Raul Luis  [0:00–1:15]
Marketing does not work at all unless you have great food and service. Other places, when you go and you see them on social media and you go and there's a disappointment sometimes — like, wow, this isn't what they show me on those videos. If you don't have something that's good, you become obsolete. So you have to really believe in what you do and make sure it's the best. If you do the best, people will look for you.

Brett Linkletter  [0:21–1:32]
Hi, my name is Brett Linkletter, CEO and co-founder of Dineline, a restaurant growth agency. We help restaurant brands of all sizes grow and scale to new heights — whether that means opening new stores or increasing revenue at existing locations. We have a done-for-you model where we take care of all the work for our clients on the marketing front. We also have a unique software solution called Dishio, which allows owners to showcase their restaurant in the best light possible online while also turning guest interactions into data to increase profits. Right now, you're listening to our podcast, Restaurant Misfits, where we discuss all things related to restaurant marketing, management, and everything in between growing a restaurant business. Scaling a restaurant today takes much more than grit and hustle. In this age, it's about utilizing the newest technology, educating yourself on new platforms and trends, and having a deep understanding of how this industry is changing. This podcast is dedicated to keeping you up to speed with the latest and greatest through interviewing the biggest and the best in the restaurant industry. As always, we appreciate you being here and we hope you enjoy the show.

Brett  [1:32–3:03]
Hey guys, Brett here and welcome back to Restaurant Misfits. Today's guest is a special one. His name is Raul Luis and he is the owner of Birrieria Chalio. What's really interesting about Raul and his family and their restaurant is the story of how they actually legitimately brought this amazing famous dish — birria, that you've heard of, I'm sure, before — from Mexico to the US. They are known as the king of birria. They are the single family that brought this dish from Mexico to the US, and the story of how they did that is just incredible. We're going to dive deep into the story, into how their restaurant has been succeeding over the last 50 years. And then what's going to be really fun today, guys, is on the second half of this episode I'm actually going to break down their business from an online perspective. I'm going to talk to Raul specifically about their marketing, what opportunities they have, maybe some breaks in the system that they could be taking advantage of to further grow the business despite their already incredible successful brand. We're going to talk through a lot of specifics — breaking down their company and understanding some amazing tips and strategies that you also can take away from this call. I'm so excited to show you this because I've never done a podcast like this. Without further ado, let's dive right in. Raul, how are you?

Raul  [3:03–3:31]
I'm doing fine, thank you. How are you doing? I personally run two locations — it's a family business, so we have other family members that run other locations in LA as well. Three locations in LA and one in Texas. Right now I'm in LA. I came to visit my mom — I'm actually at her house right now. Then I fly back. I do both — LA and Texas. It's interesting because it's two different markets, two different levels. What works in one doesn't work in the other.

The Origin of Birrieria Chalio

Brett  [3:46–4:05]
Before we dive in, you have a really interesting story that Brett — that your family — has behind how this all started. For those who are just meeting you for the first time, give us a brief on yourself, your family, how this all happened, and where you guys are at today.

Raul  [4:05–5:00]
My name is Raul, and my dad was given a certain skill set by God, which was to make birria. People probably heard what birria is because of the beef birria tacos — that's just a small portion of what it actually is. Birria was a special dish. Think of it as Mexican barbecue. Texas has barbecue; Central Mexico had their version of barbecue, which is birria. It was traditionally only made for special once-in-a-lifetime events — baptisms, quinceañeras, and weddings. We were lucky enough to be the townspeople in a small town where my dad was from to make it for the town. When I was growing up, I didn't know what birria meant — I just knew that it was birria. I didn't know its rich historical cultural value or what it meant to people in the community. It was something very, very special.

Brett  [5:03–5:22]
Very cool. I grew up in Southern California and it's extremely popular. Big fan myself. I read that your dad came over here and literally brought live goats — and the restaurant started in your house. Is that how it worked in the beginning?

Raul  [5:24–6:32]
That's a funny story. There are so many stories where you look back and think, "Wow, I can't believe we did that." Back in the 1960s he came with a dream like most immigrants. He came during the Bracero program and wanted to expand his restaurant and build a house in Mexico. He thought he was going to come to the US for just a couple of weeks. The way the Bracero program worked was they'd vet you as you came in and send you to a certain region — a certain farm in California. A guy there asked, "Does anybody know how to cook?" My dad said, "I'm a cook. I cook birria." "What is that?" But all the other people being vetted knew what it was — "Oh, that's birria." So they took him to a farm in the Central Valley, and a chef there took him under his wing. My dad made the birria, but only the laborers — the workers — consumed it. The management wouldn't touch it. "What is it? It's goat." There wasn't goat available at the time, so they had to slaughter their own goat and lamb — in the Central Valley.

