“I really had no intention of being a restaurateur or leaving medicine. My mom wanted to kill me,” says Julian Hakim, the co-founder of the fast-casual, Tijuana-style Mexican chain The Taco Stand. “And I didn’t do it to make money.”
Hakim is talking about opening the first Taco Stand outpost with his uncle Aram Baloyan in the San Diego neighborhood of La Jolla in 2013. In the dozen years since, The Taco Stand has expanded quickly through San Diego and Orange counties and has even opened in such far-flung cities as Miami, Dallas and Las Vegas. Today, there are 15 Taco Stands scattered across the country, along with a handful of Japanese restaurants that Hakim and Baloyan also oversee as part of a shared company, Shōwa Hospitality.
Hakim grew up in Baja California, living in Tijuana. He attended school in San Diego before graduating from medical school in Mexico City. His goal was to become an orthopedic surgeon, but when a taco shop opened next to his uncle’s pizzeria in 2012, a light went off. Having fallen in love with Tijuana-style tacos, Hakim decided to take a chance and open a stand that not only celebrated those regional flavors like charcoal-grilled carne asada on handmade tortillas but also offered some Golden State taqueria classics (like the San Diego-famous California burrito).
“I was applying for a residency in New York City and didn’t get it, which left me with a year until I could apply again. We just thought we’d give it a try and see what happens,” Hakim says, noting that at that time, there weren’t many Tijuana-style taco shops in the U.S…