Tacos Coahuila builds on local success, plans a second food truck

Editor's Note: The Globe's summer intern, Jase Arp, has interviewed many of Worthington's food truck operators this summer. This is the latest installment in the series.

WORTHINGTON — The Tacos Coahuila food truck is owned by Jesus and Silvia Pinales Flores, and can be found in the TSC parking lot along Ryan’s Road in Worthington.

Before starting their food truck business — while still living in Coahuila, Mexico — Silvia used to sell tamales and gorditas to help pay the bills.

After moving to the United States, Silvia continued to sell tamales and gorditas from home, which then sparked an interest in starting their own restaurant. The couple saved up money and, in 2005, rented a building in Worthington and created Tacos Mobile.

Tacos Mobile was open for 10 years, and served the same food as they do today.

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Jesus and Silvia’s son, Edgar Pinales, along with his sisters, helped out in the restaurant after school.

The Pinales Flores family was renting the Tacos Mobile building — and had considered buying the building — but in 2015 they learned their soil was contaminated and they were forced to close their business.

For the next seven years, the family stayed out of the food business and Jesus and Edgar got jobs as welders.

In 2022, Edgar and Jesus began talking about bringing their family cooking back to Worthington. Edgar admitted it was easy to convince his father, and by June, Jesus bought a food truck and Tacos Coahuila was created.

Today, Jesus gets help from his wife, Silvia, their son Edgar and Edgar’s wife, Cindy Pinales. Cindy works as a nurse and Edgar works as a welder. After work and on weekends, they help out with Tacos Coahuila.

Tacos Coahuila serves Mexican food, including tacos, fajitas, burritos, quesadillas, tortas, nachos, loaded fries, gringas and sopes. They also serve gorditas, which is their specialty and most popular dish.

Gorditas are thick tortillas stuffed with your choice of meat and seasoned cabbage.

After seeing the success of his parents' food truck, Edgar was inspired to start his own, with the help of his wife, Cindy. They plan to open another food truck with the same name by the end of August. The new food truck is an upgrade in size compared to the one they currently own.

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Edgar said his father struggled to consistently visit towns beyond Worthington. It was a hassle and very tiring for Jesus and Silvia.

Edgar said his new truck will be dedicated to expanding the coverage of Tacos Coahuila to other towns. The new food truck will attend festivals and events outside of Worthington.

Edgar hopes to add a potential third food truck in the future, but as of now he has his hands full.

“We have the mindset of growing,” Edgar shared.

The success of his parents’ food truck, Tacos Coahuila, remains as inspiration for Edgar.

“They’ve (Jesus and Silvia) been fortunate to be able to leave their full-time jobs just to run the food truck,” Edgar said. He also hopes to do the same with his own food truck. “The plan is for me to get out of welding and make that a full-time job.”

A personal goal for Edgar is to make Tacos Coahuila a mainstream restaurant to the point where they can hire workers to replace his parents and own a franchise.

“That’s my goal, of getting them not to work anymore,” Edgar said.

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Another goal for the Pinales Flores family is to become a vendor at the Minnesota State Fair.

“To get in there, you work for 12 days and then you’re done for the year,” Edgar said. “The average food truck there gets like $80,000 in 12 days.”

Tacos Coahuila can be found in the Tractor Supply Co. parking lot, 1160 Ryan’s Road. The food truck is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday. To see events they will cater for, or festivals they will attend, follow their Facebook page, Tacos Coahuila.

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