by GabeSowder » Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:18 pm
It seems as though the air needs to be cleared with some facts and background about Taco Punk and our decision to post this piece. Most of you don't know this but the modern restaurant faces relentless criticism from the web. Some of it is just -and we have learned from it. Most reviews are baseless and uninformed. We have become accustomed to the harsh tone of the web, but Ms. Hodge's piece crossed numerous lines of decency, accuracy, and overall journalistic standards.
For over fifteen years, I have devoted my life to the art of hospitality and good cookery. I have eaten Latin food in many cities throughout America and Mexico and have developed a deep respect and passion for this cuisine and culture. After a decade in the fine dining biz, I grew tired of serving high end food and when the time came to choose what kind of restaurant I wanted to open, I made the decision to take the tremendous risk of applying the principles of fine dining and the Farm to Table movement to a quick service model. I asked myself, “What can you serve that will put the best food on the most plates?” The answer: Tacos
I am not a punk rocker and have never claimed to be. Our name comes, not from a desire to appropriate an artistic expression for gross profit, but from my then-five-year-old son Ezra. You see, a chef leads a weird life, and family only makes things worse. Working nights and weekends for all of my sons’ life often forced me to miss out on events that “I should have been there.” One winter Sunday in the midst of a father-son wrestling bout, Ezra said, “Dad, you’re a Taco Punk.” The name immediately resounded as a name for our restaurant. So, for all of the haters out there who are slamming my use of the word punk, you are actually trashing a father’s desire to connect with his son and to make up for all the times he have not been there. All of you sound like a big group of bullies.
By the way, our logo, a Day of the Dead skull was designed by our good friend Cesar Perez-Ribas. It is an homage to Latino art, not a malicious appropriation of cultural heritage. It represents smiling in the face of our certain death and at last check, no one owns death. After all, “We are not here for a long time; we are here for a good time.”
The confusion surrounding the prices at Taco Punk also needs a bit of explanation. Simply put: We are doing things no one else is. Taco Punk, unlike many restaurants, actually has principles and they comes with a price. First, all of our ingredients are the best you can find and we make everything from scratch, by hand, every day. Our protein selections from family farmers are priced at two to three times what the commercial equivalent sells for. How is this possible? The Federal Farm Bill. If you don’t know it by now, agribusiness has bought our government lock stock and barrel. The farm bill is written every year to favor huge industrial giants like Cargill, Perdue, and Monsanto. Corn, wheat and soy beans are subsidized so heavily that they sell for far less than what it costs to produce. What do most industrial factory farms feed their animals? Corn, soy, and wheat. Thus, any food service operation that chooses to use conventional sources of protein offers prices that are artificially low. If you would like for my prices to drop, pick up the phone or write a letter to Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell and tell them you want family farmers to be included in the Federal Farm Bill. Let me know how far you get.
Furthermore, I pay my employees, including two refugees, 20% more than other jobs in the industry. Another added expense is due to a commitment to responsible waste disposal. All of our service ware is made of compostable material. It is triple the price of Styrofoam and double the price of petroleum plastic. We also use Blue Sky Services to compost all biomass and recycle all plastic, metal, paper and glass. To date our composting and recycling program has diverted over 80% of our waste from the landfill. My prices are determined by simple math not a desire to gouge the customer. After all, responsibility comes with a cost. Our food is not cheap but is affordable for most Louisvillians and is an excellent value when these factors are taken into thoughtful consideration.
These next words are directed at Ms. Hodge. My wife and I actually lived in apartments on Clay and Market in the late 1990’s. In those days, this neighborhood was a blight. Vacant buildings abounded, vagrants wandered the streets and drugs were sold openly on the streets of the Clarksdale housing project. (The building TP now resides in used to be a junk store.) Yet I –and many others- saw the potential of the area. Brave people took great personal risk to invest the energy and finances to transform a near wasteland into a vibrant cultural gem that is far from being finished. People like Chuck Swanson, Bill Marzian, Bruce Ucan, and Gil Holland have committed their lives to revitalizing this neighborhood. NuLu is not a case of gentrification but of urban renewal. We moved from the area to start a family in a safe place. Now families can call the East Market District home. How can this development be a bad thing? Let the market run its course. If no one wants $85 door knobs the store selling such things will go out of business.
Furthermore, the reality of the YUM center events were a bust for NuLu. Taco Punk experiences low sales every time there is a major event in the area. NCAA, Thunder and Derby actually pull people away from our area and we do not at all profit from the YUM Center. We pay our bills with all kinds of people as our regular and new patrons.
I counter your Damoclean Sword with Ockham’s Razor. Your attempt at melding a food review with pseudo-intellectual babble needlessly complicates the issue. Your over the top attempt at Gonzo journalism is actually offensive, insulting and inaccurate. (Among other things, we never had a food truck.) I do not doubt you had a crappy meal- no one is capable of perfection. We have worked very hard to solve the tortilla problem and they are MUCH more sturdy. Creating a housemade tortilla is really easy when you add lard, dough conditioners and other additives. Not so much when the goal is a vegan tortilla.
It is really simple. TP has a satisfaction policy: come to the counter and say you didn’t like your meal. We would have fixed the problem or refunded your money. Your Che Guvara fantasy of burning my place to the ground is shockingly disturbing and your accusations of racism are deluded at best. Your hatred towards NuLu and me is sad and pathetic.
The reality of our current situation is that our civilization is faced with huge problems that can only be solved by bringing people together, not driving them apart. My entire adult life has been dedicated towards the art of bringing people together over the beauty of a shared meal.
In no way am I a racist profiteer and to print these words is an attack on my character as a decent human being. I drive a crappy old car and live in a 1000 sq ft house in Germantown. In no way am I exploiting anyone. I have no desire to see a Taco Punk in every town in America. My goal is to simply feed good people good food and have enough money to get though life and pay for my son’s education. TP is not a “capitalist castle.” It is a small business struggling to make it in the world and I will not allow your petty condemnation of my life’s work to pass. You should be ashamed of yourself for brutally judging someone whom you have never met over a bad taco. If you have any standards as a journalist you will retract your false statements. If you have any decency as a human being, you owe me a personal apology for your hateful attack. I bear you no ill will and will gladly buy you a dinner to replace your bad one. We invite you and all people to come down and check out our blossoming neighborhood.
Sincerely,
Gabe Sowder