In 2017, Gustavo De Los Rios had a brush with death. The Monterrey, Mexico, native had recently spent close to twenty years working in the hospitality industry, doing everything from being a partner in a restaurant near Mesquite to DJing and booking music acts.
Unfortunately, the money De Los Rios made from his various jobs hadn’t been sufficient to support his family. When his wife had become pregnant with their daughter and couldn’t work, the family began falling behind on the bills. De Los Rios had struggled to balance his time between work and family, and he’d hardly seen his daughter for the first month after she was born.
In an effort to be around more frequently, he had sold his share of the restaurant and taken on more flexible work, including driving for rideshare services and landscaping. “There were days when I’d get home at four o’clock and had to get up at six a.m.,” he says. It was on one of those early mornings that he fell asleep at the wheel and jumped a curb around the corner from his house. He realizes now how much worse it could have been. “If I had fallen asleep for one more second, it would have probably been over for me,” he says.
For De Los Rios, it was a sign from God, a blessing. It was time for something else. As he worked to find a better job so he could spend more time with his family, he stopped by Tacos La Banqueta in East Dallas for a late-night snack, something he often did after gig work, and noticed that the restaurant had moved across the street and been replaced by Taqueria Conin. Although it hadn’t been open for long, there was a For Lease sign outside.
His mind wandered to the food of his mother, grandmother, and mother-in-law, and he decided to convince his wife that opening a small Mexican restaurant was a good idea. It worked. He called the number on the sign, and a week later, he had a contract for the tiny space, which had room for around five customers. Using his experience and connections in the restaurant industry, De Los Rios was able to open Mami Coco, named after his mother-in-law, one month later. He was happy and convinced it wouldn’t be long before he could be the father and husband he wanted to be.
Because of the sheer number of taquerias nearby, De Los Rios decided not to serve tacos at Mami Coco and to instead focus on dishes from women in his family. “It was just different and good,” he says. But he relented, because no matter how many tacos can be found in a certain vicinity, they’re still quite popular. De Los Rios experimented with recipes and had his brother taste a plate of chicharrones prensado. “Oh my God, why haven’t you put these on the menu?” De Los Rios recalls his brother saying. Influencers flocked to the taqueria, and customers loaded the business’s Yelp page with positive reviews.
By the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mami Coco was positioned for success, as a majority of customers already ordered to go. All orders came in and were handed over through a window in the front of the taqueria. It was predominantly business as usual, except that De Los Rios added outdoor picnic tables for seating. He was also able to spend more time with his family. He taught his second daughter to dance hip-hop just like he did. Everyone sat around the dining table at home and talked. Yes, the pandemic era was a time of uncertainty, but for De Los Rios, it was also a time of days well spent with those close to him.
In 2022, Yelp christened Mami Coco one of the top ten taquerias in the U.S., and the best one in Dallas. Taco fanatics immediately crammed into the small taqueria. I decided to wait to visit until the buzz receded. I wanted to see how De Los Rios and his team fared in the wake of celebrity.
Whether it comes via a national magazine or a Yelp-scraping study, notoriety only gets an individual or business so far. Some handle it well, while others stumble and occasionally fail. In Dallas, there are a few examples. Trompo, whose taco de trompo was named taco of the year by Bon Appétit in 2016, relocated four times before finally closing this August. Maskaras Mexican Grill, a restaurant that specializes in the foods of Guadalajara, Mexico, and the state of Jalisco and was featured in Netflix’s Taco Chronicles, fared much better.
So has Mami Coco. “I spent years complaining about having to open and close businesses, and always thinking about how I am going to provide for my family,” De Los Rios says. “This is a blessing.” The success afforded the opportunity to open a second location with more interior seating, on Samuell Boulevard in deep East Dallas, near Interstate 30. If potential customers want to sit at tables with elbow room, that Mami Coco is the better of the taqueria’s two locations. To De Los Rios and his team’s credit, there are no differences in the flavors or menu options.
Although Mami Coco is a taqueria, the enchiladas and flautas are the dishes De Los Rios suggests ordering first. The rolled and fried chicken flautas—long and concealed by a heavy load of cabbage, queso fresco, avocado, and crema—are crunchy and wonderfully messy. While the chicken has sometimes been on the verge of dry, the flautas are still among my favorite foods at Mami Coco. Even better are the enchiladas, with several small, guajillo chile–dipped tortillas cradling salty queso fresco. Garnishes of tangy, crunchy sliced carrots, cabbage threads, and chile-stained potatoes add to the glee.
The chopped-tripa taco is crunchy, with soft spots throughout, and amped up with salsas verde and de chile de árbol. The lean barbacoa has juices that are slurp-worthy and meat that sparkles in the sunlight coming in through the window. The bistec, as classic and straightforward as it is, hits the spot. Finally, the lengua pleases with its trademark mild, grassy flavor and bouncy texture.
Those decades of struggle are behind De Los Rios—he’s looking toward the future. His next project is a food truck that was partially built in Mexico by his brother and sits in the original Mami Coco’s lot. He’s never operated a taco truck before, but that’s of little concern to De Los Rios. “There’s always going to be a challenge,” he says. “I know I’m going to have to innovate again, and learn everything from scratch. It’s how you do something better.” But he sees himself as a success, not because of the Yelp recognition or the newfound financial security, but because he continues to have time to spend with his family. “Success is when you’re comfortable,” he says. Diners will find a lot of comfort at Mami Coco, too.
4500 Bryan, Suite B, Dallas
Phone: 469-996-2834
Hours: Sunday 10–9, Monday–Thursday 10–10, Friday–Saturday 10–11
2706 Samuell Boulevard, Dallas
Phone: 469-996-2846
Hours: Sunday–Thursday 10–10, Friday–Saturday 10–3 a.m.
