'A new era': State Street taco cart opens brick and mortar restaurant

Jessie Rosas couldn't fathom at the age of 8 why his father would push his taco cart onto State Street in the middle of a snowstorm early in the morning.

"I told him, 'Hey, if it's snowing so hard and there's so much snow, there's not going to be people. Why are you putting out the cart?'" Rosas said. "And he answered, 'Even if there's only one person all day, I'll still be putting out the cart. It doesn't matter if it rains, it doesn't matter if it snows, I need to be there.'"

That attitude is part of what's made Tacos Don Rafa a downtown staple since 1998 and led to the business' latest accomplishment: opening its first brick and mortar restaurant at 3804 S. Highland Drive in Millcreek. The location is the business' third overall (Tacos Don Rafa also opened a food truck in Bountiful last year).

Now that Rosas has taken on the day-to-day operations of the Millcreek location, he understands what his father was telling him on that snowy winter morning.

"That's what makes us different, not even our flavors or whatever, but the discipline my dad has brought us," Rosas said.

Opening the new location was intimidating, but Rosas said business has been steady and Tacos Don Rafa is already carving out a place in the community.

Don Nielsen, who grew up going to Don Rafa's State Street location, has been to the Millcreek location near his home half a dozen times since it opened a few weeks ago.

"We've been big fans for forever," Nielsen said during his second visit of the day to the location. "This will be a staple of our house, once a week at a minimum."

'A new era' of Tacos Don Rafa

The Millcreek location is part of a new era of Tacos Don Rafa as founder and owner Jesus Rosas begins to hand over the reins to his sons. Jesus Rosas is a pioneer in the state's mobile food industry, changing Utah forever when he opened Utah's first taco cart.