After gaining fans at Horrocks, Atomic Tacos opens spot at Meridian Mall
OKEMOS — Atomic Tacos, a food truck that got its start at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and gained fans serving up tacos and street corn at Horrocks Farm Market's beer garden, is opening a location inside the Meridian Mall's food court.
The "brick-and-mortar" operation is the next step, and not one its owners Joel McGuire, his father Jeff McGuire and their business partner Matt Jabs planned on taking.
They started small, building their first food trailer from the ground up in the driveway of Joel McGuire's home near Perry, and parking it at spots in Corunna and Owosso.
Two months in, the trailer gained a following and last summer, Atomic Tacos, known for its California-inspired tacos and burritos that blend West Coast-style food with Asian inspiration and a host of other flavors, became a regular at Horrocks.
The new location inside Meridian Mall's food court, which opened this week, provides Atomic Tacos with a larger, stationary kitchen "five times the size" of any of the eatery's trailers, and a new customer base, Joel McGuire said.
Growing amid the pandemic
When the trio decided to launch a food truck in 2020 they simply wanted to work for themselves.
After spending about a decade as a manager at casual chain restaurants, Joel McGuire wanted to be independent.
"I was in a position where I was just kind of tired of working for somebody else and I wanted to see if I could do it," he said. "We wanted to have our own business and not be tied to the same restrictions, as far as having a corporation govern us."
McGuire said none of them knew a great deal about food trucks. When they opened theirs to a smaller than hoped-for crowd it gave them all pause, he said.
"We opened in Shiawassee County, and it was really slow and we were really nervous about our decision," McGuire said.
Within a few months, word of mouth and consistent quality changed that.
"Our sales went from being pretty low, then they doubled, and they doubled again, and then they doubled again," Joel McGuire said. "We kind of got really popular really fast."
Even before Joel McGuire noticed a few empty restaurant spots in the Meridian Mall food court, he said, they'd already realized they needed a larger kitchen to accommodate more orders.
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Opening up in the mall
"I've always loved going to malls," Joel McGuire said. "I grew up in the era that was like, you go to the mall after school to hang out."
Atomic Tacos already had two regular locations, in Owosso and Horrocks. Then McGuire saw a few empty eatery spaces in the Meridian Mall food court and had to inquire.
McGuire and his co-owners watched the traffic flow at the mall and asked its management for a tour of an available food court spot. They walked away convinced they should open a location there.
"It's five times the size of my biggest trailer," McGuire said. "I could fit so much more product. It made sense for us to open here."
The mall location had a soft launch Monday. A grand opening will take place after its staff of under a dozen has adjusted to the workflow, McGuire said.
"Because it is a larger kitchen, we want to make sure we have it streamlined and quick service is our goal so we want to make sure we can perform accordingly to our standards," he said.
The menu will look similar to what customers normally see on Atomic Tacos food trailer, with tacos that are filled with meats like braised beef, chicken and pork, as well as burritos, loaded fries, street corn, beans, shaved ice and churros.
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Food trailer Atomic Tacos opens spot in Meridian Mall's food court
