The Inspiring Success Story of El Poco Cantina Manila

- I think my personality
doesn't really fit

the proper restaurant.

Good morning, mother...
Just kidding.

We're ghetto tacos
because I'm ghetto.

- Good morning! This is...

What's your name?

- Jason.

- Jason.

And...

- What's his job?

- What?

Prep?

His job's in preparation.

And this is Myra, our cashier.

Myra.

And this is our chef, Chef Glo.

And no more.

And I am your server for today.

My name is Noki.

Actually, there's more.

Nalou, what's your role?

And this is Nalou.

- I'm an assistant.

- She's an assistant chef.

And this is our handsome
Chef Ronnie.

Chef, look at the camera.

- If you were a dish at El Poco,
what would you be?

- Burrito.

(laughs)

- Why burrito?

- Because it's chubby
and yummy.

And this one is Aly.

- Hi!

- What's your role?

- Kitchen prep.

- Kitchen prep.

- You know, El Poco Cantina,
when you Google it,

it literally means
"the little kitchen,"

because of how we started
back in 2019.

It was just
a 10-square-meter stall,

or a kiosk of some sort.

And we only had six seats—
it was so small

that we could literally high-five
each other.

Every move we made was just,
you know,

"Hey, this works, we can do it,"
because we had no idea

how to run a restaurant,
let alone open one.

Imagine, it was just
a stall back in 2019,

and we already didn't know
what to do.

Well, before we even had birria,
the Carnitas Burrito

was actually our best-selling item.

And then when we started
making birria tacos,

the Quesabirria Tacos
with beef barbacoa

became our top seller.

But I think one
of the real bestsellers

is our homemade tortilla chips.

Some people come here
just to eat that.

But I’d still say the horchata
is the best

because that’s my partner’s recipe.

Actually, I was really lost
for a long time

before I found what I'm doing now.

I grew up in a very normal household.

Just a regular kid with dreams,
but under the circumstances,

achieving them wasn’t that easy.

I always dreamed
of becoming a Lasallian.

Honestly, it’s embarrassing to admit,
but my mom had

to borrow money
from a loan shark just

to send me to school.

I was really enjoying
my time there—

until I reached a point
where I didn’t even know

why I was there
in the first place,

because I was always drinking
and hanging out with friends.

Then I asked my mom,
"Hey, can I stop studying

for a while?
I want to find myself."
And in that process
of searching for myself,

I didn’t even realize that I was,
you know, depressed.

I was drinking every single day.

From drinking, it escalated
to smoking cigarettes,

and then it just kept going
and going—

I was in a downward spiral
of vices, addiction, and abuse.

My wake-up call came
when I almost died

because of all that.

I met people who were going
through similar struggles,

and for the first time
in my life,

I felt like there were people
who truly understood me.

I started appreciating
the little things.

And I went back to school.

I finished my degree
in Human Resource Management,

then started working
as an HR personnel.

The reason I left my job
was because my dad had

a serious accident
that left him bedridden for years.

And that’s when I started thinking
about what I really wanted

to be as a kid.

What did I really dream of?

And the answer was clear—
I wanted to start my own restaurant.

Chef, my 377 rider
is here, okay? Thanks.

104 dine-in, table 3 left.

The mixed order
has been served, right?

Table 4, right? Thanks.

Does that come with extra plates?
Can you check?

Hi, welcome!

Chef, I need an additional order,
on the fly—

barbacoa soft tacos, please.

Thanks, guys! Take care.

When I made our first recipe—
the one we knew was going

to be good, the one
that would put us on the map—

that was our carnitas.

The very first version of it.

Boss, can I get your autograph?

Just your name and number.

Takeout, 1020, soft tacos.

Three pieces, small,
barbacoa quesabirria.

Yeah, thanks.

After preparing it that night,
I woke up my wife—

but I didn’t just shake her
and say, "Hey, wake up!"

No, I made a taco.

I made carnitas, plated it
with the whole setup—

salsa and everything—
and then stuffed it

into her mouth
while she was still half-asleep.

