Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.

BATTLE CREEK, MI — Javier Fortoso had a dream to bring the foods of his native Morelos, Mexico to Battle Creek.

He started small by opening his first Torti Taco location in a small strip mall on Beckley Road in 2016. That eatery contained menu items such as tacos and burritos that customers expect at a Mexican restaurant. Buoyed by the success of that first eatery, he opened a larger sit-down restaurant of the same name three years ago in downtown Battle Creek.

That restaurant will be closing its doors this month because there wasn’t enough of a customer base to support it.

“A lot of people are telling me that they’re sorry we’re closing,” Fortoso says. “We learned a lot and I’m so grateful to a lot of people for reaching out. It was a great experience and there’s nothing to be sorry about.”

Javier Fortoso, owner of Torti TacoAmong what he learned is that there wasn’t enough of an appetite for menu items that reflected what he grew up eating in Morelos. Dishes like Arrechera, Camarones Con Chicharron, and Carne A La Tamiquena were offered along with different varieties of tacos, fajitas, and burritos. The restaurant also had a fresh seafood bar and sushi.

“We tried to do something different and educate people that Mexican food is not only tacos and burritos. We had some customers tell me, ‘When we are going to eat Mexican food with friends unfamiliar with the specialty dishes, they are going to want to eat tacos, burritos, and chimichangas.’ That’s not even authentic Mexican food,” Fortoso says. “We tried to give them something and bring our culture to Battle Creek. Sadly, I don’t think the Battle Creek crowd was ready for our menu.”

Before deciding to close permanently, he temporarily shut Torti Taco down for three months. During that time, a chef who owns a restaurant in Grand Rapids acted as a consultant to Fortoso offering advice and suggestions. He says that the chef told him that if his restaurant was in Grand Rapids, it would be competition for him.

John Grap file photoTorti Taco on Beckley Road is the first location for Javier Fortoso.“I think a lot of people were expecting to see the Beckley restaurant menu at our downtown location. With a space that big, there’s no way we can survive only on tacos and burritos,” Fortoso says. “When you have a concept that’s different and we do something else, people get intimidated.”

Finding a way to differentiate Torti Taco downtown was necessary, he says, given the number of Mexican restaurants already in Battle Creek.

“For me to be different, that’s what needs to be done. We’re saturated with a lot of Mexican restaurants. They’re good, but there are just too many.” 

Courtesy of Javier FortosoDishes served at Torti Tacos.His Beckley location will remain open and offer some of the specialty dishes that were available at the downtown location.
 
He says this is not the end of his dream, which has been paused as he considers different locations, including neighboring cities like Kalamazoo or farther north to Grand Rapids.

Churn (In the restaurant business, it is the rate at which customers stop dining at a restaurant) can be a good thing, according to a story on the Restaurant Business website.

“It brings innovation and fresh ideas. It’s good for the liquidators. But at the same time, it can be terribly sad to lose the dining spots that become part of the fabric of our lives,” the article says. “This year, the wave of restaurant closures has an undeniable theme. No matter the market, this year operators are blaming the challenging business environment for their decision to cut losses and call it quits. They point to the ongoing obstacles since the pandemic: high food and labor costs, a changed consumer, and hikes in rent.”

Fortoso says he thinks his restaurant’s downtown location was likely not the best choice.

“At the beginning when we first opened, we were really busy but that only lasted for between 6 to 9 months and then it just kind of started slowing down,” he says. “The location on that block where we were at, by 5 o’clock at night it’s a ghost town. It’s completely dead.”

This made the downtown location a destination.

Torti Taco's downtown location“We have a lot of loyal customers and this was their favorite restaurant, but they don’t come here every week. It was hard to maintain a customer base. People would tell me that we like to come and eat at your place, but there’s nothing else to do downtown after we get done eating,” Fortoso says. “I think downtown Battle Creek has the potential to be great. We need more businesses and things to bring people downtown.”

As he looks for a new location, he says he’ll continue working with the community and supporting its downtown.

“I have to find the right location and that takes time and money,” Fortoso says. “It’s just a matter of time.”