Few Austin restaurants can boast of their successes like Taco Shack can. From one little store on Medical Parkway in 1996 to six thriving locations, it's been a dream come true for owners Orlando & Yoli Arriaga. We sat down to ask Yoli about the secrets to their success.

EADA: Let’s start with the basics; tell me about the history of Taco Shack.
YA: We opened in March of 1996 during my Spring Break. I was a high school biology teacher in Round Rock. Earlier, in January of 1996 my husband, Orlando saw the “for lease” sign on the building on Medical Parkway that we now have. He got the idea that now was the time to do it. He’d always talked about starting something like “Yoli’s Kitchen” or “Yoli’s Breakfast” because my recipes were the ones he’d always wanted to use.

EADA: So, all the recipes here come from you?
YA: Yes. But I always said, “right, right…the business world is not for me.” I was a teacher and that’s what I knew. One day, Orlando came home and said he’d found this tiny little place on Medical Parkway that would be perfect for our breakfast tacos and our restaurant. I said, “Yeah right.” And he said, “No really, I want to do this. I think it’s time to do it.” Well, he bugged me for about two weeks. Each time he brought it up, I’d say, “No, no, no.” Finally one day, at the end of January, he came home and said he’d leased it!

EADA: You’re kidding?
YA: No! I thought oh, my god… what now? Then I figured, maybe I could help him after school when I got home, and I could do some of the paperwork for him. So… yes, we did it! Then I started thinking about remodeling that little place. It needed so much work. He actually sent me away for the weekend because it was so ugly and out of shape, he didn’t want me to see it. I went to the valley to visit my family, and when I got back it had been cleaned and painted, and it was getting there. So we spent from January to mid-March, only about six weeks getting everything ready. Finally, Saturday March 16th at 6:30 am, we opened and had a line out the door the first day!

EADA: After you opened, how did the first few months go?
YA: We were busy from March to May. In May when school let out, we took a dive. Everybody went on vacation and the kids weren’t coming. Thanks goodness we still had my teaching salary to live on. We’d put our entire savings into the business, and that was all we had.

EADA: You bet the farm on it.
YA: Yes! So, Orlando had an idea that he’d try to get in touch with the community. He is a McCallum graduate, so he got some of the baseball boys from McCallum to come pass out flyers in the neighborhood and it worked! After that, people started coming again, and it was just up, up, up from there. It was great.

EADA: Your start-up is an inspiration for future restaurants and business owners. Where do you see the future taking you?
YA: (laughing) Well, my answer would be way different from Orlando’s!

EADA: Ah, so you never know when he’ll find another Taco Shack inspiration in a unique building while driving down the road?
YA: Right! But you know, one thing that Orlando and I have always done is support each other and our dreams and ideas. He is definitely in favor of fast growth, while I’d like to take some time and nurture the businesses that we’ve got before moving on to the next one, but that’s just the cautious side of me. I’m not quite the risk taker that he is. We have also been fortunate enough that people have recognized the success of the business and approached us about franchise opportunities. I think we will expand to more stores eventually. Most of all, as we make plans, we realize that we are lucky that we work together.