Ruben Jimenez and Roberto Mercado: Making Tradition Modern

<figure id="attachment_44875" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-44875" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignright"><a href="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TacoLoungeOwner… loading="lazy" class="wp-image-44875 size-medium" src="http://laprensa-sandiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TacoLoungeOwner…; alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TacoLou… 300w, https://dev-laprensa.pantheonsite.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/TacoLou… 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px"></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-44875" class="wp-caption-text">Ruben Jimenez and Roberto Mercado</figcaption></figure>
<p></p>
<p>Having grown up around the restaurant industry, cousins Ruben Jimenez and Roberto Mercado envisioned themselves owning their own taqueria, and despite separately pursuing different careers, they are finally following a path that is in their blood.</p>
<p>As co-owners of Taco Lounge, a modern take on the traditional taquerias or taco shops that are found on the streets of Tijuana, Jimenez and Mercado offer their customers authentic Mexican tacos in a modern, sit down environment.</p>
<p>Following the lunch rush of Taco Tuesday, Jimenez and Mercado sat with La Prensa San Diego and shared what makes their taqueria shop stand out from the rest.</p>
<p>“We just wanted a place where you can get authentic TJ tacos, Mexican tacos, and at the same time, having that better presentation,” Mercado said.</p>
<p>Taco Lounge is located in East Chula Vista’s Otay Ranch district and is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.</p>
<p>The restaurant has a combination of modern colors and designs, with touches of traditional Mexican printed tile and an open kitchen that allows customers to see their food as it is being prepared.</p>
<p>Jimenez and Mercado also focused on not only providing authentic Mexican tacos, but also took the time to find unique flavors for their salsas and fresh waters, they said.</p>
<p>Their salsas and fresh waters like horchata, jamaica, and cucumber waters are made daily and are not made with syrups, according to Jimenez.</p>
<p>Mercado added that their sodas are bottled sodas as opposed to a soda machine because that is what is traditionally found in a taqueria in Mexico or Tijuana.</p>
<p>Although they originally planned on opening a taqueria and only sell tacos, they decided to also have options like burritos and quesadillas because customers in San Diego are accustomed to taco shops that offer different menu items.</p>
<p>“We decided to be a taqueria and taco shop to have really authentic tacos, but at the same time provide what people are accustomed to here on this side of the border,” Mercado said.</p>
<p>The cousins also own a taqueria in Tijuana that follows that same concept.</p>
<p>Jimenez said that their vision for Taco Lounge was to open a taqueria that provided a clean sitting area for their customers.</p>
<p>“Usually taquerias are a place where you stand up and eat tacos,” Jimenez said. “Our taqueria in TJ, a lot of people like to go there because it is a nice place where you can take your wife, girlfriend, your kids, you want to stay there and you want to eat there.”</p>
<p>Both having lived in Tijuana, where “almost every person considers themselves a taco expert,” they felt that there was no taqueria in Chula Vista that was to their taste or the taco shops were located in West Chula Vista, Mercado said.</p>
<p>The idea of owning a taqueria came to Jimenez and Mercado at a young age when they moved to the United States and realized that Chula Vista was lacking in authentic Mexican tacos, this being before there was other taquerias in the city.</p>
<p>“We grew up in TJ where on every single corner there’s taquerias and we used to have three taquerias like a block away from our house,” Jimenez said.</p>
<p>However, the pair went on to pursue different careers and the idea of owning their own authentic Mexican taqueria fell on the backburner.</p>
<p>Mercado pursued a career in the real estate industry and Jimenez is a contractor, however, they have collaborated on buying and rebuilding homes for over 10 years.</p>
<p>As time went by, they saw tacos shops appearing in Chula Vista and although they were both in different careers, they decided to go for it.</p>
<p>“I think it’s in our blood, even though he works in real estate and I’m a contractor, the food business was always in our blood,” Jimenez said.</p>
<p>After a process of a year and a half, Taco Lounge opened in December 2017 and already the pair is planning on opening more restaurants around San Diego. They are also planning on introducing more items like a birria taco and a New York steak taco.</p>
<p>Jimenez said that their goal is to change their careers and focus on the restaurants.</p>
<p>“When you do something with passion and with your heart, I don’t doubt that our business is going to be successful,” Jimenez said.</p>