Brett  [6:38–6:46]
Wow. And your family originally ran the restaurant out of your house, right? Out of your garage, in the initial —

Raul  [6:46–7:59]
So many stories. Back in the 1970s there used to be newspaper stands — you've probably seen them on TV in old clips. There was a man who sold the Spanish newspaper La Opinión, very popular back then. It wasn't very popular to speak Spanish — you had to speak English. But at that newsstand, you could speak Spanish freely. That guy was like the town crier — in the Roman days, they'd get a guy on a pillar to yell the news. He would connect people. "Oh, I'm having a party." "What kind of party?" Remember, birria was only for those special once-in-a-lifetime occasions. "Oh, I know a guy who makes birria." So he was our advertising. We'd go to our house — my dad didn't have the tools to make it, so at his tannery job they had these big oil drums. He'd bring the drums home, put them under water, clean them out to get the paint out, because it's a steaming process. He'd kill some lamb and sheep at the house. One time the police came over — got in trouble — so we couldn't do that anymore. So we had to go to other places to get it.

Raul  [8:17–9:32]
Looking back, we were doing things that had never been done before. We were bringing Mexico to people. People who left their country wanted to grasp onto anything that reminded them of home — and birria was the one. We were lucky with that God-given skill set to make it. Started in the 1970s and the rest is history. The business just grew and grew — more people found out about it. Funny story: we started selling on weekends and would buy carcasses — if you've ever seen one, four or five feet long — and throw them over our shoulders and walk them into our house. It's legal now, but back in the '70s and '80s it wasn't. One time a SWAT team came, guns drawn — "Where are the dead bodies?" We had no dead bodies. They were all goat and lamb that we were going to cook up. It was scary at the time. Now looking back — oh, that was so funny. It was like the wild wild west back then.

Growing the Brand — From Home to Brick-and-Mortar

Brett  [9:35–10:15]
I can tell you as someone from Southern California — I now live in Miami — one request: I'd love for you guys to open a location in Miami, because we don't have great Mexican food here. LA has fantastic Mexican food; Miami hasn't caught up. Talk me through the early stages — what it was like to finally open the first location and then grow to four.

Raul  [10:22–11:29]
We got up to seven restaurants at one point. There were all these learning curves. In our culture there's this expression, "mi casa es su casa" — my house is your house. When people invite you home, you get real authentic, fresh-made food. That's what we were bringing — not only the birria with its rich historical value, but a setting where they felt like they were back home in their small towns. Now the street scene is very popular — street taco vendors, "street tacos" in other states — but we were doing street vending unbeknownst to us in the '70s and '80s, before it was popular. People weren't just coming for the food; they were coming for the environment, the ambiance, the vibes. That started growing too big. SWAT came over once. Neighbors complained about parking. We had to find a brick-and-mortar. Luckily it was a few blocks away from our house.

Raul  [11:39–12:10]
It was a perfect fit — right in the heart of East LA. Which also probably answers your question about Miami. Why don't they have Mexican food? Because East LA — Los Angeles — was ground zero. That's where all the migration patterns came from in the '70s. They'd come to LA, then spread into other cities. The fusion started happening here. People started cooking more foods. It hasn't got to Miami yet.

"We Don't Sell Food — We Sell Time Travel"

Brett  [12:10–12:24]
You have a quote — you don't really sell food, you sell time travel. You sell a feeling. Tell me more about that.

Raul  [12:26–14:03]
When I was a kid, I didn't understand — I'd be at the restaurant or at the home where we sold out of, and people would stay for hours. "Come on, guys — I got to clean this up." Looking back in retrospect, I'd see people walk in and the first thing they do is grab a tortilla — a handmade tortilla, about 8 inches — and put it in front of their face. They'd remember those special once-in-a-lifetime events — a baptism, a wedding. "I went to Maria's wedding, I remember this." They'd start talking. It's like a portal in time. Especially back in the '70s and '80s there weren't too many places. Now you can walk into any store and pick up a Mexican Coke, or any Mexican fruit or spice. Back then, there wasn't that. When they came to Chalio and we served goat and lamb — very rare back then and still rare, not many places do it well — it was their way to go back without having to be there. Every table had their own story: talking about their past, festive moments, laughing, dancing, remembering those special parties.

Brett  [13:57–14:29]
It's interesting because smells trigger incredible memories for us. Certain smells and flavors trigger those memories, and it seems like you've been able to do that — trigger those amazing times, the good times. They're grasping onto it because it's so rare. That's so unique.

Mistakes Along the Way

Brett  [14:29–14:44]
You've talked about how you made a lot of mistakes along the way. Tell me about those. What went wrong? What did you learn from it?

