PapillionBusinesses.com Interview with “The Papillion Taco Guy”, Scott Nedved

A lot has happened since we talked last. So please tell us about different things, any changes and your menu line up to now.

So, for right now, we will continue to run specials. There are things that I think we  will eventually just add to the menu. That will probably come as we expand a little bit more, but right now they will just be regular items that we rotate. For instance, the loaded nachos, people love them. They sell really well. We’ll probably just make them a menu item and we’ll continue to work it in there. Our street corn or Smokies, [we’ll] probably eventually add that to the menu. Some of these will be regular ones that we bring back seasonally. The chili and cornbread, we will bring that back every winter. We will probably bring out the Shrimp Po’ Boy probably every year for Lent. We’ll have some regular ones that will come back seasonally, and we’ll eventually add to the menu with that.

 

This year, I think we’d like to play around with our breakfast a little bit more. So, we kind of started our breakfast going live last year. And as weather got cooler, it wasn’t taking off real hard and [does] this makes sense to bring somebody in here super early just to do extra stuff to set up and take down? As it was just starting to take off and it wasn’t . . . it was kind of inconsistent. I do the work and I’ve been walking around downtown Papillion and it was eight degrees outside in January, right? So there wasn’t much point to push into it or force it over the winter. But going into the spring, we want to bring that back, revamp it a little bit. Make it more consistent, depending on how it goes. Hopefully, I’d like to make [it] a thing. You know, we could be open for breakfast every day.

That being said, I’m working with Heavenly Waffles. So, we might bring in some new line items. He came in  and we made a bunch of waffles. They’re delicious. I really love what he’s got going on there and the product line.

We can have some fun too. Like we made a we made a chicken waffle taco. We used the waffle as a taco shell. That was delicious. It was a lot of fun. He’s got all sorts of flavors. We made one [where] we threw pico in the waffle. It was a savory waffle. It was delicious.

He’s a talented chef, so he’s got a lot of great ideas. So, it’s fun and he’s like me. He likes to play around in the kitchen. Right? So we’re in here and he’s like, “What do you have, let’s just start looking through the shelves for the spices we have. Let’s just make some different stuff.” Right? So, with being able to do that and play around with it a little bit. You know, being able to partner with them. We’re blessed that he’s from Omaha and we can even have a little bit more of a connection with them. Right? So he’s selling these products all over, right? But him being from Omaha, gives us a chance to maybe bounce some ideas back and forth a little more frequently and say, “Come on, what do you think about this? Let’s try some different stuff.” So we’ll work that in and that’ll be kind of a fun thing that we’ll do.

Probably, probably we’re going start in March kind of start making steps and getting the product in and then sometime in March or April, we’ll start rolling out some menu items like that. We will probably start off similar to how we’re doing some specials and we’ll eventually work it on to a regular breakfast menu.

I’ve had his waffles before. Pretty amazing. Of course, the sweet was great but the savories -those were my favorites.

So my wife [is] from South Africa right, and they’re they always think it’s funny about Americans is you guys eat cake for breakfast, right, and they are thinking pancakes, waffles. But when you go to South Africa, we would go out to eat and they’ve got a chain that reminds me of almost like Buffalo Wild Wings style plays, right? But it’s ribs and stuff. And you’ll go out there in the dessert menu, they have waffles and they’ll give you ice cream and Nutella and all that type of stuff. And so, it’s more of a dessert. They use it differently than we do. And so I think it’s kind of fun to play with that.

We’re not really sticking on theme here with anything in our food line. We’re mixing a lot of different genres, wanting to kind of play around a lot with it. So there’s no reason why we can’t do that with waffles.

We do smoked meats, but we are not barbecue, but we do have some traditional flavors. Right. We’re not Thai, but we use sweet chili. Right. We’re not South African, but our hot sauce is based off the South African hot pepper. Right. So we’re kind of blending it all.

We did not intend to be this melting pot genres in food. It just kind of what happened and just kind of leaned into it and why not? We made something that works.

What have you learned over this time that might be helpful to other business owners or people starting out.

So, I came from a restaurant background. I learned a little bit to trust, right. So, we’re going into the winter. [Winter] is not when people go out to eat as often when there’s 14 and snow and snow on the ground. So, I use this time to fine tune.

I’ve got DoorDash, Uber Eats, and GrubHub – just fine tuning – to figure out how to get that, you know, get that menu adjusted. Got to. We use [this time] as our, “Hey, let’s really train, right ?” I want to have more time now. Now I got time where I can spend some time for systems and procedures and getting us so that everything’s right.

We use this time for fixing things like our trailer. And we’re taking advantage of the time that we know basically planning for the future. Use the time to remodel the trailer. Use the time to figure it out. Use the time to train employees. Employees who had never smoked meat before, but now I’m going to need them to  smoke some meat, so I told him. I said listen, “You’re going to screw it up.” I needed them to go and figure it out and make mistakes and ask questions and figure out what you don’t know now. So, that is in July [and] August when we need the meat, you are ok,  doing right. I need you guys to practice. It’s hard for me to say that they’re not right or not just do the next thing. But I need  [to know] they are good make the pico or making the sour cream and doing all the stuff.

I just need to be in the habit faster and they are comfortable doing it. It’s more ready to advance. I think really, for us, it’s just us being calm, use the time when you know it’s going to be slow, plan ahead for that and be prepared for when it is busy.

Thank you. That is good advice-the repeatable processes, how you use your time when it’s slow and how that creates an opportunity for other things.

Try the tacos for yourself at:
The Papillion Taco Guy
110 N. Washington St.
Papillion, NE 68046
402-201-8433

Previous Papillion Taco Guy Stories:

New Papillion Business: The Papillion Taco Guy, 7 August 2023
https://papillionbusinesses.com/blog/new-papillion-business-the-papillion-taco-guy

Papillion Food: The Papillion Taco Guy at First City Plaza,  18 May 2022
https://papillionbusinesses.com/blog/papillion-food-the-papillion-taco-guy-at-first-city-plaza