Business in Focus: Centralia Favorite Tacos El Rey Looks to Find Footing Amid Social Distancing Push

Posted

Tacos El Rey owner Antonio Lopez started his Mexican restaurant 25 years ago out of a “taco bus” before the recent booming rise of food trucks. After a decade of success, he bought the brick-and-mortar storefront at 403 South Tower Ave. in Centralia 15 years ago.

Though now considered a classic local favorite for burritos and tacos, Lopez said the ramifications of Washington’s statewide restrictions on restaurants, bars and places of entertainment that went into effect at midnight on Monday, March 16, has hit Tacos El Rey hard.

They’ve already seen a sharp decline in their sales, down 50 percent from their usual earnings, just a few days after the ban on hosting dining-in customers. It has Lopez and his staff worried, not just for the future, but for the present.

“It’s been really slow,” Lopez said. “It’s really bad.”

Lopez has seen fellow small businesses around him in Centralia shutter in the past few days, hoping for the restrictions that remain in effect until at least March 31 to lift for good after that date.

But it’s not something he’s willing to do, yet. Most of his employees are family, with their own families, bills and needs of their own. Lopez, his daughter and his sons made the decision to remain open. As a result, the business is barely breaking even, and Lopez is basically working for free in order to ensure his employees can feed their families.

“For me, it would be a lot easier to go home and close, you know, relax and don’t go out to avoid the virus,” Lopez said. “The thing I’m most worried about is employees, because they have families, too. They have to pay rent. That’s tough. If they don’t work, they’re going to be really bad. We’re trying to survive, so we’ll stay open. I don’t care if I make money or not.”

And, of course, it’s not just the money him and his family are worried about. They’re also concerned about the risk of their own health by having customers come in and pick up food.

“I’m hoping it doesn’t go too long,” Lopez said. “We were kind of worried about the people coming in, but it’s like, OK, if we just serve to-go, it’s not good but it helps a little. Just enough for the employees and keep it going.”

Tacos El Rey does not have a drive through, but they’ve had a tremendous boost from DoorDash, a food delivery service similar to UberEats and Grubhub. DoorDash recently altered its policies to set its default delivery option to “no contact” in order to help reduce contact between delivery workers and customers. The company has also waived delivery fees for restaurants to ease the burden on businesses.

{{tncms-inline content="<p>Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday.</p> <p>Location: 403 S. Tower Ave., Centralia</p> <p>Phone: 360-736-9412</p> <p>Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Mexican-Restaurant/Tacos-El-Rey-CentraliaWa-175823315855834/</p> <p><strong>Top selling items at Tacos Del Rey</strong></p> <p>Carne asada burrito: $5.75</p> <p>California burrito: $6.75</p> <p>El Rey nachos: $6.89</p> <p>Carne asada fries: $8.45</p>" id="b6d471cd-ca66-453e-bbfa-4ab954072a6a" style-type="info" title="More Information on Tacos El Rey" type="relcontent"}}

“DoorDash has been helping a lot,” Lopez said. “It helps because it’s easy for people to order there, send it to us and (DoorDash) picks it up.”



Lopez is hoping he can stay open while Gov. Inslee’s order remains in effect through March 31. Tacos El Rey’s hours haven’t changed, open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

“I think so if we only go until March 31,” Lopez said. “After that, I don’t know. We just want to see how the weekend (goes) because the weekends were really busy. I don’t know how it’s going to come this weekend. We’ll see. I just want to invite people and offer our services and to eat.”

More Information on Tacos El Rey

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday; and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

Location: 403 S. Tower Ave., Centralia

Phone: 360-736-9412

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Mexican-Restaurant/Tacos-El-Rey-CentraliaWa-175823315855834/

Top selling items at Tacos Del Rey

Carne asada burrito: $5.75

California burrito: $6.75

El Rey nachos: $6.89

Carne asada fries: $8.45