Raul  [14:44–16:04]
You make every mistake you can imagine in the restaurant business. We did. I look at people who open restaurants now and think, "How do they do it?" We were in the growing stages in the early '80s. My dad didn't speak any English. His biggest mistake back then was hiring people and paying them cash — no control at all, no paperwork, no food cost. All he knew was he was selling more than he was paying for. But something amazing — I was maybe 16 or 17, arguing with my dad, "This is how we should do it." He goes to the back of the kitchen, looks at the pot, comes back and says, "There's $850 in that register." I thought, "How does he know? Impossible to count." I said, "You're crazy, Dad — there's no way." I go count it. $875. He was off by 25 — maybe change I'd put in the box. He had the insight. We didn't know how to market ourselves. We didn't even have a menu.

Raul  [16:05–16:47]
If you walked in, we assumed you knew our menu. "I got this, this, this — what do you want? Hurry up." Especially if somebody walked in from another ethnic group: "Where's your menu? Where's your prices?" We had no customer service concept, didn't understand food costs, plating, advertising — nothing. Like most people who start with a dream and want to sell something.

Evolving the Menu and Cooking Technique

Brett  [16:47–16:53]
Now that you've evolved, tell me what that looks like — analyzing your food costs, how you approach the menu, how does that work?

Raul  [16:53–18:24]
The menu is an interesting story. For many years I fought with my dad — not fighting, but over cooking techniques. Traditionally you'd cook birria underground: dig a hole, put it in with the rocks, cover it, let it sit 8 to 10 hours. We tried that at home. The fire department came and shut it down. So we had to figure out a new cooking technique. He got big pots — stainless steel now — and we steam cook it. Slow steam cook for about 8 to 10 hours. It's like chewing gum — when you first put a piece in your mouth the flavor explodes, then it dissipates but you can still taste it. With goat and lamb, people were always hesitant because of the flavor. When we steam cook it, that flavor dissipates, but the texture — the marbling — doesn't. When you bite into it, it's a little more fatty, more grease than beef. His way, my way — how do I innovate? Combi ovens came out — I said, "Oh wow, you can program these." Before, someone had to stay up at night, turn the fire on at 8 pm, get there at 4 am and turn it off. I tried the combi oven — it didn't work. And he'd come back and say, "I told you it wasn't going to work."

The Marketing Journey — Word of Mouth to Social Media

Brett  [18:24–19:47]
Tell me how the business has evolved — how you've gotten smarter about pricing and marketing. For the first 50 years, the majority of how people found you was pure word of mouth. Now as we look at 2026 and onwards, what's changed? Everyone's talking about AI, digital marketing. Our company went to NRA this last year in Chicago for the first time, and worldwide — in every industry — the focus was AI. Years before, everyone at NRA was trying to figure out margins and operational costs. Now everyone's talking about, "What can we do online to get people in store?" Tell me what you've been up to.

Raul  [19:48–20:52]
Up until maybe a year and a half ago, we didn't do any marketing. It only happened a year and a half ago. My daughter took me to Europe about two years ago. We wake up in the morning — "Where are we going to eat? What are we going to do today?" We planned dates. "Oh, I saw this on YouTube, on Instagram." So 80% of the time we went wherever she chose — whatever was trending, whatever was popular. The other 20% we'd just walk into a place. The key for me: if I walk into a place and see the owner, the husband and wife or family, I know it's going to be good. I always tell her — sometimes social media doesn't really get it. It's the people working, who are too busy to do the marketing, who are hands-on. That's where the flavor's at.

Raul  [20:57–22:03]
Then how do you scale? When you go from selling maybe 3,400 lb to 10,000 lb — looking back, we messed up. We had the people — "Oh, let's just do it, let's get it out." No, you always have to go back. Spend the time. Look at the processes. Look at how the food's being cooked. When you cook it one way, how does it get reheated? How does it get served? Most of the time you have to cook something and let it cool down for health code standards, and you lose that. Now I cook the food, my cook serves the food — she doesn't have the same passion. How do I break that gap so that when she serves, she can't change it much? That's why in certain restaurants there are certain items on the menu — certain things you can't put on there because not everyone can cook them — unless you get into higher-end restaurants with a chef on the line.

Food-First (Not Alcohol-Led) — Texas Location

Raul  [22:07–22:51]
The restaurant in Texas — my friends tell me I'm crazy, but they told me not anymore. 90% of my sales were food, 10% alcohol. I never pushed alcohol. Growing up, people would drink and get rowdy — I didn't like being around drunk people. My daughter says no, alcohol is where it's at. My friends said the same. I went to NRA, people said, "What do you mean 10%? You have to be 30, 40% alcohol." I'm like, "No, no — it's the food." So the new thing: I'm the food guy, my daughter's doing the alcohol stuff now. She's doing all the nice cocktails.

Brett  [22:59–23:39]
It's interesting though — Gen Z isn't as big of drinkers as millennials or other generations. We have a ton of clients around college campuses that are like, "We're getting killed — these kids aren't interested in drinking anymore." I definitely enjoy a beer or a cocktail once in a while, but this new generation is interesting. So — I love that you're majority food. That's incredible.

