Listen to this story as it was recorded for WKNC’s Eye on the Triangle:
It is 12:30 on a bright and sunny Tuesday afternoon when the Don Beto El Poblano taco truck goes through another typical afternoon rush. Orders are taken while at the same time, tacos and tortas, large Mexican sandwiches, leave the serving window and are handed to hungry customers.
It is hard to say exactly how much longer the truck staff will continue serving on this Tuesday afternoon. Within the next couple of hours the staff of Don Beto will quickly pack up their food and close the stainless steel shutters of their serving windows, finished for the day. However, a customer searching for authentic Mexican tacos will never find Don Beto on Google maps or in a restaurant directory. Those who know how to find the food vendor will not look for a fixed address. Instead, they will keep their eyes out for an inconspicuous white utility truck smugly parked on the side of the road.
Traversing the busy thoroughfare of Capital Boulevard, Don Beto has been running its route for three years. Its cook, Miguel Moral, has been working the street for a year and a half.
“We usually move every two or three hours to places like construction sites,” Moral said.
The concept of mobile-food service, however, is not unfamiliar with the outside diners in Raleigh. Despite having knowledge of food trucks like Don Beto, many people in the Triangle have limited experience of them.
“I had heard about these taco trucks, I just had never been,” Ilse Gonzalez, a sophomore in nutrition science, said.
Like many independent restaurant businesses, Don Beto sticks with appealing to clients through the use of recipes and ingredients close to home.
“The majority of our customers are from Mexico; sometimes we do get American customers,” Moral said.
More importantly, this means making everything fresh from the preparation of the tortillas to the cooking of the meat.
“We make fresh tortillas while some people use already made ones,” Moral said. “For us we make it from corn flour, the way they make it in Mexico. We cook our pork two ways. One way we fry it while the other we marinade and then slow cook. We also marinade and slow cook our beef.”
For those who miss the native flavor of their country, food trucks like Don Beto provide a meal that not only satisfies their desire for classic favorites, but also delivers nostalgia as well.
The vendor offers staples that any Mexican can relate to, although the business is run by poblanos, natives of the Mexican state of Puebla.
According to Moral, there are various specialties that coincide with different regions in Mexico. Although Don Beto serves food from Puebla, Moral said any Mexican would recognize and appreciate the flavors.
Forget nachos, gorditas, and any dish with the words “cheesy” and “fiesta” in the title. Don Beto, without reservation, serves authentic Mexican food, even if it may be unsettling to the American palate.
According to Moral, the majority of the customers are Hispanic, so the flavors would are no surprise to them. Exotic menu items include tacos of: lengua, beef tongue; tripa, fried tripe; pastor, marinated lamb; and cabeza, which consists of the meaty pieces of cow’s face.
“I expected pretty much exactly what I saw,” Gonzalez said. “It was surprising to see it. Its (Don Beto’s truck) location was really random. Maybe because I’m Mexican and I go to Mexican restaurants a lot, it was familiar.”
Of course there are the challenges that food truck services like Don Beto face. For one thing, unlike established landmark restaurants like Taquería Rubio in Durham, the hours that Don Beto can operate are limited. There are many factors that would make it difficult for a lone food truck to operate at night, whereas buildings like Taquería Rubio can stay open as late as two in the morning.
Additionally, the weather affects the flow of business.
“When it rains or it is cold, it’s not as busy,” Moral said. “We have a little bit more dining in spring and summer.”
Over the years, mobility and obtaining a parking spot has been the biggest issue that food trucks have faced, and Don Beto is no exception.
“Moving from here to there is the biggest problem,” Moral said. “We have to find a place to park from day to day so the customer will know where we are. That’s the hardest part.”
The restaurant business relies heavily on constancy, albeit stationary or mobile. Customers will fall back on more consistent establishments than restaurants with temporary locations.
However, those like Gonzalez with the fortune of finding Don Beto, plan to return now that there’s an idea of the food truck’s location.
“It is hard to find and the truck is in a strange location,” Gonzalez said. “That’s definitely a disadvantage—the location. I probably wouldn’t have found it beforehand, but now that I’ve tried it, I will find it again.”
