Southside chef draws on food-truck roots
It’s almost impossible to talk about Mexican food in Chattanooga without mentioning Taqueria Jalisco and Jorge Parra. The food truck turned restaurant has been a part of the Southside’s dramatic transformation since 2005 and a regular stop for anyone who appreciates fresh, genuine Mexican flavors. As the Parra family business has grown and evolved over the last two decades, Jorge has grown and evolved into one of the city’s most successful young entrepreneurs.
Before moving to the United States, Jorge’s mother, Maria, owned a taqueria in Jalisco, Mexico when he and his siblings were still very young. She sold dishes made from family recipes that she learned while watching her mother cook, as well as a few of her own special creations. (A taqueria is a food cart or restaurant that serves tacos and other Mexican dishes. The food is typically inexpensive and served quickly.)
Like so many families, the Parras came to the United States with hopes for a better future. Maria turned her love of cooking and previous business experience into a small food truck that started off on E. Main Street and quickly became a neighborhood favorite.
Jorge wasn’t initially interested in a career in the restaurant business. While his mother’s taqueria was growing in popularity here in Chattanooga, he was attending school in Atlanta, but it wasn’t long before the taqueria’s popularity became too much for Maria to handle on her own.
“The family business was calling, so I came to help right out of college,” Jorge remembers. “My mother prepared all the food, so I helped with everything else. I took orders, swept floors, cleaned bathrooms, whatever she needed to help make the business successful.”
With Jorge’s help, that small, corner food truck began to build name recognition and grow in popularity by setting up at local markets, developing a catering business, and enduring long nights in the parking lot of the gone-but-not-forgotten dive bar Discoteca, all while expanding through a myriad of incarnations.
“We were there on Main Street as a food truck for a while, along with an indoor space that served as a grocery store and discotheca,” Jorge says. “A discotheca can be a CD store or a club—this store was mostly a CD store and was before the club named Discoteca.”
After outgrowing that space, they spent a couple of years in a space further down Main Street that functioned as a grocery store, bike shop, and taqueria before moving back to their familiar Main Street corner where they continued to grow in popularity for the next five years. They then faced a turning point when their building was sold and they were forced to relocate.
Jorge says, “It actually worked out great. We found this really small, cool, abandoned-looking building just behind our old location. It was covered in graffiti, full of weeds, and had a pig on it, but I thought it had so much character!”
Jorge and his family turned that odd little building into one of the city’s most beloved restaurants, eventually opening a second location in Miller Plaza, and earning Jorge the 2015 YPAC “Entrepreneur of the Year” award at just 24 years old.
Fueled almost entirely by word of mouth, the restaurant grew again this year and moved into a stunning, newly constructed location across the street from their long-time Rossville Avenue location dubbed “Taqueria Jalisco | ANIA Tequila & Mezcal Bar”.
“The new name is an homage to my niece who passed away a few years ago,” Jorge says. “The hummingbird signifies her in the tradition of alebrijes—it’s a hummingbird because she was so tiny. The logo was designed by [Chattanooga multimedia artist] Cole Sweeton and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”
The new location is not only larger; it gives Jorge a chance to bring music back into the taqueria experience. “We have music for our brunches with different artists rotating through,” he explains. “We just had Ben Lee, DJ and executive chef at Flying Squirrel, to come and build the fun and excitement with his music, just like a good meal progresses. We want brunch to be upbeat and fun, not boring.”
Taqueria Jalisco’s success is due, in part, to the infectious enthusiasm Jorge brings to both his customers and his mother’s food.
“I love talking to my customers and getting to know them,” Jorge says with a flash of his ever-present smile. “I want this space to feel comfortable and inclusive enough so that everyone feels welcome.”