San Clemente-based fish taco restaurant chain Pedro’s Tacos will franchise and plans to open new stores on the East Coast within the next three years.
“We’re reviewing proposals to open 10 stores on the East Coast and 10 stores on the West Coast,” said Ed McNary, who owns the franchise and operates the original 1,000-square-foot restaurant with his wife, Charlene.
“Two current franchisees want to open a second site,” he said.
Franchise applicants should have prior experience managing restaurants and plan to build or occupy a similar 1,000-square-foot facility, obtain a conditional use permit for a drive-thru, and locate on a 12,000-square-foot corner lot on a road with daily traffic of about 20,000 cars, McNary said.
“It will cost between $370,000 and $550,000 for everything,” he said of the franchise license and startup costs.
“We already have suppliers along the East Coast to ship food ingredients,” McNary said, “and we will provide on-site support.”
New restaurant owners and their staffs will train in San Clemente for two weeks, then have access to the McNarys or an experienced Pedro’s store manager to help refine their operations for about five weeks after opening.
Yes, Boston
There are five Pedro’s sites today, four in Southern California and one in Boston, Mass. The sites’ annual revenue ranges from $1 million to $1.5 million, McNary said.
The couple decided to franchise Pedro’s because of the popularity of the Boston store and what they said is growing interest along the East Coast.
“People came to the (Boston) restaurant asking, “Are you the Pedro’s in Southern California?’” Charlene McNary said. “A lot of people and college students like to experience the California vibe.”
Several Boston franchisees want to open Pedro’s sites near college campuses, she said.
The McNarys opened the East Coast location after visiting their daughter at a Boston college in 2012. “We just couldn’t find any good Mexican food while walking around the city,” Ed said.
The couple sensed an opportunity, discussed opening a Boston site, then purchased an apartment for themselves outside of the city while they researched regulations and potential restaurant locations.
They bought an existing Mexican restaurant near the business office district and the historical Freedom Trail that takes tourists past Suffolk University Law School, Ed said.
They knew they couldn’t create a drive-thru restaurant in Boston because the city has limited retail space, he said. So in order to introduce more of the Pedro’s atmosphere, they modified the restaurant’s design to create a beach-like feeling for customers.
Simply California
Boston diners, the McNarys said, are drawn to Pedro’s California recipes.
It was Orange County’s first fish taco maker, Ed McNary said. Wahoo’s Fish Tacos, today a much larger chain than Pedro’s, was founded in 1988 in Costa Mesa.
Pedro’s was started as a single location by a Greek man named Pete Katsiametis, who incorporated Greek-style ingredients to give the tacos and burritos a unique flavor.
“It opened in 1986 with a simple idea—be fresh, fast, quick and delicious,” Ed said.
Ed became interested in Pedro’s after hearing local surfers repeatedly describe its food as “tasty.” He purchased it in 1989 and has maintained the restaurant’s simple menu and recipes.
The McNarys gradually expanded it over the years into the small chain it is now.
Ed learned that Katsiametis had created a production line for making the food items. “It was fantastic ergonomics,” he said. Employees never needed to step or stretch around each other to reach ingredients, he explained.
“Our people can make about 20 burritos in 8 minutes,” he said.
There are about 1,000 orders per day at each of the restaurants.
“We’ll see 3,000 checks a day during the summer at each one of the stores,” Charlene said, “and we have had police officers tell us to fill those orders quickly to eliminate the traffic on El Camino Real.”
A queue of vans, all-terrain vehicles and SUVs carrying tourists or surfers and their surfboards frequently spills onto the road outside of the restaurant while customers wait for a taste of Southern California beach food.
Ed McNary said he never intended to franchise Pedro’s Tacos but that he had so many requests to open stores that he changed his mind.
“It’s a simple menu, a scalable business, and makes a lot of people—customers and franchise owners—very happy.”
