This past Saturday, my wife and I endured rainy day errands south of Derenne and had earned a flunch, our cutesy Portmanteau for ‘fun lunch’. It had been too long since we had enjoyed the authentic homemade Mexican fare at Taqueria El San Luis, mostly because we are rarely in that part of town, so time and place met perfectly.
Back in 2021, I wrote about the one-year anniversary of Chris and Jorge Banda’s family-owned-and-run restaurant, but I did not presume that the former recognized me when we walked in three years later. Smiling broadly behind the counter, he welcomed us and told us to take our time as we considered the big menu boards overhead.
Only when I was paying did I reintroduce myself, and I am so glad that I did because the son of this father-and-son enterprise informed me that they were just a Health Department visit away from opening taqueria number two.
Once that red-tape line is cleared, the Bandas’ brand will expand with a second restaurant on Ogeechee Road just south of Quacco Road in the former home of 3 Tops Barbecue.
“The name’s already up there on the restaurant: Taqueria El San Luis, same as this one,” said Chris Banda.
“Everything is set,” he added, planning an opening before the month ends. “As soon as the inspection comes in, we’ll be on the road.”
TIME FOR NUMBER TWO
“My dad started thinking about it maybe a year ago,” Chris Banda shared. “There was a lot of preparation before we even thought about trying to purchase another place.”
Once their first restaurant had its full complement of cooks and counter help, the proprietary partners felt like the business was “going good.”
“I started taking over more of the operations role at this location, and my dad had more time to go about and do his own thing,” said Chris Banda, who estimated that his father looked for a good six months before he found the right spot, a storefront in the Seventeen Oaks plaza.
“He started really cracking down on it in the last few months, and once he found a place, we decided to take off and get it done,” he added.
About three months back, they signed the lease and went right in to renovate and to “make it [their] own,” per Chris Banda.
Just four years old, the boxy brick-and-stucco mall-ito, if you will, still looks brand new, situated just outside the entrance to The Slate Apartments.
“There were a few things that we needed to purchase so that we could make specific dishes that we have at the other taqueria,” said the younger Banda, “but in terms of equipment, not too much.”
The hood and vent were already in place, which meant no major overhaul of the kitchen.
The spacious interior has been given a fresh coat of goldenrod and orange paint to match the original restaurant, and similar decorations and tables give the space a familiar feeling. On one side, a wood-clad U-shaped bar has a dozen stools, and the dining room proper, with two and four-tops, seats more than 50, probably three times the Hodgson Memorial Drive outpost’s capacity.
About that: the only major difference, Chris Banda explained, is full tableside service.
“Instead of coming to the register to order, we will come to you,” he said.
CARBON-COPY MENU PLUS TRADITIONAL PLATES
“All been good, my friend,” Chris Banda said of these past four years of being first-time restaurateurs. “Slowly but surely, we got more and more customers. Word of mouth really worked for us, so we’re really enjoying how things have progressed over time.”
At the new location, he and his father will reuse the successful blueprint they built while adding more to what the former called “a copy-and-paste of our original menu.”
Seven proteins - al pastor, barbacoa, carnitas, chicken, fish, shrimp, and steak - are available five ways, in a burrito, a quesadilla, or a torta or in tacos or on a tostada. The vast majority of every edible is made in-house, notably the corn tortillas used in the last two ‘vehicle’ options.
The tortas’ teleras are homemade by a good friend of the Bandas who owns a bakery and bakes them fresh and who will also supply the new restaurant with its rolls, made specifically for these sandwiches without the telera’s signature double lines across the surface.
Chris Banda said that traditional plates will be featured on specific days of the week and will rotate, but everyday additional offerings will include chilaquiles, moles, plates de asada, and more.
“All the good stuff my dad grew up with at home,” he said, acknowledging San Luis Potosí in Mexico’s Mesa Central region, after which their restaurants are named.
Taqueria El San Luis II has a liquor license, which makes that gorgeous bar all the more necessary. Nearby, a cold case will be filled with Jarritos, and homemade agua frescas will flow from the dispensers in a variety of changeable flavors.
For starters, father will be at the new location, and son will hold down the original food fort.
“Our goal is to make sure that one of us is at a given location at a given time,” said Chris Banda. “It’s important for us to make sure that everything goes the way it’s supposed to.”
As father and son ready to welcome the residents of Richmond Hill, Georgetown, Berwick, and Southbridge to Taqueria El San Luis, this fact cannot be understated: having never before run their own restaurant, the Bandas delayed a dream due to a global pandemic but resiliently realized it to a degree that they are able to open a second location just for years later.
Nice families finish first not last, and this one will feed you delicious, authentic Mexican comfort food.
Both Taqueria El San Luis locations (7094 Hodgson Memorial Drive and 5796 Ogeechee Road) are open Tuesday to Saturday (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.).
