Meet Hiram Sevilla | Drummer & Chef

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hiram Sevilla and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hiram, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
First of all, thank you for reaching out! It means a lot.
At the beginning there was no time for thinking. It all started as a survival thing when covid hit. My spouse and I moved to Mexico and there I created the recipes working day and night on them and two weeks later I felt they were ready-ish to go. Then we started posting on instagram and facebook and people immediately started ordering. We would deliver it to their homes and offices since restaurants were closed.
Eventually we improved recipes and our menu and started to do popups and within a year we opened a taqueria. Every step of the process was natural according to demand. Then when everything was reopening from covid’s restrictions we had to move back to the states to continue our music career and decided to start with tierra taco from scratch here in Los Angeles.

What should our readers know about your business?
I am very grateful that tierra taco has been well received here in Los Angeles as it did when we started back in Mexico. What I’m mostly proud of is that we’ve managed to stay true to our initial ideals, which have always been to offer a delicious 100% plant based menu to help reduce the consumption of animal products in our society. And what excites us more is that every time we popup we have more lovely and loyal customers that help keep the business running.

– How did you get to where you are today business-wise.

To get to where we are now, I think the most helpful things have been Making a Team and Having a System. Having a Team that shares the same vision makes everything possible. Everyone has a very important role in the development of any goal we want to reach.
And Having a System lets us know what to do and brings stability in our process. Also it is very helpful to always celebrate the reaching of goals even if they are daily small steps.

– Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges?

It definitely has not been easy. The main risk for me personally starting a business, is that I have a full-time career in music with my band Buckets, so music related work and tours always overlap, and it makes it harder to operate tierra taco, since its still a very small company and team. Also we are in one of the most expensive cities in the world which makes everything more difficult, but not impossible.

One way I managed to overcome challenges is creating the habit of waking up everyday thinking that everything will be fine, even though some days you don’t see improvement. As long as you believe things can happen and keep being innovative. I like to stay positive and also remind myself to be grateful for everything that I have.

– What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

Some lessons I’ve learned along the way is to practice Patience and enjoying the journey.
Another lesson would be trying your best to find a balance between your personal life and your work. It sounds easy, but it’s one of the hardest things that l’m still working on.

– What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?

I see the brand as a tool to accomplish our mission, which is to be the voice of all the innocent and sentient living beings out there who don’t have the power or voice in our society and that are exploited for profit and pleasure.
We are proud to be a part of the powerful movement against animal cruelty.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was visiting LA, I would first take them to grab fruit with chili from a stand and probably hike up the Runyon Canyon to check out the city view. Then grab coffee and breakfast at Millie’s cafe. We would probably go to Guitar Center and be there for a few hours. Definitely grab our skateboards and go to Venice beach, have a nap on the sand and grab a pizza slice.
Later I would take them to little Tokyo to check out the cool stores and grab some delicious ramen.
At night probably catch a show at permanent records roadhouse and buy some vinyls. Then jump over to Walt’s Bar and play old school arcade games and have a good beer and a hotdog. After midnight probably have breakfast at Swingers Diner at 2am.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Our cat Chile! He saved our lives in so many ways and taught us life lessons. Him and all of the amazing animals out there are the reason of the creation of Tierra Taco.

Also Tierra Taco wouldn’t exist without the work and support from my spouse Jojo, our family and our friend Lauren.

Also shout out to the wonderful people at Folklore Salon and Barber for inviting us to popup outside their store and helping us keep the business open. They truly love to help out the community.

Website: https://Tierrataco.com

Instagram: https://Instagram.com/tierrataco

Facebook: https://Facebook.com/tierrataco

Yelp: https://yelp.to/jDmk9hdlTj

Image Credits
All popup pictures by JC Griffith @softclipping