Then I told her, "This is it.
This is what’s going

to put us on the map.
This is our game-changer."

And then, on September 5, 2019,
we opened the first

El Poco Cantina.

It’s nostalgic. Very nostalgic.

Yeah. That was our kitchen too—
same setup they have right now.

I remember we used
to hand-draw our menu

almost every single day.

Looking at where we are now,
we never could have imagined

that this tiny
10-square-meter space

would grow into 100 square meters
with two branches.

It’s insane.

We started from this one little spot.

And it was just the two of us—
no other staff.

Definitely worth it.

To determine whether
a Mexican restaurant is good,

you have to judge it
by its carnitas.

It’s like adobo in Filipino cuisine—
every household,

every parent in Mexico knows
how to make good carnitas.

Now, our biggest seller
is the beef barbacoa,

which we use in our quesabirria tacos.

That beef takes about 18 hours
to prepare.

We marinate it overnight,
then bring it here

to cook every day at 12 AM.

We braise it for
about six to seven hours

using around 20 different spices.

Our birria is made
as close as possible

to how they do it in Tijuana.

We use guajillo, ancho, garlic,
onions, tomatoes.

For dried spices,
we use about 13.

There’s a lot of cinnamon bark,
cloves, and allspice too.

And we make our own adobo sauce,
which is basically

the foundation of flavor
for our birria tacos.

One of our best-selling items
is actually our tortilla chips.

They were originally just trimmings
from our tortilla prep,

but one time, some pieces
accidentally fell into the fryer,

and when we tasted them,
we thought,

"Wow, this is really good."

So we started making them
on purpose and turned them

into nachos.

The meat we use for it
is beef picadillo,

seasoned with lots of spices.

We also created our own
taco seasoning mix specifically

for El Poco.

Then we add vegetables—
cilantro, pickled carrots,

pickled red onions, sour cream,
salsa, and all that.

It’s just happiness in a bowl.

When you feel like you’ve reached
a certain high in success,

the first thing you should do
is build a longer table.

When we built this business,
we thought,

"Hey, we’ve given
so many people jobs—

let’s create another one."

So we opened U-Belt,
our second branch.

This was our first attempt
at expanding.

We specifically chose Recto
in the U-Belt area

because we saw that
our customers weren’t just from Taft.

We noticed a lot of students
from U-Belt

were coming in too.

It was easy to tell
because of their uniforms,

so we decided,
"Hey, I think U-Belt

is the perfect place to start."

This here is Frida.

She represents
women’s empowerment in Mexico.

She’s a woman hero there.

And this place—our restaurant—
is mostly run by women.

She’s the reason
we started everything.

She’s the one who named El Poco.

She’s the one who suggested
we sell tacos.

She even quit her job
for this dream and built

the business with me.

So we owe everything to her
when it comes to pushing

this idea forward.

And the kitchen
has always been open like this

because this story isn’t just
about us anymore.

El Poco grew
because of our team.

We want them to be part
of this journey—

from a tiny stall to two branches.

They’re the ones running
the entire operation,

so they deserve all the spotlight.

- One, two, three, group hug!

- What kind of group hug is that?

But running your own business
is never easy.

It takes so much from you.

Service, 191 for dine-in.

(laughs)

All right, brother. Enjoy! Enjoy!

And because it takes
so much from you,

you get depleted.

But despite all the hardships,
the exhaustion—

mentally and physically—
you come into work,

see your team smiling,
see your tables filled

with happy customers…

and it makes
all the sacrifices worth it.

The beauty of life is that you can always learn, and you can always make up for past mistakes—so long as you choose to move forward.
And I think… being a father is my greatest accomplishment in life.
Cheers to my partner and my fiancée for believing in me.
Who would’ve thought that this lousy guy would actually make it?
(laughs)

The beauty of life
is you can always learn something

and you can always atone
for the things you regret,

as long as you really choose
to move forward.

And I think being
a father is really

my greatest accomplishment in life.

Cheers to my partner
and to my fiancée

for believing in me.

Who would have thought,
you know, this lousy [ _ ]

would make it.

(laughs)