Revenue Channels

Brett  [23:39–24:11]
I want to talk about the specifics behind your sales. In the restaurant sector there are lots of ways to make money — some brands push reservations, some are more about walk-ins, some have online ordering, some rely on third-party ordering apps, some push catering and private events. We call them revenue channels. What are all the ways you monetize your customers? Walk-ins, catering, events?

Raul  [24:13–24:32]
You have to do a little bit of everything. One itself is not guaranteed. We do regular walk-ins, some reservations, a little catering, a lot of takeout.

USC Story — Poised for Job Creation

Raul  [24:33–26:12]
It always comes down to — I went to USC, the entrepreneur program. There were about 300 of us. The professor asked, "Okay guys, what kind of business are you going to open?" This was 1994. Everybody's raising their hands. One guy: "I'm going to create a global board of trade." Another: "I want to open a doughnut shop." Professor: "Stand up. Stay standing." Another guy: dry cleaners. Then the professor — luckily I didn't raise my hand — says, "Okay, all you guys, get out of here. We only run world-class businesses here. Write me an essay: how are you going to make the business you just described a world-class business poised for job creation?" And he said, "There are three certainties in life: death, taxes, and restaurant closures." Then a woman there — Marcia Israel, founder of Judy's, Rampage, Wet Seal — was telling us, "You guys, there's going to be a day — we're heading toward a cashless society." I'm thinking, "No way, 90% of my sales are cash, 10% credit card. Flip it." They were on the forefront letting us know.

Raul  [26:22–27:17]
You learn about cycles. Every restaurant becomes — I see them now — I look at the new concepts and think, "Oh man, this is a trend. They got 10 years to make as much as they can, and then how do you stay relevant after 10 years?" Because your demographic — people leave, people die off, people get sick. You have to be creating new customers. Most customers leave, move, or die. So you have to be aware of all that. That's one of the challenges with my daughter. I say, "You don't understand — this is going to happen." I'll point out a restaurant that's doing very well now, and ask, "What are they going to do to reinvent themselves?" They can't keep the same name. People think, "Oh, it works — it's going to work forever." It doesn't. You have to change with the trends, and people don't.

The Restaurant Industry's Trackability Gap

Brett  [27:17–28:52]
That's so important. The restaurant industry is always significantly behind other industries. If we look at e-commerce, which is where I got started — everything's online. If I want to sell $100 sunglasses, I can run an ad on Instagram, drive traffic to an e-commerce site, and if I spend $10 to get a $100 sale, minus product cost, that's my margin. If it's profitable, I can keep scaling. In the restaurant sector, a lot of owners have been hesitant to do paid advertising because they've never been able to track and prove their efforts were actually working. Especially when 90% of sales are cash and 10% are credit card — cash is untrackable. It's hard to equate: I spent $500, $1,000, $5,000 online — how much money did I make back?

Brett  [28:52–29:00]
I found you also have this awesome YouTube channel. Tell me about how that came about, how it's contributed to sales — is that trackable?

Raul  [29:02–31:38]
It's not really trackable. Back to the quote — death, taxes, restaurant closures. Only certain restaurants make certain thresholds. Some last 10, 20 years, then the owner dies and it falls off. What restaurants stand the test of time? The ones that are rich in historical cultural value, or first to market — they have something special no one else had. People tend to go to the first of something. When beef birria came out, the tacos, I was hesitant at first — I'm a purist. Birria is supposed to be made from goat and lamb. Then I thought, wait — this is actually perfect timing. Our customer base, our migration patterns, they're dying down. That's the thing — you have to watch the whole picture. Migration patterns are slowing. Nobody's coming to LA anymore — too expensive, overpopulated. People are going to smaller towns where they feel more at home. That's why I went to Texas — I saw the shift. So when I created the YouTube channel, it was: let's create the history. There are so many firsts we did. In the 1970s/80s, while we were selling food at our house, we'd go to Tijuana to buy Mexican Coke. We'd bring it back, drink it ourselves — "Can I have one?" "No, we bought it." That was the idea. Let's go to Mexico and buy Mexican Cokes. We'd save the bottles to return them. Every week my dad drove his 1974 Grand Torino with a huge trunk — filled with 20, 30, 40 cases of Mexican Coke. Border agent: "Where's the soda for?" "We're having a party." So we brought stuff people wanted. We became relevant. When I created the YouTube channel — how can we become relevant? Let's tell people our story. It's not just birria — do you know where it really came from? Its historical cultural value?

Raul  [31:45–32:54]
The younger generation doesn't know what birria means. "Oh, I had tacos." No — do you understand when, why it was eaten? You have to become relevant. I opened up a hot dog place once — "Between the Bun." Our slogan: "It's not what's in the hoagie, it's what's in between the bun." Started doing well. Then I forgot one thing: didn't do my research. LA had a train line coming — the Gold Line — that shut down the street. Business was over in less than six months. I failed to pay attention to the warning signs. You have to know what's coming — a month, two months, six months, a year down the road. Those projects take serious planning. Good experience — it hasn't happened to me again.

