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When I was younger we had a and my mother divorced, left the
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to my father and to see my mother not have her own business.
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I wanted to invest in her.
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It was good in your neighborhood.
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From the east to the west showing nothing but the very best
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Oak Town Raider Nation at off 12th Street Station.
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Their inspirations making ways of good.
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Check them out on what's good in your hood.
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Hey, everybody here we are in Oakland, California, Oaktown
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And we're at, we're gonna have some traditional Mexican food
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Let's go check it out.
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What's good in your hood is all about good food by good people
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doing good in their community to is my favorite meat.
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So I always get whatever that's on the.
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And in Oakland this mother son duel is holding it down doing
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A lot of people were against me opening up this place.
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Also in downtown, I said the only thing that passes through
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He was like, you know everybody saying that it's like we will
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make the difference.
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We will make the difference.
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You see, my mother not have her own business.
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I wanted to invest in her when it comes to taking it back to their
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Gloria is meticulous in her pursuit of authenticity and believe
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me, it's the real deal.
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Tell me, what do you think the secret has been for you guys?
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We kind of educated the people the way you know, uh in Mexico
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how it's social food, you know, and are social food.
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You go and you share and to me, very hard to bring my kind of food
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also because it was nowhere around the kind of food I was gonna
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represent like Yucatan Peninsula.
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We do the Sonora, we did the Tijuana, we got the, you know, the
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We were just bringing something that was actually actually
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authentic and the real critics really uh you know, I think
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we both, we both agree or they could come and say, you know what
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There's a place I could come and get it with those uh menu items
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that you can put you on the map.
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It, it is, it is, it really is.
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It's hard to imagine that a once dilapidated neighborhood
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in downtown Oakland is now host to thriving businesses.
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Owing a big thanks to this duo.
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It's really good food tender, lots of flavors.
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It's like the food is making out with me.
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Mm mom and son working together.
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Well, I'm gonna say something.
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I mean, yeah, it is, it is difficult.
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As anybody would think.
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And I'm always gonna be strict with him and I don't care what
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We bump heads all the time, but at the end of the day, this is
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our place together and we both have great ideas and we both
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bring, uh, things to the table coming up next.
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And what's, what's this mechanism called here?
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So, here we are in the kitchen.
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Uh, and we're gonna be making one of her favorite dishes called
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and it's originated from Mexico City for anybody who's listening
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translates to white girl barbecue.
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So you're ready with your aprons because you are going to do
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We have our marinated meat.
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So all you do is just slice it down, kind of like push it back
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And what's, what's this mechanism called here?
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Can you feel the heat?
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And I'm doing as best as I can.
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You're doing really good.
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I think you have enough for our all right.
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Uh Glod, what are we doing at this step?
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So we're gonna go through the grill onions.
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Oh my God, you guys, this smells so good while that's cooking
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We're gonna get our handmade tortilla, which we do here.
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You're gonna get some cheese.
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Have you had before?
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Uh, I had, I have had a past before but I've never had a, oh, wow
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We're gonna garnish it.
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Remember you're gonna put some cilantro onions and some radishes
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and then you get your little lime so it's time to taste it.
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The best thing I've ever made when Tex Mex was the popular thing
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They took it back to their roots to offer up what no one was doing
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from the food to the decor.
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I had the opportunity to work with four traditional women
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were better than school.
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And you know, learning from them, all the central dishes and
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all their flavors saw their secrets.
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And you know, I collected a lot of recipes everywhere.
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I went in every restaurant.
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I was very fortunate.
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I will go in with the chef, you know, uh my name is so and so I would
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love to take this back to my restaurant and present the state
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the way it should be, you know, share it to you.
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That's what I do build it and they will come and the people are
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showing up in droves from a small family shop to a lunch, providing
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a place for locals visitors and burgeoning foot traffic.
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Talk about some of the things that you guys have been involved
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in that have helped the community.
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I helped start this project called El Taco Bike.
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What that did was gave that barrier of entry for a small entrepreneur
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Want to be in a food business.
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They can't afford uh maybe a restaurant that's, that's gonna
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So what can they do?
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So, the Taco bike was a project where helping small entrepreneurs
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do a food business with a low entry coming up next, stay right
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You'll see me do the Taco Challenge.
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Taco Challenge on the, we're gonna deliver tacos or do you
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Hey, everybody here.
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I am with Alfonso El Taco bike and an empty parking lot.
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I'm about to do the Taco challenge.
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A 32nd bike tour of the parking lot.
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I know it sounds crazy and it is, but we're gonna do it.
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321, go the bike that's called the hurry up.
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You're not gonna make it.
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Oh, you see, you gotta cut the corner.
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I don't know if he would make it.
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Dam it next time, buddy.
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All right, guys, I didn't make the challenge.
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I got 46 seconds or 32nd challenge.
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You know who the real winner is?
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The Taco bike because it's a great invention.
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It's gonna help a lot of people become their own bosses and
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I really hope it does.
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Well, the dominguez family risked everything by opening
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and with the pebble in the pond that rippled old town Oakland
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into a thriving community.
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So paint a picture for me.
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What was all of this?
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You know, when you guys came in here in 2009 10, the economy
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So I called the bubble, the bubble pops and a lot of retail closed
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This whole block was actually empty.
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So I uh proposed this project called Papa where I'm literally
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popping up a neighborhood.
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It was a collaboration between the city, the landlords, the
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existing landlords at that time and the community and what
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we did, we came in and told the landlords, hey, look, let me
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um curate these empty spaces.
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And what we'll do is we'll give them six months free rent.
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After the six month free trial, we'll see how their books are
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We'll see how we could kind of grow this neighborhood organically
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Sounds like you opened up an entire neighborhood.
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You pretty much was the one for the landlord and we went for
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the community and we went for the small mom and pop shops and
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you gotta have and that's what's good in your hood.
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