May 14, 2025

A longtime food truck owner is expanding with a restaurant in Harrisburg.

Carlos Salgado, who lives in Harrisburg, will open Breaking Burrito Restaurant in a new building that will be constructed behind the Starbucks that’s going up east of the Kwik Star on Willow Street.

“Finally, it’s going to happen,” he said of the dream he has had for 20 years. “I don’t want to be on my deathbed and be like, why didn’t I do it.”

Salgado started Breaking Burrito in 2016 as a full-time occupation. Customers could find him in his “Breaking Bad”-themed trailer near Smithfield Foods, and as his business grew, he began adding festivals and private events to the schedule. In 2018, he upgraded to a new truck and in 2021 added a second one, which he built out himself.

Last year, he added Mr. Churro, a food truck featuring homemade churros and ice cream.

The menu will feature all the Breaking Burrito favorites: burritos, tacos, quesadillas and nachos. It also will expand to include more Mexican foods like alambre, picadillo, chicken mole and tortas.

In addition to the kitchen inside the restaurant, he plans to have a grill outside to make rib-eye steak, which can be served as an entree or as a meat choice for things like burritos.

“We’re going to have things I can’t have in the truck,” he said.

Salgado envisions having a Taco Tuesday with 10 options, “so they can order and get tortillas and make whatever tacos they want.”

He’s planning to open earlier on the weekends and serve breakfast, with Mexican and American favorites like chilaquiles and pancakes.

The restaurant, which will be a little more than 2,000 square feet, will have seating for about 40. Garage doors will open to a patio in the back that will seat about 30, Salgado said. The patio area can be enclosed and heated for chillier days.

The restaurant will have a beer and wine license, and he plans to look into getting a full liquor license.

Salgado was born in California and grew up there. He learned to cook “watching my grandma when I was a kid” and started working in restaurants at a young age.

“I love to cook. I love it. I’m not working when I’m cooking. I love when I see people’s faces when they bite in and they like the food. I’m so happy.”

He also has lived in Mexico and New York City. That’s where he met his wife, Phoung Dang, who was born in Vietnam but moved to Sioux Falls with her family and grew up here. Salgado was working in a restaurant, and Dang was there pursing her career in banking.

They moved to Sioux Falls in 2015 to be near her family and to Harrisburg in 2020. Now, they have three girls, ranging in age from 7 to 10. Salgado also has three children from a previous marriage.

Construction on the restaurant is expected to begin at the end of the month or in early June, Salgado said. He’s hoping to open in October at the end of the food truck season.

The food trucks, which employ 10 people, will continue to operate, he said, noting that the restaurant’s kitchen will make prep work easier.

Starting a restaurant at age 52 is a little daunting, Salgado said, reassuring himself with the fact that Colonel Sanders was 62 when he started Kentucky Fried Chicken.

“I have a lot of ideas. I hope people like it, and that people from Sioux Falls and the surrounding area come and visit us and have a good time.”