May 20, 2021

Rudy Navarrete is working on his latest method of bringing his late grandmother’s recipes to Sioux Falls.

It’s Rudy’s Tex-Mex Taco Bus, and he hopes to have the converted mini school bus on the road within weeks.

Navarrete brought the legacy of his family’s cooking from Sioux City to Sioux Falls in 2018 with Rudy M. Navarrete’s Tex-Mexican Restaurant near 57th and Western. He closed the struggling restaurant in March 2020 when the pandemic reached Sioux Falls.

Since then, he has been operating as a pop-up restaurant, with regular dates at the VFW in Brandon and several cities in northwest Iowa. 

A benefactor encouraged his idea of starting a food truck, and Navarrete found the used taco bus in Chicago. It’s not that old, so it should have a good life ahead of it, he said.

“I hope to have it for 20 years and do all kinds of cool stuff with it.”

Navarrete hosts a fundraiser every year to buy new pairs of brand-name tennis shoes for kids at Girls & Boys Clubs of the Sioux Empire. “I can pull up and give shoes to kids,” he said, envisioning the joy that would bring to the kids and to him.

“I’d like to get a PA on it and be like the ice cream man. I want Spanish songs on there.”

While he said he’ll miss the daily grind of working in a restaurant, he’s looking forward to bringing his Tex-Mex cooking back for Sioux Falls customers.

He’s evaluating which dishes will work best for a food truck setting, but knows there will be tacos and burritos with beans and rice. He’d like to figure out how to make his signature Rudy’s Special work too.

“I definitely want it to move fast.”

But first, he has to repair the water heater on the bus, add his logo and other signs and get it licensed for Sioux Falls and in Iowa.

He was one step closer this week with the arrival of his personalized plates: TACORUS – the next-best thing to TACOBUS.

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