TRES Taqueria Mariscos Cantina

We are TRES located in the City Of El Cajon, Ca that we opened CINCO De Mayo 2015. We serve all the Mexican/Hispanic favorites and then some! From the basic Carneasada Burrito to Shrimp Ceviche all made from scratch in house!

Our uniqueness is family! We treat our customers as guests they way we treat each other. We almost know everyone's order before they come to the counter with a lot of our business coming from the repeat customers/guests.

How is your business involved with the community you serve?

The question you should be asking is: How are we not involved in the community?!? :) Because we are here for them specifically ! Here's why:

I have recently began discussing a program that I personally created for the elementary and Junior high school students with the local chamber of commerce.
I named the program "Be cool, stay in school" ! My initial thoughts were to have a program for all business' in the community to give back to students who maintain a 95% attendance for each semester. When a student attains this goal, he or she will receive a voucher booklet from all the participating local business for free goodies when they visit. For example, we would give away any entree item of their choice when presenting the voucher at our restaurant.

There are a few minor needs to be worked out with the schools and the chamber to get this program on its feet. I promise that it will though ! It will not serve any other purpose then to give the idea away to the community and to see it be duplicated in other parts of the city as well as the nation! Think big right!?!

In our community we are always requested for events (charitable & for Profit) to accommodate the hunger of our community attending these events with our Delicious "Street" Tacos catering cart.

Soccer, flag football, Fundraisers and several community festivals have almost now become a tradition for us these last couple of years. We are honored with the request and look forward to giving back in any way we can with partial proceeds donated to the events cause.

Why be in business if you cant give back to the community who supports you ?

What would a $250k grant mean to your business plan and how will you utilize the funds to ensure long-term growth and stability?

First of all, our restaurant is only 650 square feet. 75% of which is very tight kitchen and the rest is a seating area. At this time, we have only 8 stools for guests to sit on and during the lunch and dinner hours, are ALWAYS occupied with guests enjoying their meal ( I don't blame them). :)

Because seating is so limited, over half of our business is by phone (619.440.TACO) so that customers don't have to wait in the crowded seating/ordering area. We knew we had to expand our business somehow to accommodate our customers/guests requests to sit and enjoy their meals.

This grant (blessing) will allow us to expand our "taco shop" into a free standing building directly next door that offers almost 2,500 square feet of space.
The building has been abandoned for almost 10 years and has been an eye soar for the whole community.

With the humble success we are having, we began exploring the opportunity of a move for over a year and a half. We have completed the formal process with the Planning Department of The City of El Cajon for the new construction.

The real hurdle we have come to realize is the funding/financing for restaurant projects are few and far to come by. We have been looking for the last 7-8 months with no avail.

This grant will give us exactly the jump start we need to:

~ Pay for all the permit fees of the city
~ Begin & complete the construction of our dream restaurant from new paving to updated kitchen supplies
~ Allow us to employ more people in our community (from 4 now to at least 12)
~ Bring new life to a dilapidated piece of property
~ Give us seating (inside and out) for over 50 people to sit and enjoy their meals at once! :) Allowing for a true family atmosphere where guest no longer sit on stools with their child is one hand sitting on their leg and a taco in the other hand. Everyone will have a chair (or booster seat) :) !

With this move, it will take us to from the "hole in the wall taco shop" to 3 Brothers Authentic Mexican Restaurant and fulfill our dream and remaining an integral part part for the community.

What types of challenges can you identify with your plan and how will you overcome them?

Initially the main challenge was with the City of El Cajon and all the regulations from sewage to lighting we had to accommodate during the process so that we could be considered. This was a very challenging and costly and yet we prevailed.

Our new challenge is now capturing the necessary funding to take the plan from blue prints to real construction ! With the community yearning for a clean sit down eatery, this is now a true opportunity to really seed ourselves in the community where we live and work.

Some would say that family is hard to work with and presents a challenge. I agree! :) However, I along with my 2 brothers have grown a true fondness of one another and we each have our own ideas duties that we carry out for the business. We are very encouraging and I cant tell you the last time where one of us raised our voice to another. And when we did, at the end of the day it was met with a hug and an apology that our Mom & Dad humbly instilled upon us to NEVER lose sight of your family. Our late father would tell us, "Money is not everything, happiness is". We have always honored his words and stay very happy and blessed with what we have.

Describe the talent on your team and how they make your business successful.

Our many talents come from how we were raised. Honesty, Caring, Passion and Love are to name a few. We pride ourselves in really being one with the community. Not a chain restaurant giving their profits back to corporate headquarters in other states or countries for that matter. We live here, in El Cajon, we play here and know alot of our guests by first name. They know that we love them and it shows with their repeat business.

Now the food ! Every single item we will find in our shop is 100% prepared in house. From the re fried beans to the marinated carnitas .. its all hand made fresh goodness that is put on every guest's plate. We slice our own meat, create our own shredded beef from scratch not from a can, fry our own chips and make the BEST salsa this side of the border !

Simply said, we are good at what we do, and it shows !

Additional relevant information you would like to share

Thank you for the opportunity everyone. We will make you proud to have helped us serve a noble cause for our community and helping these 3 brothers (& mom) make a living along the way. My last request is that every small business back the community in which they live.

From the other 2 Hermanos and myself.. we say .. Gracias !