Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al espanol.

When the four-person team behind Las Vegas-based restaurant Tacotarian opened its first storefront in 2018, co-owner Dan Simmons balanced optimism with pragmatism.

Facing stiff competition in the local Mexican food scene, they needed a distinctive approach. Their solution: a plant-based taqueria that filled a market gap.

Mexican food works well with vegan ingredients, Simmons said, and he and his co-entrepreneurs were inspired on a trip to Mexico City sampling a spectrum of plant-based foods, spices and salsas.

“We thought it was a great idea to differentiate ourselves from the rest,” he said. “And we opened up, and we were just wildly popular right from the get go. … And it’s just growing and growing, and it’s been a fun, difficult, wild ride — but I wouldn’t change it for anything.”

Tacotarian’s first location on Fort Apache Road in southwest Las Vegas has since turned into five locations across the city — including a new one inside Miracle Eats, the food hall at the Miracle Mile Shops in Planet Hollywood. The taqueria also operates one location in California.

Tacotarian’s owners — Simmons and his spouse, Regina Simmons and fellow husband-and-wife duo Kristen and Carlos Corral — were recently recognized as Nevada’s Small Business Persons of the Year for 2025 by the Small Business Administration.

The administration picked state and territory winners from across the U.S. last month who will attend an award ceremony in Washington, D.C. during National Small Business Week in May and vie for the 2025 National Small Business Person of the Year title, the SBA said in a news release.

Kristen Corral expressed excitement about the recognition, noting that she, her husband, and the Simmons family work tirelessly every day to keep the business viable. Their journey has involved overcoming significant challenges, including inflation, supply shortages and the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think people forget that there’s real people — there’s real faces — working really hard behind all of these restaurants and small businesses in Nevada and throughout the nation,” Kristen Corral said. “So it feels really good when we get recognized for something like this, because it just means that all this work is not just for nothing. You feel appreciated.”

Nevada is full of extremely qualified restaurant and business owners, so to survive as a business you have to be at “the top of your game,” Carlos Corral said. To win the award in the face of such competition is indescribable, he added.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Carlos Corral said. “You never expect to win something like this, especially in a state like Nevada — where there’s so many people that are so deserving of this award as well. We’re lucky to be in a state that is very friendly to any entrepreneurs and people who want to start their own business.”

As an immigrant in the U.S., it has been a dream to open Tacotarian and be rewarded for its success with recognition like that from the SBA, said Regina Simmons, who is originally from Mexico City and comes from a long line of restaurant owners.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said. “You work so hard every day, and you never think you are going to be recognized like this. So it is an honor for me and for all my team to be a winner in Nevada.”

The mission of Tacotarian has always been to create quality Mexican food that just “happens to be” plant-based, Kristen Corral said. Three-quarters of the restaurant’s customer base do not identify as vegan or vegetarian, she said.

As someone who eats a plant-based diet herself, Kristen Corral said, it’s music to her ears when customers enjoy Tacotarian’s food. It was important that the restaurant not just serve lettuce, tofu and other vegan staples, but show that plant-based food can be rich and flavorful.

“And that’s one of the things that we’re very dedicated (to) … really changing people’s minds through food,” she said.

Her advice to other up-and-coming restaurant owners? Ensure you have expertise across all business areas, not just cooking. According to Kristen Corral, Tacotarian’s success stems from the four’s complementary skill sets: her marketing expertise, combined with her three business partners’ strengths in logistics, kitchen operations, front-of-house management and financial oversight.

“And then the other thing I would just say is just work really hard,” Kristen Corral said. “Utilize some of the resources that are out there. The SBA has great resources. Find local people. Connect with your local government officials; ask them for help, see what grants are available. I think people feel so alone when you’re a small-business owner.”

Regina Simmons said she believes in encouraging people to dream big and believe in themselves, but it’s important for them to also remember the amount of work involved in opening a business and how to set it apart from its peers.

“Dream big, but get ready,” she said. “Financially, your business plan and a good team — I think a good team is another good part of it. If you want to grow fast like we did, you’ve just got to have the people that are going to pull up their sleeves and work as hard as you do.”

Tacotarian’s business expansion extends beyond its restaurant locations. It’s successfully launched a retail product line now available in nearly 40 grocery stores across the United States, as well as online and in its restaurants.

Looking ahead, the company is preparing to enter the franchising market, which will enable entrepreneurs nationwide to open and operate their own Tacotarian locations, further extending the brand’s plant-based Mexican food concept throughout the country.

Carlos Corral, who is also originally from Mexico, said he never could have imagined when building Tacotarian’s first location that he and his business partners would be headed to Washington, D.C.

Seeing the growth of the company in the last nearly seven years is “phenomenal,” Carlos Corral said. The company is perfectly positioned in Las Vegas, he added, because it becomes a destination for tourists.

“I think that’s a big part of what’s propelled us — the fact that we’re a niche market, we’re a plant-based vegan taqueria,” he said. “It’s a great restaurant with great food that happens to be plant-based. That is, I think, the key to our success.”