Today we’d like to introduce you to Viry and Jose Bucio.
Hi Viry and Jose, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We are the owners of Frida’s Cocina in Austin, Texas. After spending 20 plus years in corporate IT and the public education system in Chicago and suburbs and not to mention raising three kids, we found ourselves at a major crossroad. I (Jose) lost my job at a financial institution after almost two decades and was unsure of what to do next. Testing the job market and realizing that not keeping your skills current in the tech sector is a major liability leading to job openings below expectations. Viry, ever the optimist and go-getter reignited the entrepreneurial passion that has existed in me since he was a teenager. Between the two, we have been Realtors, income tax preparers, flipped real estate properties, and diabetes blogger.
Surprisingly, all these past ventures did not quite prepare us for what we chose to do next. The urge for a permanent change of scenery and to get away from midwestern winters led us to explore Austin, Texas. We could not help but notice the pervasiveness of food trucks and trailers peppering the landscape. A seed was planted even before the job loss which by then we had moved down to the Hill Country. Using all the financial resources, we could liquidate we opened Frida’s Cocina – Traditional Homestyle Mexican Food in October 2018, just 5 miles from Hamilton Pool Preserve.
We drew inspiration for Frida’s Cocina from two sources: the renowned Mexican painter and feminist Frida Kahlo and our love for the traditional homestyle Mexican food we grew up eating. Viry has a coincidental connection to Frida Kahlo. Her grandparents were married in the same town that Kahlo was born and died in, Coyoacan, Mexico City, Mexico. That same town church hosted her grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary.
As for the food, we set out to reproduce the style of foods we were accustomed to which was a challenge for us to find when we first moved to the Texas Hill Country, specifically Dripping Springs. It’s been three years since Frida’s Cocina first opened, and we could never have imagined how both success and struggle would produce such a gratifying and passionate experience, not to mention an endless motivation to continue.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Our journey to this point has been anything but smooth due to our inexperience in the mobile food space, the pandemic, and of course the many mistakes made along the way. Surely, that sounds familiar to countless entrepreneurs. But obviously, we are still here today which embodies our refusal to quit and correcting course when things were not going our way. To address our lack of experience in the mobile food industry, we hired a consultant who happened to be Jose’s cousin Rafael Vargas and had several years of experience as a chef. We flew Rafael down from Illinois and he stayed with us for a month through our opening. That was a worthwhile investment but once he left, we soon realized we had much to learn which was only possible by jumping in and getting our hands dirty. And of course, as we’re grinding it out every day slowly but surely, along comes the pandemic which ultimately shut us down for about a year. As restrictions lifted, we reopened Frida’s Cocina by servicing catering jobs and stationing ourselves at breweries and distilleries throughout the Hill Country.
We soon realized we did not enjoy moving around frequently so after carefully looking around for an appropriate spot, we finally landed at a permanent location. Frida’s Cocina is parked outside Madrone Coffee in Oak Hill, Austin. It was an obvious choice because of its busy location and of course, Madrone roasts great coffee which goes perfectly with Frida’s breakfast options. We are extremely happy that it has gone better than we could have expected. Now stable, we are focused on introducing some great Mexican recipes from the interior that are not as locally recognized.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
We believe finding a mentor is crucial but can take many forms. When we think of mentors, we tend to think of people or maybe an organization but in today’s world with unlimited access to information is why we think it does not need to be a person necessarily. In business, essentially you have two basic components in our opinion: the product or service which we can call technical or the know-how of producing that value proposition. Then, there are the required business skills such as accounting, finance, marketing, operations, etc., that apply to every business. To summarize, we recommend being open to multiple sources of mentorship to address all these different areas.
Contact Info:
- Email: fridascocinatx@gmail.com
- Website: https://fridascocinatx.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fridascocinatx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fridascocinatx
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fridascocinatx
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/frida-s-cocina-austin
Image Credits
Owned by Frida’s Cocina, LLC.
