3 Minutes on a Park Bench with Brian from Taqueria Feliz

Patch: How did you get involved in the restaurant industry?

Brian: I became involved in the restaurant industry because of my passion for food and hospitality. I started out working in a job in finance after college and realized early on that this was not necessarily the career path I was looking for. After working hard and getting what I thought at the time was my dream job in finance I realized within 2 weeks that finance was not the career that I could spend my life doing. I talked to my wife and told her I wanted to leave my job to become a server. She was very understanding and 100% supportive so with that I embarked on a career in the restaurant business. I worked my way up from server to manager and have been blessed to have had the opportunity to become a restaurant owner.

Patch: What is your definition of success?

Brian: My definition of success is to have every guest that dines at Taqueria Feliz, Cantina Feliz or La Calaca Feliz to leave having had an amazing experience from our friendly service to our fresh and flavorful food and drinks.

Patch: Can you please tell us a little about Taqueria Feliz's philosophy or the restaurant's history?

Brian:From a culinary standpoint, our philosophy at Taqueria Feliz and all of our restaurants is to use the freshest, highest quality ingredients in all of our dishes and let them speak for themselves.

From a people standpoint our Philosophy is "The Guest Signs our Paycheck". We understand that for any of the Feliz Restaurants to succeed we must always work to take care of our guests and create an amazing experience. It's something we are very paranoid about and always work to make sure there's never a sense of complacency.

Patch: Can you give us a little background or overview on the specific type of cuisine at Taqueria Feliz?

Brian: Taqueria Feliz offers modern Mexican cruising which essentially is taking traditional Mexican food and using modern cooking techniques or different ingredients to create our own unique style of Mexican food that is lighter and in many cases healthier than traditional Mexican food. We have many traditional items such as tacos and Enchiladas but you'll find that many of our tacos are done with nontraditional ingredients such as our tuna tacos, fried chicken tacos, and boom boom cauliflower which have a sweet and spicy Asian style Chile sauce. Our Carnitas tacos which are one of our most popular items are actually one of the most traditional items on the menu. We also have some great appetizers that find a nice balance between modern and authentic Mexican including our Tlayudas which are Mexican Pizzas made of corn masa and cooked in our wood fired oven to come out thin and crispy. They're topped with anything from bacon and asparagus to crispy chiccahrones and braise kale.

On the beverage front we specialize in Margaritas, Tequilas, and craft beer with a variety of Margaritas at an array of prices that feature options to add fresh fruit purees and premium mixers.

Patch: What’s the best part about doing business in your the Horsham area?

Brian: The best part of doing business in the Horsham area is having the opportunity to work with such an amazing community of people. It's very rewarding to see happy guests dining in the restaurant and have a conversation with them whether it be about how much they love the food or even non restaurant related topics such as the status of the Phillies or Eagles or even what a long day of work they just had. The people in the Horsham area are hard working people and appreciative of the effort we put forth to provide a quality product for them.

Patch: What is your favorite dish on the menu?

Brian: I actually have two favorite dishes. The nachos which are an appetizer on the menu are amazing. They are piled high with chips and cheese and topped with black bean puree, spicy chile sauce, pickled jalepenos, and sour cream and cooked in our wood fired oven. The nachos are a perfect balance of spicy with a little bit of sweetness from our house pickled jalapenos. They really are a nacho connoisseur's dream.

My other favorite dish is our Butterscotch Budino dessert. I have a sweet tooth and it doesn't get any better than this. It's a butterscotch pudding topped with a layer of dulce de leche and a little bit of whipped cream and a scrumptious churro cookie is served along side of it which makes it perfect for dipping.

Patch: What will the experience be for Patch readers who visit Taqueria Feliz?

Brian: The experience at Taqueria Feliz is fun and festive. As soon as a guest walks in they will notice our striking bar and the array of tequilas that we offer. In our dining room we have bold and bright day of the dead murals that set the tone for the festive dining experience. Diners will be charmed by our talented service team while they dine on our amazing food that is all made from scratch with fresh flavorful ingredients.

Patch: How large is the restaurant and do you offer catering or private dining?

Brian: The best business advice I've received in the restaurant business is that "the guest signs our paycheck". As I mentioned, that is something that we preach to our team on a daily basis to ensure that we have our priorities in line with what our guests are looking for and the focus in the restaurant is always about enhancing the guest experience.

Patch: What makes Taqueria Feliz standout from the competition?

Brian: What makes Feliz stand out from other restaurants is the combination of service and the quality and freshness of the ingredients we use. On the service side of things we are always going to ensure that the guest has the best experience possible and we achieve this in a few ways. The first is that we are willing to make a dish the way a guest wants it. If we have the ingredients in house, we will make the request happen. The second is that if a guest is not satisfied with what they ordered, we will get them something else that they will like. The third thing we do to achieve great service is by hiring the right people. We look for talented individuals that have a passion to please and a guest first mentality. People that genuinely care about the guests that they're serving and want to make their experience great.

In our food preparation we have a strong emphasis on the details and it all starts with fresh ingredients. Everything is prepared from scratch. What a lot of people don't understand is that even something that sounds as simple as our black beans goes through a long preparation process with a variety of ingredients to achieve the layers of flavor in the final product that ends up on your table.

Patch: How can readers contact the restaurant or learn more?

Readers can find us at www.taqueriafeliz.com or call at215-323-4530. We are also on Opentable.com or reservations can be made through our website via Opentable.