El Toro Loyalty
It was a warm spring day as the sizzling sounds of the grill rippled through the walls of El Toro Taco Truck. The flavorful aromas wisped through the air as a slight breeze passed by. For me, an avid taco eater, it was nearly impossible not to approach the vibrant smells pouring out as owner John Lieberman opened the hatch of his truck to start his day. John started his business in 2004, and since then has become one of the most prominent and well-known food truck chefs throughout the Tri-state area.
My first time having some of El Toro’s prized tacos was in 2015 and I can truly say my life was changed from then on. As guy Fieri would say, I was taken to “Flavor town”. The ingredients John meticulously placed inside each taco combined to form the most vibrant and explosive flavors that would interact with each other in ways never experienced. John had a way of creating authentic Mexican food with a twist to showcase a new wave in the taco industry that would get people from all over the area to come and experience for themselves. With 8 different combinations of flavor there was something for everyone, whether you like pork, steak, chicken, fish, etc or choose to go meatless.
With John creating one of the most prized food trucks in the area, business would boom for itself, with his creations being transported with word of mouth due to his amazing ability to connect with the community and create an overall amazing experience for his customers.
Unfortunately, this year brought COVID-19 and caused one of the worst pandemics in history putting pressure on the food industry and restaurants all over the world. While some restaurants managed to stay open by offering take-out and pick-up options to mitigate the spread of the virus, the food truck industry took a huge impact as it was a struggle to stay open while people were locked up inside. With stay-at-home ordinances in place, food trucks no longer had access to parking their trucks in public areas to serve their food, and with that being the whole nature of a food truck, John’s business plans needed to change during these tough times if he wanted to stay afloat.
John came up with the idea of operating his truck from his driveway, even marking customer pickup spots in chalk so customers can safely come and pick up their food while maintaining a social distance from others. Normally operating his business out of the busy beach parking lots around Connecticut, this was a major change and struggle he had to overcome in order to efficiently keep operating his business. In the end his plan worked very well, and even brought in successful income as people became sick of home cooking and wanted to eat out during the pandemic.
The proof of his success was delivered through his customers, with word of mouth even leading John’s El Toro Taco Truck back into my line of sight. Years had gone by since I last enjoyed the incredible food El Toro has to offer, especially with me leaving the state for college, but due to the virus I was brought back home and questioned if John was still cooking. I had thought with this pandemic John would take a major impact and wasn’t open during this time, but because of his loyal customer following, I was able to hear that word on the street was El Toro was up and running in the front of his house. His loyal customers brought me back to the place that once opened my eyes to the wonderful possibilities of food and the creators that make that happen.
