Dia de los Tacos makes a splash on Marquette summer food scene

Mexican restaurant Dia De Los Tacos debuted its taco truck in June as part of the Marquette Bike Jam festivities. But as the truck rolled into the Marquette Commons, the tacos served also marked the day of a dream that came true for one Marquette man.

Dia De Los Tacos is owned by Mike Walker and his wife TeriLynn of Marquette. A 24-year veteran of the restaurant business, Walker has worked in local establishments like the Sweetwater Cafe as well as in bigger cities like Ann Arbor, Portland, Oregon and Detroit. His favorite food is tacos.

"Tacos are one of those things that make me smile every time I think about them," Walker said. "I'm not 100 percent certain that I can convey just how much I love this food."

Unfortunately, those taco smiles did not come easy for Walker. After a discussion with his wife, the two decided to move to Marquette and eventually open up their own restaurant. After buying a house and landing a pair of steady jobs, the Walkers saved to generate the funds.

Then TeriLynn got laid off.

Then the Upfront and Co. closed and Mike lost his job too.

"We knew we had to start getting things together," Walker said. "We had to create our own jobs."

After taking the savings they had and loans from family and the bank, Walker purchased a food truck off of eBay from a seller in Neenah, Wisconsin, roughly four hours away. Less than halfway home, the engine blew.

"I thought (TeriLynn) was going to go back there and punch (the truck's seller) in the face," Walker said. "This was a seemingly ideal truck with a good setup, then 90 miles in, it just blows. It was devastating."

After a $6,000 repair bill, the truck made it up to Marquette, just to get caught up in permit deadlock. Multiple state and local permits and licenses had to be met and were difficult to manage, Walker said. The restaurant is the only one of its kind in the Marquette area, using the food truck as its primary sales outlet, but still big enough to require a prep kitchen. According to Walker, that uniqueness caused a lot of confusion on which permits were needed. Eventually Dia De Los Tacos got the help needed from organizations like the Downtown Development Authority and Lake Superior Community Partnership to complete its unique business.

In addition to the Walkers, Dia De Los Tacos has created three other jobs in Marquette. Renee Kirchenwitz-Moore filled one of the spots as a sous chef, also having been made jobless by the Upfront's closure along with Mike.

"I haven't been able to touch a kitchen or get excited about cooking for so long," Kirchenwitz-Moore said. "I had some other jobs in the area, but I didn't believe in the product. Here, I do and I'm thrilled to be here."

Walker's passion for Mexican cuisine strengthened when he lived near Mexicantown in Detroit. He said he would frequent the ethnic grocery stores and would grab tacos up to four times a week from different restaurants. Kirchenwitz-Moore said that devotion showed when cooking, especially pork.

"As Mike prepares a taco, he'll take a piece of pork and feel it with the tongs and say 'Oh yeah, that's going to be a good one,'" Kirchenwitz-Moore said. "He gets excited and passionate about it all and that's really awesome."

That pork is the main ingredient in one of the four available tacos on the menu, with chicken, chorizo and a black bean vegetarian rounding out the list. Plans of soups and a dessert taco are also underway.

Dia De Los Tacos can be found around town, in locations like the Marquette Commons, the Fred's Rubber Stamp Shop parking lot by McCarty's Cove, the U.P. Medical Center, and others. They also regularly serve tacos at the Ore Dock Brewery on weekends. To find out where to get your taco fix today, check the taco truck's Facebook or Twitter.

Brice Burge is the managing editor of MQTSocialScene.com. He can be contacted at BriceMQT@gmail.com.