The Family-Run Taco Shop Winning Over San Diego

When Chuy and Marcela Gaytan invested everything they had to found Chuy’s Taco Shop in 2017, they had one ideal, spiky-haired customer in mind. “Our ultimate goal was, ‘Let’s get this thing going, and then figure out how to get on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives,’” Marcela recalls. “We just didn’t think it would happen so soon.” Guy Fieri’s social call to the humble Rolando Mexican food joint aired March 1, 2019, and the Gaytans were soon facing a line out the door.

“It was literally just [Chuy] and I and whoever we could get to come help us,” Marcela says. “People were expecting something from us—they were coming here for the hype, and we gotta give them the hype.”

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They delivered. And since then, virality has come for Chuy’s again and again— Yelp’s top 100, visits from eager influencers—thanks in part to the restaurant’s massive surf-and-turf California burrito, heavier than a regulation NFL football and roughly the same circumference.

Chuy and his brother Armando handle the cooking, each drawing upon a lifetime in the kitchen, first at home with their mother and then in restaurants. And though the team has worked to create a menu with universal appeal—“we have something your grandma would like to eat, but we also have dishes that foodies love to take pictures of,” Marcela affirms—the couple’s three children are the ultimate quality check.

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“If Chuy wouldn’t serve it to his family at home, he’s not gonna serve it to his customers at the restaurant,” Marcela says.