Chef Victor Villa launched Villa’s Tacos in 2018 from his grandmother’s backyard in Northeast Los Angeles, armed with a grill, a canopy, and a clear vision for bringing something new to LA’s legendary taco scene. As the son of immigrants, Villa built his taco business with a strong sense of pride in what it could represent, for his family and his community.
What began as a backyard pop-up quickly became a local phenomenon, with long lines for the now-famous queso taco and a devoted following in Highland Park.
Today, Villa’s Tacos is one of LA’s most recognizable taquerias. The business landed a feature on Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, earned Michelin Bib Gourmand recognition three years in a row, and expanded from its original Highland Park roots into multiple locations, including one in Grand Central Market. More recently, a surprise appearance in Bad Bunny’s halftime show put Villa’s Tacos in front of millions and sent traffic soaring almost overnight.
But with rapid growth came new pressure. Villa needed a restaurant point-of-sale (POS) system that could keep lines moving, handle rising order volume, and surface actionable insights.
The challenge: Manual processes that slowed service as demand grew
When Villa’s Tacos first opened, the team took orders manually. Orders were handwritten on a mini notepad, then transferred to index cards while Villa and his team kept the line moving by hand. As the business grew, the process became harder to sustain.
Villa estimates he was spending about two hours a day, six days a week managing orders and tracking sales manually. Even when the system didn’t create mistakes, it created drag. “It just took three times as long to place an order as it does now,” said Villa. “As you all know, time is money.”
As the business expanded, the challenge wasn’t just speed at the register, but visibility into business performance. For Villa, the biggest operational hurdle was tracking and analyzing sales data in a way that could help him run the business. Without an easy way to spot customer trends, it was hard to know how much to prep, how to staff for busy shifts, or how to plan for the sudden surges that can come with a fast-growing restaurant.
Every extra minute spent writing tickets or piecing together sales information was time away from customers. Villa needed a system that could streamline service and give him real-time insights to scale.
The solution: A connected POS system built for speed and smarter decisions
To keep up with growing demand, Villa turned to Square for a restaurant POS system that could do more than process payments. He needed tools that could help the team move faster during service while giving him a clearer view of what was happening across his taquerias. The business adopted an integrated Square setup that includes a POS system, marketing, and staff management tools.
Instead of writing orders and passing tickets by hand, Villa’s team can now move customers through the line quickly with Square Register and Square Terminal. “The POS allows us to effectively and efficiently take orders and keep up with demand,” Villa said. That shift alone helped turn a manual process that once took three times as long into a faster, streamlined workflow.
Beyond speed, Square unlocked a new level of visibility for Villa. Rather than relying on pen-and-paper tracking, he now uses reporting and sales trends in the Square Dashboard to better understand when Villa’s Tacos is busiest so he can plan accordingly. “It’s made me more analytical, in a sense that I can analyze our data and track company trends,” Villa explained. “We are able to understand the driving backbone [of the business] through the tools available at Square.”
Those insights have helped Villa reduce waste and control costs by making more informed decisions. “I am able to prep and staff accordingly because I know what days and times are going to be busier through trends and data,” he said.
Impact: Ready for the spotlight and built to handle what comes next
When Villa’s Tacos appeared in Bad Bunny’s halftime show, the business got the kind of exposure most restaurant owners dream about. Overnight, Villa’s Tacos saw traffic jump by 35 percent, a surge that could have overwhelmed a slower, more manual system.
Instead, Villa said Square helped the team keep the lines moving and stay focused on each order.
We saw a spike in traffic by 35% and Square helped us by doing what Square does best, being the best POS system and being able to handle the influx of orders.”
Victor Villa → Owner, Villa’s Tacos
That moment became a real-world stress test for Square and proof that the business was ready to scale. Villa’s Tacos gained over 100,000 new followers after the halftime appearance, a wave of attention that reinforced how quickly a local favorite can become a national talking point. But for Villa, the real win was knowing the team had the operational foundation through Square to meet the demand.
That foundation continues to shape day-to-day decisions at Villa’s Tacos. With faster service, clearer reporting, and better visibility into labor and prep, Villa can run his restaurants with more confidence. That kind of operational clarity matters even more as the business expands. New Villa’s Tacos restaurants are set to launch in South Pasadena, Hollywood, and Atwater Village, with three additional locations to follow.
With the right systems in place, Villa is turning an LA favorite into an iconic restaurant brand.
