurant has come to life with its bright bubblegum pink walls, café-style barstools, emerald green tile backsplashes, vintage Mexican tables, freshly painted murals and live ferns. Lots of ferns.

Another refreshing change was the option to sell alcohol, which Hernandez said was a piece that the couple always felt was missing at the food trucks.

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Gaby's Taqueria: coming soon

Gaby’s Taqueria, the second new brick and mortar restaurant from the restaurant group, will carry a Cali-Mex style with some new spins on the traditional Mexican fare, venturing more into breakfast tacos and seafood options.

While not much information has been released just yet on Gaby’s, that restaurant and Tacos Mexicanos should be different enough where they could be open side-by-side and still offer guests different experiences, Hernandez said. (Stay up to date with pnj.com for the latest information on the new restaurant.)

The group is also simultaneously developing a Gaby’s Taqueria location in Destin.

Although there is plenty of room for other restaurant concepts in the future, Hernandez said he is content with the existing concepts for now.

The Tacos Mexicanos storefront is open every day from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. More information can be found on the Tacos Mexicanos Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Tacos Mexicanos food truck owners opening two Pensacola restaurants