You don’t go from catering birthdays and weddings to opening a taco stand to having a restaurant with over 100 seats and two locations without a little help from your friends.
In Casa de Pancho owner Francisco Vasquez’s case, those friends were the entire city of Walnut. Amid the coronavirus crisis, Velazquez is finding ways to give back to the community that gave him so much.
“We started off as a small taco shop. We’ve been open about 12 years now,” Vasquez said of Casa de Pancho. “The concept was just going to be tacos, burritos, and tortas. Something small, that’s how we started. We had maybe 11 or 12 tables and then people started asking for more and more items, making it more of a Mexican food restaurant than just a taco shop.”
Vasquez added more items to the menu. Then he added to the restaurant by expanding into the space next door. Cocktails came next. Followed by a mariachi band to entertain customers as they eat.
Vasquez considers himself a bit lucky, having no prior restaurant experience. Prior to starting the taco shop that became Casa de Pancho, he worked for a cable company. But what hasn’t been by chance is the way the local community has flocked to his food.
“No culinary school. Nothing like that,” Vasquez said. “I guess I got lucky that when I cook something, it comes out good. At least people say it comes out good.”
Just over three months ago, Vasquez opened his second location in Anaheim’s GardenWalk district. The location temporarily closed its doors due to the slow down amidst the crisis. But the Walnut location continues to serve its customers via delivery and curbside pickup.
“The community has been wonderful,” Vasquez said.
As member of LAFC’s Bar Partners program, Casa de Pancho teamed up with LAFC and the Black & Gold Community fund this week to donate and deliver an entire meal to a deserving family in need. I had a chance to speak with Vasquez the day after the donation to learn more about his restaurants.
Below is our Q&A:
Your restaurant grew out of a taco shop into two sitdown restaurants with entertainment, how does that happen and how did the local community come to embrace you so strongly?
Francisco: Like I said, we were just a small taco shop and the community started asking for more and more. They started asking for soups. They started asking for traditional Mexican plates like fajitas, pozole, and menudo. More than just tacos, burritos, and tortas. And the community has just been amazing in supporting us. We do catering for the schools, some of the churches locally, we’ve done events for the city.
Walnut is a small city and everyone pretty much knows everybody. I’ll go to the grocery store and everyone knows who I am. It’s pretty cool. And it’s just like one big family here. They come in and they say they like it here because they get a nice welcome in here and makes them feel at home. They’ve helped us grow and seen us grow now for 10 years.
What has it meant to you to see the community continue to support your restaurant during this time?
Francisco: It’s a beautiful feeling. People come here and just thank us for being open. They just really appreciate it. I really enjoy the kind words they tell us. But from my side, it’s them supporting us. They have many choices of where to eat. It’s just a beautiful feeling to have them come and support us during this time. Because the first thing I thought is people are going to stop eating restaurant food because they need to stay at home. They’re going to cook at home because it’s cheaper. It’s just cheaper, I get it. That’s the first thing that came to mind. But no, people still come out and support us.
Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. Cinco de Mayo is always a busy day. Always, always been a busy day. And I thought it was going to be slow. But no, it was the best Cinco de Mayo that we’ve had and it was only takeout. The community just shows up and they thank us for being open and doing our part to feed their families. And we all thank them in return for keeping us in business. I’m at a loss for words. It’s a very beautiful feeling for them to still support us.
How has that support allowed you to help your staff and keep them working?
Francisco: We did have 25 employees and had to cut down to four or five employees because of everything just to run the kitchen. But this past week, people have been ordering out more and I actually had to call some people back. That was my main concern was my employees. Because I had 25 and that’s 25 families that all of a sudden didn’t have a job. Some of them were on unemployment. Some of them still haven’t received their unemployment. But I did start calling some employees back and their just very grateful to see that the community still supports us. And they are able to provide for their families. They’re not all back, I called back maybe five employees. We’re up to 10 now. So, there’s leaves 15 others that I haven’t called back. But slowly, it’s starting to come back more that I can see and it’s helping me to be able to call back more employees.
What was your response when LAFC reached out to you about being a part of the Black & Gold Community Fund and donating to needy families?
Francisco: That’s just about giving back. Everyone that’s been here supporting us provides jobs for me and my family, for my employees and their families. It’s our way to be able to give back to other families in need. Because just like my instance, I had 25 employees. I was able to call back 10 of them thanks to the community. But I still have 15 other employees that I know personally are being affected by this. We may not be able to help them but there are other families just like them that I don’t know that we can give back. We can help each other out. They help me by coming to support and still buy food but there’s other families that are less fortunate families that don’t have that privilege or just need a little bit of each help. None of my employees hesitated. They were all really excited, not just because it’s LAFC, but because we can give back to the community in these times. We need each other’s help. As much as I need their help, they need my help. We all just need to stick together and pull forward with this.
