Super-size taco puts San Jose's Con Sabor a Mexico taco trucks on the map
SAN JOSE -- A taco truck operator in San Jose is drawing customers from all over the Bay Area with his specialty menu item: a huge taco the size of a whole pizza folded in half.
East San Jose native Daniel Ortega never went to business school. In fact, he didn't even finish high school, which he regrets to this day.
But he did have a desire to make it in his own way. He had role models in his hard-working parents and some big ideas of his own.
"I was thinking to myself one day, 'I've got to do something different,'" Ortega said.
He came up with a mega-taco, a creation that not only super-sizes the popular menu item but fries it up with special ingredients.
"We call it the giant Con Sabor birria taco," explained Ortega. "The biggest, gigantic taco in the world."
Customers come from around the corner and all around the region to Ortega's Con Sabor a Mexico trucks to try the plus-size taco.
"No one else has done it. We have not seen it around. We started it about five months ago and it's gone viral ever since," said Ortega. "Three of our videos on social media have gone 3 million plus on the views. We get people who come all the way from Los Angeles to San Jose to try it out."
"This is huge," said Austin, who came to eat the giant taco with friends.
"Everyone says bigger is better," he said after taking a bite.
Ortega is enjoying the success of his business but he wasn't sure he would make it after dropping out in the tenth grade.
"My dad would say finish school, go to college, graduate. I said, 'No dad, I want to be like you. I want to have my own business. I want to be an entrepreneur,'" Ortega said.
Daniel's parents were immigrants from Mexico who sold fruit out of a pickup on the side of the road. When Daniel was a teenager, he started his first business selling fruit cups at the flea market.
"Two years later, I had a little money saved up, so I bought a food truck. It wasn't in the best shape but I believed in myself. I fixed it up and made it look nice," he said.
But the road to business success was twisty and bumpy in the early going.
"There were times when my business was really slow. Really slow," remembered Ortega. "There were days when I would only make like $80. And that money would be for my employees. And that wouldn't even cover it. I'd have to pay them out of pocket."
Ortega now has three food trucks plus the fruit business and 30 employees. His original truck is still on the road and his menu is expanding.
"We have ramen birria, Asian and Mexican. It's bursting with flavor," Ortega said.
Ironically, his big break in business came when the pandemic hit.
"I was able to sell out on the streets. They weren't charging rent at that time, so I was able to save some money. And with everything on lockdown, work got around that. Con Sabor was in business. We had lines and the support of the community," Ortega said.
A little luck and big ideas seem to be Daniel's formula. And so far, it's working. His plans -- like his tacos -- are super-size. At 34 years old, Daniel says he's really just beginning.
"I'm only about ten percent of where I want to be," Ortega said.
Daniel's father, Jose Luis Ortega, passed away in 2019. He got to see Daniel start up his business but, sadly, did not live to see the success he has become.