A local Mexican food truck will soon have its own restaurant. Chef Jesus Santiago and his wife, Norma, have run Cilantro & Tacos Mexican Cuisine truck since September 2021. For a long while, they had a regular spot in the parking lot at Brewster Crossing Shopping Center near Gabe’s on Peters Creeks Parkway.
Last November, they were told they had to move to make way for a gas station to be built in the lot, Jesus Santiago said. But that turned out to be OK, because they had just found a spot for their restaurant at 2235 Old Salisbury Road – in a small strip center that holds a Marco’s Pizza and Dollar General. “It used to be a barber shop there.
I live around here, and that was my barber. We used to always talk business,” Santiago said. So when the barber-shop owner told Santiago he was closing up, Santiago asked for the landlords’s number.
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Since then, the couple has been working to build a restaurant in the space. It’s small, about 1,200 square feet, but Santiago estimated he will have at least 25 seats inside, plus a few tables outside. He also expects that he will expand the truck’s menu in the restaurant, adding some rice bowls as well as a few more kinds of tacos.
He said he hopes the Cilantro & Tacos restaurant to be open in September. In the meantime, the truck is serving tacos, quesadillas and more in the parking lot right next to the future restaurant on Old Salisbury Road. mhastings@wsjournal.
com 336-727-7394 @mhastingsWSJ G.