We recently connected with Haz Mayoral and have shared our conversation below.
Haz, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
If you’re from any coastal town in Baja, eating sea food is just part of life, but if you’re from Ensenada Baja California, Fish tacos are part of the culture. I was born in Ensenada and grew up in a small coastal town called San Quintin, I grew up eating pretty much anything that came from the ocean, however being that we’re from Ensenada Fish tacos were just part of our everyday meals and my mom would make them regularly as any other item like chicken, or pancakes for breakfast since we always had fresh fish available, it wasn’t even a choice back then, it was just what we ate and a steady part of our diet. Also whenever we’d drive up to Ensenada to visit grandma, we’d always make a stop at a very popular fish taco stand that’s still in the same spot as of today since I was a kid, so to me Fish tacos are life!! After fifth or sixth grade we moved to a big city, I became a teenager and I kinda lost that connection I had to the ocean and my roots, then we moved to the US and I became a young adult but I’d always visit my hometown and every time I’d visit I brought friends and showed them around and would always make sure they’d try the BEST FISH TACO ever, some wouldn’t even eat fish or any seafood at all but I’d still make sure they tried them, I was very important to me somehow, lol. Fast forward to my adulthood, living in LA, I couldn’t visit my hometown as often and I’d always crave a good fish taco but couldn’t find one that really satisfied my cravings for an authentic fish taco just like I’d find in the streets of Ensenada, I mean Baja Fish tacos aren’t as common as the typical meat street taco you find in almost any corner or any Mexican food establishment, now there are many styles of fish tacos and even “Baja Style” Fish tacos out there but truth is, Baja fish tacos are a special breed of tacos that are very specific to my home town of Ensenada Baja California as I mentioned before and aren’t as easy to find here in Los Angeles Ca. For a very long time since I came to live full time in the US and moved to LA I was on a quest to find a place that offered a fish taco that would satisfy that craving… that nostalgic feeling, I tried a few but nothing really satisfied that need I had, and for the longest time I thought I should make tacos myself and sell them since they’re so hard to come by… and that’s my mission to bring that authentic flavor from Ensenada for everyone to enjoy.
Haz, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
As I became older and more mature, I feel I came back to my roots, my love for the ocean and nature and adventure became a necessity for me. I started exploring more of Baja, surfing, scuba diving, kayaking and now free diving and spearfishing and I feel really connected to my childhood growing up in Baja doing all the things I’d only dream of when I was a kid, and I take my craft very serious, I mean, my wife is in the mortgage industry and I am in the tech, and could’ve done many other things but I really wanted to do this “Sell real authentic fish and Shrimp tacos just like you’d find in Ensenada” not just “Baja Style” but deliver a fish and shrimp taco as authentic as you could find, not my version of it or my own twist but, just what you’d find in a corner taco shack in Ensenada that’s why we only do fish and shrimp tacos, we don’t do anything else at the time and we keep it simple and traditional. I know it sounds dumb but I’m not in it for the money, sure it it important and I’d love to make a living doing it but not my main drive, that’s why we focus on quality, and freshness, I don’t use low quality cheap frozen fish that’s been sitting on a shelve and traveled around the world, I only use the highest quality catch of the day directly from Ensenada and this is very important because when I say my tacos are from Ensenada they really are!! I know it’s a big claim to make but I own it and I am proud of it. I buy all my fish fresh off the boat locally in Ensenada (I don’t buy it frozen) and only use the “catch of the day” the highest quality available (not the cheapest available) at the time I’m re stocking, and only in small batches so it’s always fresh, I know not everyone appreciates that but I do it for the ones that do, I am a fisherman myself and I know fresh fish and I can appreciate it, there fore it is extremely important to me, and though I could yield larger profit margins by cutting corners and buy commercial cheap frozen fish I don’t do it because I know there are a lot of people like myself out there who appreciate quality, freshness and authenticity and when the word gets out the rest will come. I know people have different preferences and there are different “Baja style” tacos, grilled or gourmet etc. and I can’t be everyone’s favorite but if you’re looking for an authentic Baja fish taco that will take you all the way to that corner shack down in Ensenada (IYKYK) this is it.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
yes, it was a very long time ago when I knew I was going to sell fish tacos one day…. lol as I had mentioned early on, I was always on the look out for a good fish taco and I kept telling myself, I should sell fish tacos, and just kept talking about it, and talking about it… I mean for years. there’s a place in the southbay (a food establishment) that I kept seeing open and re-open with different names, it was always some sort of mexican food, and it seemed every time I’d pass through there after some time it had a different name and I’d tell my wife this would be the perfect spot for a Baja fish taco place, and time went by and they’d change to something else until one day I was driving by and the place was Called (Baja California something, something) I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and wanted to cry out of I don’t know what,(I guess because it could’ve been me) but I’ll never forget that feeling and it was then that it was real and I knew I was going to do it. it didn’t happen right away, that’s a whole other story but here we are now, but it was that exact moment when I pivoted. it’s a big challenge to do something different from what you’ve done most of your life but I knew for a very long time this is what I was going to do.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
one I’ll never forget is our first event, it was our very first time selling EVER, the idea was to start small, maybe in my back yard or our church parking lot to get a feel for what it was like to serve people etc. However, when I decided to finally get started was near a the dates of a yearly 3 day event in Culver City called Fiesta La Ballona (which is pretty big for a newbie) my parents had participated in this event a few years back through their church so they said “why don’t you try to get into la Ballona, we’ll help you” by this time I only had my Firedisc which I use for cooking, I had sold my jeep and bought a camping trailer I intended to use as a base for my pop up taco shop, but was in no way ready for this, I had no registered business name, permits, insurance or a clue of what was required let alone any experience serving big crowds, but I was determined, I had missed the vendor application period, I had nothing except a big dream of what could possibly be a business and of course my whole family and friends that supported me, long story short, after talking to different people from the event my application was accepted, I had to get everything together, insurance, permits, modify my trailer for health dept requirements etc. and I went for it, finally the first day of the event came and the fire dept showed up and I had to change my setup, next day health dept came and nearly closed the shop because my trailer wasn’t meant for food vending and even tough I had modified and added some items required for food vending like a hand washing station, and hot water among other things, it still didn’t meet all the requirements, we had to improvise and make it work, we were finally good to go! my whole family got involved and I probably had a crew of about 10 people or more at a time in different shifts helping me, I was cooking non-stop, my wife was taking orders, my sisters assembling tacos, my parents and some of my parent’s friends the back prepping the fish and shrimp, veggies etc. also my wife’s aunties, and sister and brother in laws, I mean everyone got involved… this was an all day event, the second day, early on, I was running out of fish, I called my sources in Baja, they started getting some more halibut ready as my brother was driving there, it was ready when he arrived, he drove back that same day and I was selling fresh fish from Baja the next morning and as insane as all of this was, we killed it in sales that weekend and it totally blew our minds and realized the potential of what LFT could be… I can’t take credit for this, It wouldn’t have been possible without all the help I got from everyone, it was the most exhausting, stressful and nerve wrecking BEST experience ever! lot’s of love to all my family! specially my parents because they didn’t just encouraged me to do it, but they were there day in, day out to make sure I succeeded and of course my beautiful wife who gave me that last push and has backed me up 100% since forever when all of this was just a thought, just a dream….. 
Contact Info:
- Website: localfishtacos.com
- Instagram: @local_overlanding
- Facebook: Local Fish Tacos
- FaceBook: Local Fish Tacos