How Brett Got Into Restaurant Marketing

Brett  [32:54–34:20]
Quick story — the reason I got into restaurant marketing. My first client we ever worked with in the restaurant sector was Original Tommy's in LA. Family friend of ours. I'd been doing e-commerce advertising for years with great success. They said, "Can you help us with our marketing? We've never really done it." I said, "I don't know the restaurant space — nothing's trackable, margins are tough." But I said, "Let's just give it a shot." We worked with them and over the first three months we raised sales by 7%. I thought we were going to get fired — in e-commerce I was used to producing 4x, 5x, 10x returns. In the restaurant sector, back in 2016–2017, all they wanted was, "Look, we just want something to prove we did something and it worked to some degree." 7% growth across their 30-plus locations was massive. We ended up working with them for a few years.

Brett  [34:20–35:32]
When it comes to the restaurant space, so many owners fixate on what's within their four walls. You have to be an expert at that — I take nothing away from it. But there's a whole world out there on the internet that can be reached. Like you experienced in Europe — 80% of the time you were choosing which restaurant based on Tik Tok or Instagram. Even how we found each other today — we found each other online. In anything today, and especially in the restaurant sector, we decide where we want to go eat before we leave our homes. Even if someone had a fantastic experience, they go on Instagram, get distracted — everyone has ADHD today. It's so important to have a presence online. Props to you for getting online, getting in front of a camera. So many restaurant owners aren't comfortable with that. That's huge.

Raul  [35:39–36:11]
Thanks. They say if you enjoy what you do, you're not working. At the time — when I was going through the stuff in the restaurant — I didn't understand what was happening. But when I look back, wow — all this stuff was happening. When I was at USC, the internet came out and my friend told me, "Hey, let's buy these things called dot-coms — let's buy these URLs." I said, "You guys are crazy, that's not going to work. What is email?" It just came out.

Raul  [36:11–36:50]
You have to be — they might consider you awkward because you're doing stuff that isn't the norm. There are no rules. That's basically what I learned. Most restaurants make the mistake: "Jim is selling burgers for $11, that guy for $12 — I'll be in the middle." Well, what's your food cost? How much rent are you paying?

The Ricardo Diaz Lesson — "Pay Your Taxes"

Raul  [36:58–38:36]
I tell everybody this story — probably one of the most important things I learned. I was doing a Taste of LA in downtown, giving away free food. It was for Cisco. After the festivities, Cisco invited us to a local restaurant, I think in Hollywood — Frida's. All these big chefs known for Mexican cuisine in LA. We went into the meeting. I don't know if you've met Ricardo Diaz — has several restaurants. I'm a young guy, ready to talk. Point-of-sale was just starting to come out. I said, "Ricardo, what system do you use?" He said, "Why?" I said, "So I can cheat — so I don't have to pay all my taxes." He tapped me on the shoulder and told me, "You know what? If you have to do that, you're in the wrong business. Find something else to do." I couldn't sleep for three days. Why did he tell me that? What does he mean? That was the best. I tell everybody the story. You have to pay your taxes. Give Caesar what is Caesar's. Because if you don't, everything you built up is gone. They'll take it from you faster than you can close your eyes. That was one of the biggest mistakes my father made — he didn't know any better. You have to believe in what you're creating and charge for it. People will pay for it. If it's good, if it's different, if you put your love into it and make it taste good, people will pay whatever.

Live Business Breakdown — Numbers

Brett  [38:45–39:38]
Now I want to get into the specifics behind your business. People on this podcast always wonder — especially people just starting out — what's a good margin for your type of business? How should we approach price points? What kind of marketing should we be doing? You've had really awesome success over the last 50-plus years. Most restaurants don't survive past three years, so this is huge. What are your current monthly sales? What are you averaging on a per-store basis?

Raul  [39:38–40:23]
The bigger store in Texas — right now we're at about $4.5 million, flirting with $5 million. Independent, seats about 250–300 people. My store, the one I'm responsible for, does about $1.5 million. Seats 90–100 people. The one in Texas is absolutely crushing it. I think it's more because we're there as well. My son runs one of the LA stores and I can relate — when I was young I didn't have the same [drive]. It took me a while before I got that mojo.

Raul  [40:23–41:39]
I was at a food show in Houston, wanted to expand — open other stores. A guy says, "Who wants a franchise?" I said, "I want to expand." He said maybe two sentences: "Why do you want to grow? Why don't you just make whatever you have better? Make it better." I sat there thinking — he's right. "If you're making rice, how can you make this rice better?" You take every single item one at a time. It's like processes. When POS first came out — Aloha was the frontier — you could put the order in on a handheld. You take processes down: someone walks in, you greet them, sit them down, give them a menu, come back, take the order, go to the POS, or on a handheld send the order directly to the kitchen.

