I sat down with my friends David and Brian, the owners, and operators of my favorite Taquería. We talked about opening a restaurant at the onset of a global pandemic, what it means to run a business serving a community, how our childhood traumas affect our adult brains and how we find a path to healing from the pain those rough experiences imbued on us.
This interview took place in June 2022 right around the same time we worked together with Brian, David & the Los Puñales Taquería crew, as well as Portland recycled skateboard experts, MapleXO, to raise some $s for Quest Integrative Health as part of the “Why So Sad?” mission and the Taquería’s 2nd anniversary.
John:
Los Puñales is two! How does it feel so far and what would you say are the biggest lessons you’ve learned while you’ve been building the brand and business within the Portland community?
Brian:
I can’t believe we’ve made it two years. We opened in June 2020, three or four months into the Pandemic. It was a really tough time and we just said, “Let’s do this. Let’s see how this goes.” Somehow it worked out.
We went into it thinking something like, well, we’re the only new restaurant in a market where everything is closing. So, that seemed like an opportunity that the pandemic provided, and it worked out.
In the last two years, the learnings are that when you make food for yourself that you put love into because it’s food you want to eat, nothing else matters, everything will fall into place as long as you do that. (more…)