Dos Amigos: A Little Taco Truck with Big Plans
Dos Amigos plans to serve up experiential learning alongside the mouthwatering tacos it currently slings from their food truck in Collegetown. Dos Amigos has joined Rev as its newest member in order to bring their plans to fruition.
When Dos Amigos owner, Jorge Bouras, arrived at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration in 2013, he found that he missed the taste of his hometown, San Diego. Bouras and former business partner and fellow Hotel School alum, David Farahi, recognized an opportunity to bring Cali-Mex style tacos to Ithaca. Bouras states, “We found that there were not many options in Ithaca for the quality of tacos we were used to, so we wrote a business plan that looked decent, and launched the Dos Amigos food truck after completing our internships at the end of our sophomore year.”
Since hitting the streets in 2015, Dos Amigos has attracted a loyal base of customers. Bouras plans to use that momentum to scale-up the business through the establishment of a brick and mortar location in Collegetown and—here’s the (lime) twist—the creation of an educational program that is both experiential and entrepreneurial.
According to Bouras, “The first step is taking care of our people. We plan to focus on what our team needs and wants to thrive inside and outside of the restaurant. For a lot of entry-level employees, it’s their first job, and they might not be familiar with professionalism and leadership; they might not be thinking about where they want to be financially, or the future. Ideally, we would like to have them spend time each week learning how to reach their goals. We want to provide our employees with more than just a job.”
Bouras continues, “The second step is partnering with a university. Ideally, the Hotel School comes to mind, but realistically, we’re still a long way from that. We envision having student interns each semester, who would learn how to run a restaurant, train employees, and get paid while earning credit.” Currently, Bouras is in the process of partnering with Ithaca College to operate out of their commercial kitchen. He plans to provide food truck service on the IC campus full-time once a physical location for Dos Amigos is opened in Collegetown. In the long term, Bouras plans to replicate and expand his chain to other college towns across the country.
Dos Amigos is excited to join forces with Rev. “I’m not an expert on everything,” states Bouras, “The only thing that will move us forward is connecting with others in the entrepreneurial community who have more knowledge and experience. Rev provides an excellent platform for us to make those connections.”