How one Columbus restaurant beat the odds with tacos

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Restaurants were thriving in the years leading up to March 2020.

“It was some of the best times, really, in the history of the restaurant industry,” John Barker, president and CEO of Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance, said.

Tough years followed for restaurants, big and small.

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“You have to go back to the Depression, really, in the 1930s to see that much decimation in the industry,” Barker said. “We lost hundreds and hundreds of restaurants. And just in Ohio, right? And across the United States, you know, we lost about 100,000 restaurants.”

Zachary Martin was working a sales job when COVID hit.

“Friday, March 21, I got my furlough notice and, obviously, day one was like, ‘Oh my God, panic, what are we going to do?'” he said.

Life was coming at Martin fast.

“I found myself on furlough with two boys and was stuck at home and needed to figure out how to make sure those are paid, and they were fed,” he said. “I was like, maybe friends and family will take pity on me. Help me through this financial time. I’m going to give them food, maybe there’s some support. It was really wild.”

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Something had to give for Martin, who had two kids at home and was going through a divorce. Martin grew up working in restaurants. If there was one thing he knew, it was food. Over one weekend, Martin came up with a plan. He created an Instagram page, a menu, and a process for taking orders. He was going to sell tacos and deliver them to people around Columbus.

“I’ve never really been a taco chef and so, for me, it’s just that I understand food,” he said. “I understand flavor and balance and how things need to be put forward.”

He got his first order, went to the grocery store to get fresh ingredients, and went to work in his kitchen.

The tacos were a hit.

“During that two months that I was on furlough originally, I was fulfilling orders seven days a week,” Martin said.

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After a couple of months, his sales job brought him back, but he was enjoying the pursuit of his taco business and kept it going after he got home from work. But that soon became draining.

“I kept restricting the hours because I could only handle so much,” Martin said. “I started putting people on a waitlist. That waitlist for tacos grew to, like, five months, people waiting for tacos. And I’m like, ‘Who waits five months for tacos?’ But I’m like, ‘Cool. This is amazing.'”

Soon after he was back to work in sales, the Delta variant hit the country and Martin found himself on furlough once again. The taco business needed to heat up, not just for survival, but for Martin’s family.

“The money that was actually coming in for House Taco made it so that I made sure my kids stayed with me,” he said. “I got them. You know, equal rights, equal time. And so really it was this fight for my kids.”

All those tacos Martin was making and delivering were not just keeping food on his table, but keeping his kids sitting at the table.

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Martin wanted to take the next step. He needed a kitchen space. He asked around, was offered space in some restaurant kitchens, but only late at night or during off hours that he couldn’t make work.

That’s when another opportunity came his way.

“Somebody told me that the statehouse kitchen was vacant,” Martin said. “So, the director and I had a meeting. I think it was kind of funny because I feel like she was pretty skeptical about politicians eating tacos all day.”

“My first lease was two months, and everyone loved it. And so that two months turned into a year and eight months,” he said.

Almost two years after opening up shop in the Ohio Statehouse, Martin was approached with another opportunity. An empty space on 4th Street downtown with a bar, a kitchen, and a small patio. He questioned whether downtown Columbus was the right spot to move his restaurant.

Barker said downtown areas of cities across the country were the hardest hit by COVID. People left office buildings and worked from home, and the return to the office was slow.

“You just go up and down the sidewalks and there’s just not many people out walking around downtown,” Barker said. “If you look back 10 years ago, those sidewalks were filled.”

Barker said that restaurants adjusted their way of doing business in order to survive. Take-out orders became a much bigger business during COVID, and it’s stuck around.

“I think third-party delivery saved us during the pandemic,” he said. “2023 in the first quarter was the first time that we saw more restaurants open and close since the pandemic.”

For Martin, he wanted to make sure he was making the right decision. But he thought, Cameron Mitchell is opening a new steakhouse called Butcher+Rose right around the corner at the Preston Centre and several high-rise condos and apartments are being built or renovated in the area, so why not take a chance?

Martin took the leap of faith and opened House Taco at 79 S. 4th Street.

“I’m just taking everything that’s in front of me and doing the best I can to just keep moving forward,” he said.

Martin said he will continue to tackle one thing at a time and make good food in a good atmosphere with fresh ingredients.

“Make sure that you’re truly passionate and in love with it because the grind is hard, it is real,” he said. “You have good days and then you have crazy, stressful days.”

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