GILROY
– Just a few short years ago, Kevin Tomlinson had absolutely no
plan to ever shift from the mortgage/real estate business.
GILROY – Just a few short years ago, Kevin Tomlinson had absolutely no plan to ever shift from the mortgage/real estate business.
“Not anywhere, not ever,” he said.
That was before he ate at Maui Tacos.
Now Tomlinson, along with fellow Gilroyan and business partner Brian Pinkman, are in the restaurant business, proud owners of the first Maui Tacos in California.
Tomlinson was sold on the first bite during a trip to Hawaii.
“A friend of mine said, ‘Kevin, you have to try this,” he said. “It’s ridiculous, so good it’s unbelievable.”
Maui Tacos, located in the Pacheco Pass Center at 890 Renz Lane, near Best Buy, is holding its public grand opening celebration Saturday. The restaurant offers what it coins as food with a lot of “Mauitude,” including fresh Mexican food with a tropical twist – salsas are mixed fresh daily and all the meat is marinated 24 hours on site before serving.
Maui Tacos is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner and also does catering and phone-in orders.
The restaurant chain, started in Hawaii by Mark Elman, a chef from Los Angeles who missed Southern California’s quick-service Mexican restaurants, is tremendously popular on the islands.
After trying it himself, Tomlinson decided it would be a hit here, too.
“It’s fresh, and Californians love that, and it’s Hawaiian, and Californians have an affinity for anything from Hawaii,” he explained. “Put them together, and it’ll be successful.”
Tomlinson and Pinkman took over the building in February and opened the doors to the public May 5.
Going under the name Middle Lee, Inc., Tomlinson and Pinkman are under contract to build a minimum of 18 stores through 2010 in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda and Contra Costa counties. They are already planning to open their second restaurant in Hayward sometime near Thanksgiving.
“I’m on the development side, he’s the operations side,” Tomlinson said of his partner. “I build the restaurants and I hand him the keys.”
After all, building a restaurant isn’t all that different from Tomlinson’s other job in real estate, which he is still doing on the side.
“Putting together a restaurant is like building a house – with more headaches,” he said.
Business already is taking off for the operation,
“So far, so good,” he said. “We opened with 25 to 30 percent more (customers) than I anticipated. To put it mildly, I’m very excited.”
Now he just hopes that word of mouth will just take its course.
“We do something that no one else does,” he said. “It’s not just good food, it’s different. People are returning for the food.”
