The Dover-based restaurant opened its new Plant City location on April 18.
Less than two years after starting to chase his dream of running his own restaurant, Omar Gonzalez and his family are living it in the heart of Plant City.
Tacos Piki officially opened its doors at 115 E. Reynolds St. on April 18 and is ready to introduce Plant City at large to the flavors that have won over the hearts — and bellies — of many in the Dover area.
Omar Gonzalez, an electrician by trade, always enjoyed cooking the food for his family’s parties and decided in 2017 it was worth seeing how well received his tacos would be outside of the Gonzalez clan. Changing careers can be quite a gamble but, to hear the family tell it, this one paid off.
“Everyone enjoys our tacos, so he decided to just do it,” Leslie Gonzalez said. “It ended up being a great idea.”
Tacos Piki has his fingerprints all over it: the name came from his childhood nickname “Piki,’ short for “little pepper,” and the logo was inspired by Cariño, his favorite band. The restaurant started up in his mother’s house, then did well enough to enable a move to 4303 McIntosh Road in Dover within six months.
The tacos should prove to be popular with anyone in the area looking for a quick and inexpensive, yet delicious, lunch. They can be ordered at $1.75 each with steak (regular or shredded), pork (seasoned or shredded), chicken, broiled barbacoa beef or tripe, come wrapped in corn tortillas and are topped with cilantro, onion, avocado and cheese.
Tacos may be the stars of the show at Tacos Piki, but the restaurant also offers a full suite of classic Mexican favorites such as tostadas, burritos, tortas, quesadillas, elites and menudo. Should the restaurant do well in Plant City, the menu could expand.
The family is still heavily involved with the business and crucial to its success. His wife, Adela Duenas Gonzalez, co-owns the restaurants with him. His children, daughter Leslie and son Ismael Gonzalez, help out at the restaurant when they’re not in their college and high school classes. Also included in the Plant City location’s staff are cousin Pavel Lugo and Elizabeth Bueno, a close family friend “who is pretty much a cousin.”
The members of the Gonzalez family want nothing more than to share the food they’ve loved for so long with the rest of the community and see that Tacos Piki has a long, bright future ahead of it.
“We all contribute here and we all help out our dad,” Leslie Gonzalez said. “It’s a pretty big thing for him and we’re here to support one another.”
Hours for Tacos Piki’s downtown Plant City location are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
For more information, call 813-652-8134. The Dover restaurant’s phone number is 813-756-3197.
