La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill had opened in Santa Barbara, Calif., in 1979 as a taqueria pioneering the concept of freshly made Mexican fare without the use of lard, canned beans or salsa from a jar.
He opened the first location of Poquito Mas, a fast-casual restaurant that attempted to capture the fresh flavors of the taco stands he fell in love with in Mexico.Īt the time, McCarney was on the cutting edge of what was to become a hugely popular trend in fresh Mexican dining. In 1984, after getting started in a foodservice career that included stints in full-service restaurants such as the upscale Velvet Turtle chain and HoneyBaked Ham retail stores, McCarney decided to follow his passion.
The best taco stands, he discovered, don’t open until the sun goes down, and McCarney made a point of eating where the locals ate whenever he could. In Mexico, taco stands were more likely to feature freshly caught fish and shrimp, deeply flavorful slow-cooked pork, or spicy marinated and grilled steak and chicken, depending upon the region. Later, while on one of his family’s many trips to Mexico, he discovered that the Americanized ground-beef tacos he had dished up in high school were nothing like the real thing found along the Baja California coast.
Some decades back, McCarney worked at a Southern California taco stand while in high school. When asked why an Irish guy with a name like Kevin McCarney is founder and president of a Mexican food chain, the restaurateur has a simple response: “Because I love Mexican food.”
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