Utah food truck Jurassic Street Tacos announced that they will be opening a new storefront in Provo the week of December 9, according to an Instagram post.
Jurassic Street Tacos co-owner Michael Poyfair said Jurassic Tacos will have a storefront at The Hut near The Village at South Campus at the start of the winter semester. He said the location was influenced by a changing client base.
“Our client base has made a shift in recent years,” Poyfair said. “We initially started serving almost exclusively Latino people. As we’ve made changes in making both street tacos and larger food items, we’ve appealed to more clients.”
Poyfair said a lot more of their clients are college-aged students, so they thought The Hut would be a perfect spot.
According to Poyfair, other restaurants will be setting up shop at The Hut, including Chip Cookies and Seven Brothers. He said Jurassic Tacos will either stay or leave depending on how they fare against other restaurants at The Village.
Poyfair said he looks forward to having a closer interaction with BYU students and sharing the company’s style, ingredients and brand with customers.
Jurassic Street Tacos Employee Alex Mora said he is looking forward to having a closer interaction with BYU students.
“Young students are always looking for good food,” Mora said. “We try to give the best ingredients and attitude to our customers to keep them coming.”
The expansion is highly anticipated by some Provo residents and college students.
“A storefront creates the ability for you to go whenever you want rather than track down a food truck,” Utah resident Angela Smith said. “I think college students will really go for that since time is so hard to come by for them.”
The company’s new storefront expansion is also rooted in business-growth principles.
Craig Earnshaw, a BYU professor at the Rollins Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology, said businesses that want to expand like Jurassic Tacos need to follow the business principle of scaling.
According to a Hubspot business blog post, scaling is a business principle that means a business has grown to a point where it’s able to take an increase in sales, work or output in a manageable way.
“A new business starts out not having much confidence in their product or market to commit themselves to larger items like real estate,” Earnshaw said. “Obviously, operating a food truck is less of a commitment in terms of payment and upkeep.”
Now that Jurassic Tacos has had its foot in the food truck market long enough, Earnshaw said the scaling principle dictates it is ready for more responsibilities.
“Jurassic Tacos must be greatly encouraged by the campus community or wherever else they operate,” Earnshaw said. “They’re ready to take the next step by committing to a lease, which is a big deal.”
Earnshaw said he believes this step will be hugely beneficial for Jurassic Street Tacos.
“Hopefully they’ll double, triple or quintuple their sales by having a storefront,” he said.