Brett  [41:27–41:35]
What kind of POS do you guys use, by the way?

Raul  [41:35–41:39]
SpotOn.

Brett  [41:39–42:20]
Nice. Cool. Most people we talk to are using Toast and seem to like it. We have a love/hate relationship with Toast because a lot of our clients use it, but our integration only lets us pull information — not send information back — and that is super frustrating for what I do. But it is a powerful point-of-sale.

Texas Location Deep Dive

Brett  [42:05–43:03]
I want to go into the specifics of your Texas location — your most successful one. You mentioned $4.5–5 million a year, so let's call it $400,000 a month. For anyone listening only, I'm going to share my screen and go through some numbers with Raul. If you're listening, I'd recommend checking out our YouTube. I want you to leave from this podcast today with a really solid game plan. You're already successful, but I want to see if I can give you value today that you can take back to your team to go make another 15–20% monthly. How's that sound?

Raul  [43:03–43:10]
Sounds great. Little caveat for those listening — Texas has some very favorable situations for restaurateurs: electricity, payable wages. Different market completely.

Brett  [43:21–43:52]
We had a guest on the podcast recently — LA location and a Nashville location. He was like, "Oh man, Nashville is great — LA can be tough." I lived in LA 12 years, I know exactly what you're talking about. What are your profit margins currently?

Raul  [43:52–43:53]
About 15%.

Brett  [43:53–44:20]
Nice. So you're profiting about $60,000 a month. Revenue channels we mentioned — reservations, online orders, takeout, walk-ins, some catering. Average ticket?

Raul  [44:16–44:20]
About $38.

Driving New Customers

Brett  [44:20–44:36]
How many new customers are you currently producing per month? Rough estimate.

Raul  [44:38–45:18]
Couldn't give you an exact number — especially these last two months because we started a promo with this saucer margarita that's trending. Right now the numbers are staggering — like 60% new customers. I was talking to my kids: "You know what, had we not had this special margarita going on, we'd be in trouble because sales would be down." Most other restaurants — their sales are down. So we're fortunate. That's the power of social media.

Brett  [45:18–45:57]
You need two systems: one consistently bringing in new people, another consistently bringing people back. People decide where they want to go before they leave their home. Even if someone had a fantastic experience, they go on Instagram, get distracted — everyone has ADHD today. Millennials check their phones 300+ times a day. Gen Z is even worse.

Brett  [45:58–46:25]
Give me an estimate. $400,000 a month, $38 average ticket — you're getting about 10,000+ tickets a month. Congrats — that's amazing.

Raul  [46:25–47:54]
Little footnote. Texas is famous for Tex-Mex. We do Mex-Tex — authentic Mexican food. For the first 10 years we'd have people walk in and walk out because we weren't serving Tex-Mex. We didn't give in — we still do authentic Mexican. Another factor: location. Back in 2004 you always have to be observant. This guy in the mall was dying — four stores. He said, "Oh, like Mexico." What I understood: they're going to turn it into a Plaza Mexico. Plaza Mexico is a mall in Lynwood in LA — very popular cultural center, people migrated to it. I said, "Wow, this is the spot." So when you ask how many new customers — every weekend on SpotOn Reserve, when a customer comes I put them on the wait list. About 30% of the time, their name doesn't populate — meaning they hadn't been there before. So we get a lot of new customers because of the mall across the street.

Brett  [48:00–48:22]
That's a huge plus. Give me an estimate. If you're getting 10,000+ tickets a month, what percent would be new people coming on a regular basis monthly?

Raul  [48:22–48:47]
About 400. There's no real way of tracking it. The only way I can tell is when I put their name in for the wait list — if their name doesn't populate, it pops up.

Current Marketing Approach

Brett  [48:53–49:02]
How are you driving new customers? Paid ads, organic marketing, word of mouth, all of the above?

Raul  [49:02–49:58]
The main thing is social media. Example — in 1993 there was an article written by La Opinión, a very popular Hispanic newspaper in LA. When that story came out we had lines out the door — kind of like the frenzy with social media now. Fast forward — about a year ago La Opinión wrote another article on us. I don't think I could track how many new people came in as a result. Written media is for the old folks, I guess — it's not pulling people in like it did back then.

Brett  [49:58–50:16]
Everyone's on these things now [phones]. So — social media, influencers, word of mouth. No paid ads?

Raul  [50:16–50:26]
Well, we do paid ads on Facebook to promote our posts. Yeah, consider those paid ads.

Brett  [50:26–50:46]
Mix of all. What channels? Meta, Facebook, Instagram?

Raul  [50:46–50:52]
Meta, TikTok. And Instagram — Meta would be Instagram.

Brett  [50:52–50:54]
Have you tried Google?

Raul  [50:54–50:56]
No.

Brett  [50:56–51:02]
What are you currently spending on Meta ads?

