ORMOND BEACH — It didn’t take long for word to spread about Monday’s soft-opening of the new Tipsy Taco Cantina, an eatery that specializes in fusion tacos and craft beer on the west side of State Road A1A, north of Andy Romano Park.
“It was a nice, soft little lunch opening, but by Monday night, we were on a 45-minute wait,” said owner Mike Lucas, 49, a cardiac perfusionist who has invested $100,000 into turning his idea for a restaurant featuring “surf-themed coastal cuisine” into reality at a formerly abandoned building that once housed a Goodwill donation center at 746 S. Atlantic Ave.
If the opening-day response is any indication, the restaurant’s prospects are bright.
“We ran out of food at 10 p.m.,” Lucas said. “We had to shut the kitchen down.”
In an interview ahead of Wednesday’s lunch rush, Lucas called the opening-week turnout “fantastic,” especially considering that the restaurant’s advertising has consisted solely of Facebook posts.
“For Monday’s opening, we only made the one Facebook post,” Lucas said. “It got shared about 80 times and by Monday night, it had been viewed about 8,000 times. We were thrilled. We were overwhelmed at one point.”
The menu at Tipsy Taco revolves around a lineup of fresh, house-made tacos. Among the customer favorites in the eatery’s first week is the Carne Asada Taco ($6), a combination of sliced steak, pico de gallo, green onion, cotija cheese and a signature cilantro crème sauce, Lucas said. Other entrees include a Cajun Shrimp Taco, Asian Beef Taco and Thai Spring Taco.
In addition, the 3,000-square foot restaurant is equipped with a dozen taps to dispense craft beer and also offers a variety of wine based cocktails, Lucas said. The vibe is beachy, with dark wood accents and a copper-colored metallic epoxy floor emblazoned with a sun-star image.
Lucas has hired a team of 15 employees to run the restaurant, including general manager Lena Lux and head chef/kitchen manager David Carey. The restaurant is looking to hire at least 10 additional part-time cooks and servers, he said.
Carey calls the restaurant’s menu a combination of influences absorbed in nearly a decade of working in kitchens ranging from catering services to food trucks and barbecue establishments.
“I take bits and pieces of stuff that I come up with and turn it into something unique,” Carey said. “I’ve always prided myself on good sauces, because that’s what makes the food.”
While he’s not giving up his job in hospital operating rooms, Lucas said that opening Tipsy Taco has been “a thrill of a lifetime, to see it through from start to finish.”
Along the way, however, there were a few bureaucratic headaches, such as zoning issues that restricted the restaurant’s parking to 50 spaces, Lucas said. In the end, he reached an agreement with Beach Village Gift Shop to use that company’s parking lot when the shop was closed, he said.
Outside of the proximity to the beach, the steady traffic flow on A1A is the Tipsy Taco’s biggest asset, said Lucas. His new business eliminated one of the many empty storefronts and vacant lots that blemish the iconic roadway that runs north and south along the World's Most Famous Beach, an issue that The News-Journal recently explored in a two-day series “Pockmarked Paradise.”
“I read a study before I started planning that there are roughly 20,000 cars on A1A every day,” Lucas said. “Just that sheer volume of traffic is a major advantage.”
He offered a word of advice for other would-be entrepreneurs on A1A:
“Start small,” Lucas said. “Do a lot of research on proven concepts and then add your own vision and a personal touch.”