D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
August 2009
Food Vendors
Page: 2
David's Mexican Food
In terms of longevity, David Ordonez' Mexican-food business is the king of the mobile food vendors in Las Cruces, except David's is not very mobile.
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David Ordonez (right) and brother
Christopher. |
His remodeled ice cream truck has been parked in the corner of the Martin's Tires parking lot at Amador and Solano for nearly 10 years now, open every weekday during the school year from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from Tuesday through Friday in the summer.
But sometimes Ordonez closes a bit earlier, as he's doing the day I stop to visit with him.
"We run out of food almost every day. No leftovers here," Ordonez says proudly. And that is not because of poor planning, but rather because David's has an average of 100 customers a day, many of whom are regulars.
All of Ordonez' menu offerings are homemade, including his salsa, he says. The menu features Mexican staples such as eight different kinds of burritos, tacos, enchiladas (red and green) and gorditas (sandwiches), plus his specialty, brisket, all at very reasonable prices. Homemade enchiladas for $5? You can't make them at home for that price.
"I'm a Las Cruces native," Ordonez says, "and I've worked in a lot of restaurants around town, and also worked at Memorial Medical Center as the evening manager of patient food."
Ordonez' father, Alfred, who helped David remodel his van into a kitchen, is now helping close up for the day, as one last customer stops by to pick up a phone order (805-1133) of brisket. David's brother Christopher also helps run the operation, but for the most part it is David who is the chief cook and bottle washer.
"I make everything from scratch, so once I am done here for the day, it starts all over again. The brisket is the most popular and I think that it is the best in town," he adds confidently.
"The best thing about this for me is the customers. We have a lot of regulars, but I'll certainly never get rich doing this, but it does pay my bills. And maybe one day we'll open a sit-down restaurant, but for now this is what I like to do."
Ordonez knows the financial trials of owning a small business, and we briefly touch on the wave of local restaurant closings over the last year. I mention that another Mexican seafood restaurant has just opened down the street, but Ordonez thinks that seafood in the desert is not exactly a popular item.
"Stuff like fish tacos doesn't do well around here — you know, the California-style Mexican food."
Ordonez does have a "retirement" plan of sorts.
"Like I said, I don't have much time to do anything but work, and I'm single right now. But," he says as he starts to laugh, "let your readers know that I'm looking for single rich women!"
Bodacious Dogs
The new kid on the block(s) is Greg McCoy. His Bodacious Dogs cart has been serving up hot dogs, Polish sausage and, at times, sno-cones for just six months. He moved to his current location at Main and Spruce three months ago.
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Greg McCoy's Bodacious Dogs is the
latest food-cart arrival. |
It is a hotter-than-it-should-be afternoon when I visit with McCoy, a retired welder, as he sits under an umbrella reading a book, after serving the earlier lunch crowd.
"It has been a little slow lately," he says. "But it's been so hot this summer."
McCoy got into the food-cart business earlier in his life, when he ran Big Boy's BBQ for five years, as a side business. "After that, I had a corn roaster for a while, and now I am back to hot dogs."
A US Air Force veteran, McCoy spent 30 years as a welder. Slow business day or not, it has to be a bit more comfortable selling lunches to appreciative customers than working in a welding shop or on a job site on 100-degree days.
"I was in the second grade when my folks moved here in 1959," he offers. "I think it's a really good place to live, so I've just stayed."
His cart comes from the same vendor in Florida as Faulkner's, but he says that if he were to order another one, it would come from someone else. "My startup costs were about $6,000, $4,500 of that for the cart. I then had to get a sticker from the New Mexico Environmental Department."
Like any restaurant, each of the mobile eateries (or not so mobile, in the case of David's) is subject to surprise inspections by the New Mexico Health Department at any time. McCoy's cart, like the others I've visited, sparkles from end to end.
Currently single, but not looking for a rich single woman, McCoy enjoys building and racing go-karts in his spare time, and working with kids to share his hobby. He extends a warm invitation to come out to the Southern New Mexico Speedway, located a few miles west of Las Cruces.
Like his fellow vendors, what McCoy enjoys most about his job are the people he meets.
"The people that I serve come here to enjoy themselves," he says. "They're here to have some fun and some good food."
Just then, as if to prove his point, a car pulls up and disgorges two smiling customers with appetites.
Senior writer Jeff Berg reviews a non-mobile restaurant in Las Cruces,
Zeffiro Pizzeria Napoletana, in this issue's Red or Green section.