Don Chepo’s Taco Shop Takes Mexican Food To A New Level
Fashion Cuisine Group co-founders Dustin Parfitt and Juan Gando have completed the creation of their new Wellington taco eatery. Don Chepo’s Taco Shop is a restaurant that they created to offer a laid-back, Florida-style Mexican restaurant for families and locals to enjoy.
Parfitt is the executive chef of the local restaurant group, while Gando is the restaurateur. They both pride themselves in what Don Chepo’s has to offer, from fresh ingredients to its family atmosphere.
“Everything in this restaurant has a history,” Gando said. “We built it with our hands, like the tables, the frames, everything you see is with a little bit of love. Everything has a story.”
The choice to venture into a taco eatery was a chance to continue working with different styles of cuisine and break away from what the Fashion Cuisine Group already offers in the community.
“Something that I’ve always been good at is making delicious food, as I’ve been a chef for, gosh, 16 years. I’ve developed my own style,” Parfitt said. “I can kind of have different flavors at each place.”
So, when the two co-owners decided to create a new dining experience, they knew they wanted it to be based around tacos.
“We have so many fine dining restaurants in one town,” Parfitt said. “We’ve got Oli’s, the Grille, White Horse, and we wanted a more casual, laid-back, atmosphere, with games for the kids to play, and just a more reasonable price point.”
While the other Fashion Cuisine restaurants cater to a high-end diner, Parfitt and Gando want Don Chepo’s to be a place where families with children feel welcome to come by for a bite to eat.
The first thing to make note of are Don Chepo’s house-made corn tortillas.
“It’s something really special. They have to be made fresh every day,” Parfitt said. “Right now, we’re cooking them. It’s right before lunch, and we store them hot, and as soon as they’re gone, we make more.”
Parfitt said the corn tortilla is something both he and Gando take tremendous pride in.
“There is no comparison to a corn tortilla that you can buy in the store,” Parfitt said. “Once you cook those tortillas down, the texture is just not the same. The texture of our corn is more of like a flour texture. It’s really soft, and it’s delicious.”
For $29, the Small Platter is a great way to have a first experience of what Don Chepo’s offers on the menu.
“It’s a chef’s choice of tacos, usually it’s pollo, al pastor and usually the asada, which is a steak,” Parfitt said. “Smoked pork with a little bit of chorizo, pineapple and some pickled red onion. You get rice, beans, cucumber salad, a tamale, the grilled corn and also our house-made hot sauce.”
While Parfitt serves as executive chef, Gando designed the drink menu at Don Chepo’s. A special cocktail on the menu is the Mercadito, a margarita with muddled berries and more. Mercadito isn’t just a name; it’s an action.
“When you go to the flea market, you take your basket, and you go and buy a lot of berries, or you buy a lot of fruit,” Gando said. “This is pretty much a fresh berry margarita, which is blackberries, strawberries, blueberries, and you put two ounces of tequila, any preference that people have, and ice… We make our own sour mix and shake it really hard. It’s all about the shake.”
Parfitt said it pairs great with the tacos al pastor. “Smoky pork — cool it down with a little bit spicy margarita,” Parfitt said.
Meaning and history is a theme at Don Chepo’s, and it’s in the name.
“My dad used to call me that,” Gando said. “It’s a guy in Ecuador. I am from Ecuador. My name is Juan Gando, and since a baby, he used to call me, ‘You are the chepo.’ It’s like the cool guy in the United States.”
So, the moniker is a family name, and that is what makes Don Chepo’s come together in harmony, Gando said.
“The whole thing about me and Dustin, we are like a family,” Gando said. “We have a great team. The team we have is amazing. It’s all pretty much family.”
Gando also takes responsibility to build rapport with all the people who dine at the restaurant.
“My place is to make sure people come happy and leave happy,” Gando said. “So, that is always our goal. Since the day we met, it’s the service. We provide service, and of course amazing food, decent prices, kids welcome. This is a family place. It’s not just a bar. It’s for a family. It’s Wellington.”
Don Chepo’s Taco Shop is located in Wellington Green Square at 10660 W. Forest Hill Blvd., Suite 170, in Wellington. For more info., call (561) 660-7391 or visit www.donchepos.com.
