Dec. 11, 2024

The food truck Taqueria Juanita is expanding into a restaurant on the west side of Sioux Falls.

Five summers ago, Juana Silva Cortez started selling her tacos, burritos and other foods based on recipes from her native home in the state of Jalisco in Mexico. The Taqueria Juanita trailer was based out of a gas station parking lot at Ninth Street and Kiwanis Avenue. In Cortez’ third season, she shifted to a spot at 12th Street and Willow Avenue with a new colorful trailer, and she began expanding her reach with events throughout Sioux Falls.

Now, she and her husband, Miguel Silva Rodriguez, are opening a restaurant in the former Khorasan Kabob House space at 923 S. Marion Road.

“It’s always been our dream to have our own location,” Cortez said.  “The customers said: ‘We miss your food in the winter. Hopefully, you can have your own spot so we can enjoy the food all year.’”

If the remodeling work goes according to schedule, they hope to open in early January, she said.

“We’re working so hard. We have been painting to make everything colorful. We picked a lot of colorful colors for the inside of the building, colorful like the food truck. They recognize us because of the purple food truck. It’s important to me to have a clean and good presentation with the food truck, and I want the same thing for this place.”

Cortez plans to expand the menu with offerings like soups and will offer her popular birria as a daily meat option. Sunday specials will include menudo, carnitas and chicharrons.

Taqueria Juanita will be open for breakfast and will serve items like chilaquiles made with tortilla chips and eggs in a red or green sauce, chorizo-and-egg burritos and a Southwest version with potatoes and other veggies.

Cortez envisions offering more seafood dishes in the summer like parrillada, a fajita plate for sharing with shrimp, octopus and oysters.

The restaurant will serve beer, Mexican soft drinks and other beverages.

Customers will order at the counter, and the dining room will seat 50 to 60 people.

Rodriguez will continue to work full time at Gage Brothers, but he’ll also help at the restaurant, Cortez said. “We’ll be a family business,” she said, noting that the two older of their three children have helped on the food truck.

“I also have a good team; they’ve worked for us a couple of years already,” she said of her food truck staff. ”They’re going to be my right hands on this. They’re not employees – they’re part of the family.”

The family will keep the food truck and plans to use it initially for larger special events. Someday, if they have enough staff, Cortez would like to see the food truck operate daily somewhere on the east side of the city.

Follow Taqueria Juanita on Facebook for updates.