Do you want a legit taco? Chala Taqueria says you have to come to them

Is your taco TRULY a taco?

That’s what Alberto Fenoll wants you to ask yourself.

While doing market research in South Florida, the co-owner and co-CEO of Chala Taqueria was a little taken aback with the feedback he gathered for the Dec. 8 launch of his restaurant on the edge of Fort Lauderdale’s Flagler Village neighborhood.

“People were saying they love tacos, tacos tacos, but when I ask them what is their favorite taco, 90% of the people tell me a taco that is not even a taco in Mexico,” Fenoll recalls. “The most important thing about tacos is the products you use, the people that do the taco for you and, of course, the recipes.”

For nine months, Fenoll gathered ingredient lists and recipes from his home country of Mexico, avoiding touristy locales for off-the-beaten-track areas where “the taco is the main food for the family” and speaking with kiosk owners and street vendors about their artisanal methods.

One thing came through very clearly: The corn is very important. That’s why it’s in the name of their restaurant.

“The leaf of the corn is called chala. That is why we chose Chala,” he says. “We also love flour tortillas, but for us the real taco, the Mexican taco, is with a corn tortilla. … Our tortillas are very, very different to all the tortillas that taquerias are selling in the U.S. …

“In the U.S., the corn is yellow that they use to make all of their products,” he adds. “In Mexico, it is the white corn. And that corn is perfect to have a very good tortilla with a very good temperature with a very good base for everything.”

THE BACKSTORY

The geographic history is a little tricky to follow. Chala Taqueria started as a ghost kitchen in Miami’s Coconut Grove working out of Aida, which is a restaurant owned by Colibri 4 Restaurant Group. In 2022, the culinary collective also opened a second Aida where Chala Taqueria is now (which some South Floridians may remember formerly housed American Icon Brewery Kitchen & Taproom), alongside the railroad tracks where Progresso Drive morphs into Northeast Fourth Avenue.

Comparatively, mapping how Fenoll and his business partner, Marco Bardone, met in Mexico is pretty straightforward: “He’s the dad of the best friend of my sister.”

Bardone was already in the restaurant business in South Florida with Aida. He and Eduardo Gavilan co-own Colibri 4 Restaurant Group. But Fenoll got bitten by the culinary bug while in Barcelona working in the finance field. The pandemic paused plans he had to delve into the food and beverage industry, so he eventually joined his family friend here.

THE FOOD

Billed as a fast-fine-dining, taco-themed restaurant chain — more about that coming up — Chala Taqueria also serves dishes such as Chicharron de Pork Belly, Esquites (Mexican street corn salad), and Guacamole and Chips. Fenoll says the company imports from Mexico as many ingredients as they can.

“When you use the best taco ingredients — meat, the pork or vegetables with a good sauce and a good tortilla — the flavors that you would get in your mouth are insane, are the best and are the real flavors that you would get in Mexico. So I want that,” Fenoll says. “I want that the people that come to Chala can have the same flavors that they will get when they are in the streets of Mexico.”

What they do with those ingredients in Chala Taqueria’s kitchen is also reflective of the methods used in Mexico.

“There are some tacos, like the birria — for us, the authentic birria is like our star plate — and the pastor, because both take more than 30 hours of work,” he explains. “When we receive a meat from the supplier, we have a process that we need to check the meat for more than 30 minutes with different temperatures.”

THE BRAND

The plan is to open three Chala Taquerias in South Florida this year.

“In two years, we want to have … between eight and 15 stores throughout Florida, at first,” Fenoll says. “And after that, we want to go to different states. In the future, we want to be worldwide.”

They also embrace technology, which is a large part of their business plan.

“Customers can buy our food by Instagram, Facebook, Google, all the delivery platforms, by Tik Tok,” he says. “All of the platforms are integrated in our kitchen, (which is) a smart kitchen because many restaurants want to do the same but they have a single iPad or a single tablet. That’s impossible for the chefs. That’s impossible for the process.

“We have our own technology,” he continues. “We have a lot of friends to the staff from the technology (world) so that we are creating our own programs. I think in time the customers will understand what we are creating with this technology. I think like in one year or two years, it would be amazing what we are doing with the technology.”

The aim is to create a brand.

“We are very ambitious. This is a very competitive industry, and tacos are a very competitive product in North America. So for us, our plan is to get (directly) to the people,” Fenoll says. “The first touchpoint is … with our good social networks. Our social networks are like a funny, funny website. When you see different things, you can laugh. It is approachable. And then we want to say, ‘By the way, we sell tacos.'”

Why Flagler Village?

Fenoll says the first brick-and-mortar Chala Taqueria is coming to Flagler Village because the area “has a little bit of magic.”

And, it’s in Fort Lauderdale.

He adds: “Fort Lauderdale, for me, is like the authentic part of South Florida. And Flagler Village, this zone for me is like a startup. Why a startup? Because it is a part of the city that is just beginning. It is a part of the city where entrepreneurs will believe. It is a part of the city where young people want to be, to know what’s going on.

Flagler Village, he says, “is like a hidden town where you are always going to find something new.”

Chala Taqueria is located at 911 NE Fourth Ave., Fort Lauderdale. For more information, visit chalataqueria.com or call 786-464-6793.