Table of contents
I was so nervous the day we opened Nixta Taqueria that I threw up.
We started the restaurant as both life and business partners. I handle more of the business operations, while Edgar covers everything culinary. By the time we opened in October 2019, we put our savings into the restaurant and spent the previous nine months doing almost all the work ourselves — tiling, painting, even installing a grease trap. We had everything riding on getting customers into our taqueria.
Four hours before we opened, a guy set up a lawn chair on the sidewalk outside. “I want to be the first one who eats here,” he told us. By the time we opened the doors, we had a line of 200 people waiting to come into a space that seated 20. A few months later, Texas Monthly said we were taking tacos “to the next level.” In 2022, Edgar won a James Beard Award. Last year, Food & Wine named Nixta one of America’s top 20 restaurants.
Those have all been great moments, but we’ve faced big challenges along the way. That glowing Texas Monthly review? Just weeks later, the pandemic forced us to close. And less than a year before we were named one of the country’s best restaurants, our business nearly went under when the city unexpectedly shut us down. Through the highs and lows, one constant through it all has been our community.
Edgar and I always wanted to create a great neighborhood restaurant, so it’s been a delight to become a fixture in our community of East Austin, Texas. I often think of one couple who had their first date, their engagement party, and a pre-wedding celebration all at Nixta. Now they have a child, and the whole family still comes in. Those are the kinds of memories and connections that matter most.
A lot of business owners tell me they want their establishments to be part of the fabric of their communities and ask how Nixta has done it. As I always tell them, becoming ingrained in your community requires a lot more than just opening your doors and inviting in customers. You need to consistently show up for the people of your community.
I’ve also learned that when you’re there for others, they will show up for you, too.
Be honest and transparent
I grew up in a small neighborhood in Arkansas where neighbors looked out for each other. They’d check in on our family and bring food when folks were going through a tough time. I get the same feeling from our East Austin neighborhood.
We felt the power of this community before we opened. As Edgar and I did all our DIY projects to get the restaurant ready, neighbors came by to say hi. Pretty soon, they started helping, grabbing a paintbrush or a shovel to pitch in.
We were building relationships — and trust, too. Early on, we decided to be fully transparent, even on social media. That meant sharing not just the happy moments but also the missteps, like when we failed our initial health inspection. Some business owners were surprised we admitted that. But the building was 70 years old and needed serious work. And we found people appreciated that we were being real with them.
Our neighbors began to feel a personal investment in what we were doing. They rooted for us.
Take care of your team first
At Nixta, taking care of people starts with our team. We pay more than most restaurants do. We split tips evenly, meaning that the dishwasher earns the same as the server. We offer health, dental, vision, and mental health insurance, too. And Nixta provides stipends for professional growth to employees who have been with us for at least a year.
We also offer paid time off and let employees take personal days. Members of the team are happy to cover for someone because they know the restaurant and their colleagues will do the same for them when they need the support.
Employees feel supported when you show your appreciation in ways big and small. That creates loyalty. When they’re working, they’re all in. They’re cheerful and excited, and the customers feel that energy. We’ve had good success retaining employees, which helps guests feel at home whenever they come back.
Give your community the help they need
Hospitality can’t be transactional. During the COVID lockdown, connecting with customers became a lot harder to do, so we got creative. We ran a drive-through burger popup so people could see friendly faces while they got a good meal. When we did takeout, we included tchotchkes and little notes of encouragement in every bag.
During that first COVID summer, we hosted the first community refrigerator in Austin’s Free Fridge program. Anyone experiencing food insecurity could come by, no questions asked. The slogan was, ‘solidarity not charity.’ We served hundreds of people a day, from all walks of life. Some were neighbors in Section 8 housing. Others had lost their jobs or businesses, or didn’t know when their workplaces would reopen. Eventually, we added a second community fridge, which we still operate.
Then there was the deep freeze that hit Texas in early 2021 and knocked out the electrical grid for five days. We had no power or heat, but we still had food and propane. So we started cooking. Every day, people lined up for food, and we made deliveries to those stuck at home.
We wanted to help people in the small ways we could — providing a fridge, paying for some extra electricity to power it, cooking the food we had on hand during a blackout. But I never realized the impact the simple gesture of providing a meal can have on people. I’ve been overwhelmed by the expressions of gratitude we’ve heard. More and more it felt like people knew who we were and had our back.
If you really want to connect with your community, you need to reach out well beyond the doors of your business.
Lift up your community, and they’ll lift you up in return
Hardship can hit anyone, anytime. We found that out in 2023.
That August, in the middle of a record heat wave, Nixta’s power went out. When we applied for an emergency permit to get us up and running again, the city denied us. Officials said the HVAC system on our roof didn’t have the right permit. Never mind that the HVAC had been installed long before Nixta moved in, or that the issue had never come up during our inspections.
After fighting our way through a bureaucratic maze, we discovered that the city’s concerns extended beyond the HVAC. We needed to make hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations to bring the building up to code — and we couldn’t reopen until we completed the work.
It seemed like a death sentence for our restaurant. We had 30 team members depending on us. We furloughed them with pay but didn’t know whether we could save Nixta.
Then we opted for transparency again. We explained the situation and asked for help. And the community answered.
Within two days, a crowdfunding campaign raised nearly $120,000. One donor wrote: “Y’all fed us when we were frozen. You figured out how to make curbside happen when people were sick. You feed the community with the fridge and pantry. You lift other area chefs up and help grow other businesses along the way. It’s the least that we could do when y’all already do so much.”
I bawled my eyes out.
Community bonds will carry your business
Seven months later, Nixta reopened. It was Easter, so we threw a “Resurrection Party”: free tacos, cold drinks, a DJ. We just wanted to say thank you, to give back, to celebrate with the people who had lifted us up when we needed it most.
We’re still serving our community, and always will. We continue to operate our free fridge to this day. We still host parties to bring people together. Lately we’ve been running more popups influenced by the Persian food of my heritage.
I hope your business can form such strong bonds with your community. Those relationships don’t happen overnight. You need to be honest and transparent with people. You have to be there, day in and day out — supporting neighbors when they’re down and celebrating with them in good times.
Focusing on community uplift might be the best decision you ever make.
