“We few, we completely satisfied few, we band of brothers.”
So mentioned the King of England, in William Shakespeare’s historic play “Henry V,” written in 1599. In that utterance, King Henry inspired his troops to maintain up their spirits by way of camaraderie as they battled the French military.
There’s one other band of brothers in Sonoma County at this time, taking over the challenges of proudly owning and working a restaurant. Who couldn’t use some dependable help in enterprise, particularly after these previous years of pandemic upheaval?
A number of restaurateurs are taking the concept actually, teaming up with their blood brothers to run eateries. That features Cancún Mexican Restaurant, Tacos al Carbón, Tacos El Paisa and Tacos Tijuana, all in Santa Rosa; Taqueria El Paisa in Rohnert Park; and Mi Tejas Tacos in Cotati.
Now we welcome one other Mexican restaurant to the group — Pezcow in Windsor, owned by siblings Damián and Luis Zúñiga. It debuted final September and constructed on one other degree of brotherhood: Damián beforehand labored with entrepreneurial brothers Octavio and Pedro Diaz at a number of of their eating places throughout the Bay Space.
The Diaz assortment consists of Agave Restaurant and Tequila Bar, El Farolito and Casa del Mole, all in Healdsburg; and El Gallo Negro in Windsor, plus eating places within the East Bay, a bottled sauce firm referred to as Mole Diaz Bros. and curiosity within the Mitote Meals Park below improvement in Roseland. (The Zúñigas, by the way in which, additionally personal the Lucha Sabina meals truck, parked Thursday by way of Monday at Mitote).
Brotherhood
For a lot of the brother duos, working collectively didn’t require a second thought. Miguel Canseco, 43, and Sergio Canseco, 47, personal Tacos El Paisa, Taqueria El Paisa and Mi Tejas Tacos, in addition to Toluco Mexican Kitchen in Palo Alto.
“Making tacos is a household custom for the Canseco brothers,” mentioned Miguel. “Our father had the one taco stand in our hometown, Tejas de Morelos in Oaxaca. Jorge Canseco, finest often known as Don Jorge, is a really well-known taco chef there, and Sergio, I labored along with him since we had been little children.”
After immigrating to the USA as youngsters, the brothers began a catering enterprise, making tacos for weddings and quinceañeras. At this time they make use of greater than 50 employees and have expanded into in style regional specialties like quesabirria (birria beef and cheese folded right into a fried tortilla with consommé for dipping) and tlayudas (an Oaxacan specialty of a big, skinny, crunchy tortilla mounded with refried beans, asiento pork lard, lettuce, avocado, meat, queso Oaxaca and salsa). Prospects embrace Latinos but additionally individuals of each tradition.
“I really feel that California gringos have the Mexican meals code of their system,” Miguel teased. “Actually, although, everybody actually appreciates our mole and is impressed by how labor-intensive this dish is.”
Edwin Hernandez Garcia, 24, and Alfredo Hernandez Garcia, 27, opened their Tacos Tijuana with just a few different companions in Santa Rosa final summer time. The supervisor and the prepare dinner, respectively, got here to Sonoma County in 2012 with the hope of saving sufficient cash to construct “a giant white home” for his or her mom.
“We haven’t purchased the home, however we’ve saved sufficient for the paint,” Edwin joked.
Edwin had labored for practically a decade making tacos for a lot of eating places and meals vehicles in Santa Rosa, and when the chance got here as much as be a part of one thing of his personal, he reached to his “finest good friend” to assist him — his brother.
“It was laborious to persuade him to depart his secure job and be part of me, however I do know all his secrets and techniques,” Edwin mentioned. “I blackmailed him, ha! Actually, although, it’s good to work with my brother as a result of we each have the identical dream and are saving cash for a similar objective.”
Reception has been excellent for his or her genuine dishes, like their bestselling CompaJack burrito full of cabeza meat constituted of a complete cow’s head and slow-roasted till it’s so tender it falls away from the cranium. Then the juicy meat is braised, steamed and shredded.
“Generally (first-time diners) blink their eyes after they study what lengua (roasted tongue) or tripa (boiled and grilled intestines) are, however they nearly all the time inform us it was scrumptious,” Edwin mentioned, including that the kitchen additionally excels in vegetarian and vegan dishes.
Issues can get frictional from time to time, as he and Alfredo are additionally roommates. However over time, they’ve discovered a stopgap for potential quarrels spiraling too excessive.
“Once we don’t agree on one thing, we simply flip a coin,” Edwin mentioned.
Companions and brothers Moises Ramirez, 38, and Jorge Rodriguez, 33, maintain issues calm however cut up duties between their two Santa Rosa eating places. Ramirez is in control of Tacos al Carbón, and Jorge is in control of Cancun.