Raul  [51:02–51:06]
About $500.

Brett  [51:06–51:14]
Do you know the ROI from that? Any way you're currently tracking?

Raul  [51:14–51:15]
No.

Brett  [51:15–51:20]
Organically, are you able to track any return?

Raul  [51:20–51:29]
The only trackable method is our online ordering. People who repeat, because they claim their loyalty and bonuses. That's the only trackable ROI.

Brett  [51:29–51:41]
As far as generating new customers — it's tough to see the ROI on organic. Fair to say?

Raul  [51:41–52:16]
These last two months are skewed because of the soft-serve saucer margaritas — extremely popular in Texas. From 3 to 5 pm, the slowest time, we had lines waiting just to try those margaritas. Skewed for the last couple of months. Before that, hard to say. LA is a different story — I could probably give you more.

Repeat Customers & Retention

Brett  [52:29–52:48]
Let's talk about repeat tickets. What are you doing to drive people back? Loyalty program, punch card?

Raul  [52:48–52:55]
We have loyalty for online takeout orders. That's the only loyalty program.

Brett  [52:55–53:00]
Email list? SMS list? Anyone you text or email regularly?

Raul  [53:00–53:14]
We email and text but that doesn't seem to bring in too many people. When you text, they block you out.

Brett  [53:14–53:20]
So no real budget behind this, and no real way to track ROI?

Raul  [53:20–53:33]
The only budget is those ads — $500 on Meta, $300 on TikTok.

The Goal — $8M / Year

Brett  [53:33–53:45]
Tell me the goal. You're doing around $400,000 monthly. Where do you want to take the Texas location?

Raul  [53:45–53:55]
My goal is to hit $8 million a year.

Brett  [53:55–55:03]
About $700,000 a month. Double sales. Let's do it. I like going through this exercise because it becomes really clear-cut on exactly what has to happen. To go from $400k to $700k, we need 7,895 more tickets per month — that's 263 more tickets per day at your $38 average. How do we reverse-engineer marketing to hit roughly 8,000 more tickets a month? That's the true challenge. The biggest lever from what I heard: trackability. If we do any paid marketing, we have to see that what we did actually led to someone coming to your restaurant.

Live Online Audit — Website & Tracking

Brett  [55:19–56:00]
I want to break down what I found about your brand online. You have your main website — for the Texas location. Your Facebook page, and Instagram. I also found a separate page for your LA locations. The LA-location website looks like it may be under construction or is the wrong link. Do you know if that's the right website?

Raul  [56:20–56:24]
Something happened. No, it's not.

Brett  [56:24–56:38]
If a big portion of your business is online orders, this is the first thing I would fix. It looks like the site got pulled down. I found this only through your Instagram.

Brett  [56:38–57:33]
Let's back up to your website. When I look at someone's website I want to see Meta Pixels — codes on your website that send data back to Instagram and Facebook. You don't currently have them. Once you have this, you can tell Meta, "Run an ad to everyone who visited my restaurant's website in the last 60 or 90 days" — remarketing, the same way e-commerce brands do it. Easy freebie — talk to your marketing team about putting Meta pixels on your website. Right now you're flying blind — no data is being transferred between your website and Meta.

Brett  [57:33–58:53]
The second thing I look at is Google tags. You said you're not doing Google ads. Good news: you do have a Google tag on your website. Most brands don't. This is the same as Meta pixels but for Google — allows you to run retargeted ads on Google to people who visited your website and track behavior. So two channels: Meta (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp) and Google (Google Maps and everything Google). I looked at your Instagram — awesome page. When I look at your website — what's the main thing you want someone to do? Reservations? Online orders? What's the main goal?

Raul  [59:13–1:00:08]
The website's only about a year, year and a half old. We didn't have a website before. My main goal — like I said, we've been very fortunate; we didn't have to do much advertising. But my goal is to tell people our story. To get them intrigued so we can be an original — "Wow, we've got to go visit this place. There's so much history." We've been written up by Anthony Bourdain, Jonathan Gold, all these people. That's what I want to convey to customers. And then online ordering second.

Brett  [1:00:08–1:00:57]
If online ordering is a goal, we call that the CTA — call to action. Right now the main CTA appears to be "view our menu," but you also have "order now," "sign in," "sign up." One issue — I see "no menus available." Is the online ordering supposed to be up?

Raul  [1:00:35–1:00:38]
This online order should be up.

Brett  [1:00:38–1:01:41]
That's another opportunity. If online ordering is the goal, this has to be buttoned up. You're getting 10,500 customers a month. I guarantee you're getting even more people going to your website, looking you up, probably attempting to order online. This situation is extremely common. Before we even do any marketing, we make sure everything works properly, everything's linked properly — because when we start driving traffic, are we ready to receive it? A lot of people probably try to go to the LA website, try to order online, don't find a route, and give up. Everyone has ADHD.

