El Guapo food truck opens restaurant serving street tacos

The newly expanded spot sells fresh-prepared Mexican street food. It expanded its catering operation to include a restaurant to accommodate its two increasingly busy food trucks because its owner noticed people were coming in to order to-go and then eating their meals in the parking lot.

“Street food is everything that you can find in a little stand out in the street when you visit Mexico,” said Javier Ornelas, owner and operator of the El Guapo food truck and Hacienda Catering. “When you come to our food truck, it’s a party. But we needed more space and more storage. We noticed a lot of people eating outside and eating in their cars. It’s a little early right now to see how it’s going to work.”

Now you can bring the party indoors for authentic Mexican food that’s simple but very well done. Guest favorites include the single street taco ($4.65) that you can customize with various proteins such as grilled chicken, steak or shrimp. Other notable favorites include the chimichanga ($12.99) and the vegan quesadilla portabella ($15.24).

“We’re really not interested in reinventing things, we just want to do the traditional recipes. We do homemade tortillas with blue corn and you can get some stuff you typically can’t find at your average TexMex restaurant and have a Horchata Agua Fresca ($3.25) with your meal,” Ornelas said.

The cozy dining room can seat 50 to 65 patrons and offers an unfussy, diner vibe.

Ornelas’ parents owned Mi Hacienda at 8250 Midlothian Turnpike for many years. When they retired in 2022 and sold the building, Ornelas decided to launch the food truck El Guapo and continue the catering company Hacienda.

Ornelas is also launching a mobile bar service to take to or rent out to events. “It’s a 1930s Chevy Landau that can be driven to your location. It’s retrofitted and we took the backseat out and fitted it with tap lines,” Ornelas said.

“We’ve been doing weddings for 15 years and we do about 50 weddings a year that we cater. We get to see a lot of other vendors with unique ideas. I came across this car, we brought down from Fredericksburg. We paid $15,000 for it and did some work to it and then obviously we installed the whole draft system in it. We’ve done two trial runs at a vendor show.”