Well, it's official. We found the perfect spot to re-launch F'n K Tacos, right in the town we chose to call home: Rockford, Michigan. We've been planning and plotting and imagining this for years and it's finally happening — a real brick-and-mortar taco shop! That being said, our aim is to be open by June 1, 2022 and we have a TON of work to do to be ready in time.
Long story short, we'd just been keeping our eyes out for the right location since we moved here in 2020. We both have full-time careers and hadn't put a full effort behind this yet. But as life goes sometimes, one day the perfect space just appeared. Within 2 weeks we had a signed lease, so now the really hard work begins.
We discovered some history of the space dating back through the past three tenants and they had all been food service businesses: a BBQ joint, a sandwich shop, and most recently a dessert shop. Not only had the exterior aesthetics changed with each identity, but so had the interior. It needs some love and we have quite a bit of work to do to make it our own before we open.
The space itself is about 700 sq ft with a small kitchen and room enough for a handful of barstool seating around the front windows. It has a back courtyard that to our knowledge hasn't been used in the past, but providing everything is approved, will become a charming outdoor nook.
We've made a small dent, as much as we can do until we get approval on the few things we'll need to change (which we're hoping will come next week). Once that's secured, we're back to the health department and governing officials for their approval and then it's literally off to the races to knock out the rest as quickly as we can.
We couldn't have found a more perfect location for what we envision to launch. And we're pumped to get going as soon as we can! That being said, it's just us, Frank 'n Kaitlin, and our family and friends here and there when we can drag them over to help. We don't have a financial backer or other location already operating like many other restaurants opening in the area. This is a bootstrapped start-up and we're doing our very best.
We both grew up as the children of small business owners and we believe in the power of small businesses. We want to not only support our community as consumers but as small business owners.
Support for this venture has been overwhelmingly positive and we're extremely grateful for that. We can't wait to get to know our community better as we bring this dream to life. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And we're all in on this.