Today we’d like to introduce you to Marko Ramirez-Pursley. Them and their team share their story with us below:
After graduating culinary school in 2013 and with the help of his dad, Marko was able to fulfill his dream of owning and operating a food truck in Puerto Rico in 2015. Having a small growing business near the beautiful beaches was his dream and when Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September 2017, everything changed.
After 2 months of being unable to operate in any capacity due to supply shortages, infrastructure failure, and no available electricity and no resolution on the horizon, Marko made the difficult decision to leave the truck behind and come to Dallas in search of work.
He lived in a small 1-bedroom apartment with 4 other Puerto Rican transplants and 2 dogs while he worked at a restaurant at the Dallas Farmers Market, making just enough money to get by. While working there, he met his friend & now business partner, Jonathan (who lived in the neighborhood).
With plenty of opportunities to cook for his new friends over the following months, Jonathan saw a unique investment and suggested they bring the El Chifrijo food truck to Dallas. They shipped the truck from the island and it arrived on the mainland after a 2-week voyage on a barge in Aug 2019 to Florida. Marko and his childhood best friend Bernardo drove the truck to Dallas in a whirlwind 24-hour “road trip”.
Low season for the food truck industry is during the winter, so the expectation was that in the spring of 2020 things would be OK. Obviously, we don’t need to tell you what happened in 2020… but this is where Marko’s husband, Allen comes into the picture.
The food truck managed to stay afloat despite the lack of work in 2020 because of the government bailouts, and the first half of 2021 was still slow.
In May 21, Allen took over the sales and operations part of the business & El Chifrijo grew like gangbusters. Some of our most notable partners include: Dallas Arboretum, Perot Museum, Live! By Loews in Arlington for Cowboys game days and Klyde Warren Park, to name a few.
In the end of 2021, the 3 business partners (Marko, Jonathan, and Allen) decided that the natural progression for El Chifrijo was to move into the Delivery & To-Go market. On Nov 16 they signed the lease in their Farmers Branch ghost kitchen and on December 15th, they opened El Chifrijo To-Go (serving the Addison, Farmers Branch, Carrollton, and N Dallas areas) which includes pickup and delivery options. Their motto: “We’re different, & now we deliver!”
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
We are a gourmet Puerto Rican Fusion establishment with a lot of vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options that is affordable, visually stunning and mouth watering delicious.
Our culture is extremely important to us and it includes everything from the use of recyclable sustainable packaging to the customer service we provide our customers.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
I believe there will be a reduction of in-person dining overall… so, for us, we will continue to focus on our food truck but we also have plans to move to a counter service restaurant in the near future and will continue leveraging the post pandemic return to office catering business to assist in the growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: ElChifrijo.com
- Instagram: Instagram.com/elchifrijopr
- Facebook: Facebook.com/elchifrijopr
- Google: https://www.google.com/search?q=el+chifrijo
- Other: https://g.co/kgs/kWbzn9 https://g.co/kgs/VH8rQ7
