Inspiring Conversations with Victor Hernandez of Sabor De Acayucan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Victor Hernandez.

Hi Victor, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
Our business started in Acayucan Veracruz in a small restaurant run by my mother’s mom and father. When our family moved to the United States my family immediately began working at a local taqueria. Once my parents were ready they opened up a small restaurant where we are currently located in Alamo, TX.

The business would only sell a sufficient amount to keep its doors open. It used to be run by my sister and father. Due to financial problems and things out of our control our family was unable to maintain the doors open. This was a huge toll on my mother since she really had a passion for cooking food and sharing it with others she had hopes to grow a restaurant and connect with people through it.

To help support my family and continue my mother’s dream I decided in the parking lot of our closed small restaurant to ask the property owner if I could possibly sell food from a small little hot dog stand I had purchased for $250 and run it with my mom. We sold burgers and hot dogs, It worked for a bit we had some consistent traffic making $100 on a good day.

Seeing how this was just ok I knew we had to change it up. We decided to give our cuisine from Acayucan Veracruz a try and see how the locals would respond. We knew how to work with masa and how to make all our home dishes. We started with Sopes, Memelas, Huaraches, and Platano Fritos which was the only things we were able to do and sell from our small Hot Dog stand.

I posted the video on a local FB Group and people started asking where we were located and how they can try it. We started adding tables around our stand to be able to cater to the growing crowd. We grew from 3-5 tables to 7-10 tables outside a small parking lot where our old restaurant that we had lost was. This was such a beautiful moment for our family. In some way, our past and future were in the exact same spot.

With the demand growing and growing the property owner allowed us to use the space we once knew as our business. We now had 14 tables available for people to come in and enjoy without Texas heat This was the start of something new yet familiar, in some way we were not the same restaurant from before that just sold food that locals knew.

But when we started embracing our culture and food we were afraid nobody would try it and thankfully we were wrong. The Rio Grande Valley welcomed us with open arms, it was not an easy journey and we definitely worked day and night made sacrifices, and all made with love to make my family’s dream come true and Sabor De Acayucan was born in 2019.

Thankfully now in 2022 due to the support of our local community and bloggers we have grown and are currently in the process of opening our second location in Weslaco, TX that will be able to welcome up to 3x the amount of clients compared to our current Alamo location.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Our business started growing in 2019 sadly COVID was a huge struggle.

We saw in the news about the virus and what was happening. We were so happy we were growing and then the notice came out that all business had to close down. We had to let go of some staff members since we didn’t have sufficient clients coming in to eat due to fear of going out.

Even to-go orders were not helping, We were not receiving as many orders as we expected. But slowly that began to change.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We serve Authentic Mexican cuisine from the state of Veracruz in Mexico specifically from the city of Acayucan. It is usually found In every corner of Acayucan from small businesses to street vendors who all serve Huaraches, Memelas, Sopes, Carne Chinameca, Cecina, and more!

We are currently the only restaurant in the Rio Grande Valley serving this type of cuisine. We come from humble, hardworking beginnings and all we want to do is share our culture and love for food. We are proud that we make everything from scratch our quote is “De donde del maiz hacemos un arte” which means from corn we create art.

All our food is made with love and you will always feel at home. We will be opening our new location in mid-2022 and hope to be able to share with more people our beautiful and delicious cuisine.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
They can visit us in Alamo TX, also by following us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok! IG: @Sabor_de_acayucan
TikTok: @SaborDeAcayucan92

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sabor_de_acayucan/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/antojitoselimperio
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sabordeacayucan92