Brett  [1:01:41–1:02:24]
I love that you have a call to action to get someone's phone or email — lists are extremely valuable for retargeting. You mentioned you do reservations, but I don't see an easy way to make one on your website.

Raul  [1:02:21–1:02:24]
It's an inquiry. I think it sends an email to us.

Brett  [1:02:24–1:02:32]
You want to make that easy. Make it a simple "make a reservation" click.

The Dishio Solution — Trackable Marketing

Brett  [1:02:32–1:04:14]
Now I want to show you the difference between what most brands are currently dealing with — nothing's trackable, nothing's provable, they're lost — and what a proper setup looks like. Within our platform, this is what our main dashboard looks like. Imagine, instead of spending $500 on Meta and $300 on TikTok unaware of what you did, actually getting an ROI. Right in your own Dishio account, you can see specifically what you spent on marketing and exactly what you made. We track every single dollar earned from any marketing effort. We integrate into your point-of-sale, Facebook, Instagram, Google — and sync it all together. Imagine a world where you could spend $500 on Meta, $300 on TikTok — it all gets populated right there. What you spent, exactly what customers spent at the restaurant, total conversions over the year or month, and CAC — cost to acquire a customer. Your average ticket is $38. Imagine for every $5 you spent you could generate a new customer every time. That's the power of this. But it all stems from trackability.

Brett  [1:04:14–1:05:33]
I wanted to go through this today because I know there's a ton of value from other restaurant owners listening. For you guys, you're crushing it within your four walls. You have an amazing following. You're the king of birria — but I think you can take this even further with an aggressive marketing strategy. A lot of things I talked about, you can do on your own. You don't need me or another team. There's simple documentation online. But of course, I'd love to talk with our team about the opportunities I see in your business. You've been around 50-plus years — that is extremely rare. In 2026, there are so many cool tools that could really benefit you. What are your thoughts?

Raul  [1:05:51–1:06:44]
If you'd asked me that a couple years ago I would have said no. But I see where it's heading. A guy came to me with a printed newspaper ad. He said, "Let's try it — put a coupon on there, whatever coupons you get back you track your ROI, that's what you pay me — like pay-per-click." I said, "It doesn't work anymore." So I know now the new way is social media, being easy to find. You hit the nail on the head — it has to be easy because if it gets complicated, you move on.

Advice for Restaurant Owners

Brett  [1:06:44–1:07:07]
For anyone listening — what would you say to a first-time restaurant owner, or someone in business for years but struggling to get to the next level? What advice?

Raul  [1:07:07–1:07:52]
First of all, if you don't have the love, the passion for it — they say the dream is free, but the hustle is not included. You have to be willing to put the effort in and stand the test of time. There will be days — I remember when I first started I sold $75. I look back — how did I do it? I'd write a check and not sign it. "Roy, you didn't sign the check — send it back." That gave me an extra week to send it out. Can't do that anymore — everything's electronic. Just keep going forward and be good at what you do. If you're not, then like that guy told me — go find something else to do.

Raul  [1:07:58–1:08:40]
And by the way — marketing does not work at all unless you have great food and service. What I didn't point out earlier — when we went to Europe and looked at those places on social media, sometimes you go and there's a disappointment: "Wow, this isn't what they showed me on the videos." You have to be ready for them. Coming from two different markets — I learned real fast in LA, if you don't have something good, you become obsolete. So really believe in what you do and make sure it's the best. If you do the best, people will look for you.

Closing

Brett  [1:08:40–1:09:02]
Anyone listening, whether near your LA locations or Texas, I'll put a link below the podcast so they can check you out. Next time I'm in LA I'm going to come visit you guys. If you could step into my shoes right now — one question you would have asked yourself that I didn't?

Raul  [1:09:02–1:09:53]
You already asked it. When you stepped in — whoa, how much do you spend? What's your ROI? How do you track it? How can you quantify the money you receive? You don't. The only way I quantify is looking at past POS sales. Last year I sold this much — I'm up 10%, up 15%. This last month I was up 35%. There's a connection there. My daughter says, "No, we've got to do more social media — it works, it works." For many years I fought it — old school — "That's not going to work. I'm doing well, I'm in my comfort zone, my customer base is coming in regularly, my numbers are there." But numbers are going to start dropping off. Why? People move, people die, dietary restrictions, health deteriorates. So many factors you don't see. We're creatures of habit — when someone stops coming in, that means they found somewhere else to go. So many moving parts. Hard to track them all.

Brett  [1:10:17–1:10:33]
Absolutely. Raul, it's been a pleasure. I need to come visit you next time in LA — I'm there at least a couple weeks of the year. If I'm in the Fort Worth area, I'll definitely reach out. Been a pleasure. Looking forward to chatting again soon. Appreciate everything.

Raul  [1:10:33–1:10:35]
Sounds good. Thank you.

Brett  [1:10:35–1:10:36]
Absolutely.