We were lucky to catch up with Marko Ramirez-Pursley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marko, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I LOVE being a business owner and I won’t ever work for anyone else if I can avoid it at all. I’ve definitely thought about how much less stressful my life would be if I could just clock out and leave work at work, especially when something unexpected challenge happens with my business.

The idea of working for someone else and having to follow a vision other than my own would be a hard thing for me to do and honestly, I cant even imagine having to answer to a boss.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born and raised in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico and I come from a family with background in hospitality. My dad now owns Casa Sol B&B in Old San Juan, one of my uncles is a chef and many others in my family either owned a restaurant or have some other affiliation with the industry.

I went to culinary school in Costa Rica after High School and started El Chifrijo in a trailer back in Puerto Rico. A few years later, the trailer was traded for the truck and after hurricane Maria devastated the island, I relocated to Dallas in search of work and ended up meeting my business partner who helped me bring the truck to Texas.

Unlike many food trucks that get into the business without a niche or specialized food offering, I enjoy creating creative and unique recipes that are special and memorable. I get inspired and love combining the flavors of different cultures in my food. Mostly, I love to impress customers from the time they see their food until their last bite

I am now lucky enough to not only have a business partner that knows finance and accounting well, but my husband is also involved with the business sales & management. I learned in advertently that having people around me that have specialized knowledge is critical to success and maintaining my sanity.

My biggest desire is for my customers to realize that what we do is unique and done with pride and walk away feeling like they’ve experienced something different.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

When I came to Dallas after Maria hit Puerto Rico, I was working in the Dallas Farmers Market. My business partner, Jonathan lived in the area and would frequent the restaurant I was working at and we developed a friendship that eventually turned into a business partnership.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

This is actually pretty simple. We pay more than most other food industry jobs and we treat our people the way we would want to be treated ourselves. Generally speaking this has worked out well… there’s always going to be one or two that just dont work out but finding dedicated team any other way would be tough to say the least.

Contact Info:

• Website: ElChifrijo.com
• Instagram: @elchifrijopr
• Facebook: @elchifrijopr