Always loved La Bambas. Went in there one night drunk and told them I wanted to try their hottest sauce they have. I about died that night 😂 all the cooks and employees came out to watch and were laughing their ass of at my expense.
True story.
In '86 I went to UIUC a month early for "Out of State Orientation Weekend" - there were like 30 of us. Back then, the school was something nutty like 99% in state, so they had this special orientation. My roommate was some dude from Tennessee, big burly southern guy.
In 89 or so, La Bamba opened their first shop in the Skylight Apartment buildings on Green, which also hosted a pretty decent but short lived bar also called Skylight. The bar closed shortly after I left in 92, when I came back in the early 2000's I found that La Bamba had moved to 6th.
When La Bamba opened, it was a monster hit. Burritos were like $2.25 when they opened. I thought "This is an expensive burrito!" (Taco John's on green, a burrito was probably 59 cents). Buddy says "But you only need one". They quickly ramped up to like $4.50 or so, but it was worth it, and the place was always packed. Monster business plan. But it was just a one family outfit, in that one location at Skylight.
So the kid from Tennessee drops out of UIUC like one semester away from graduating, and buys a piece of La Bamba, and finances the expansion plan, they opened at Purdue, MSU, some MAC school within a year.
Visiting my sister in 92 or so we went to the Purdue location. The Tennessee dude wasn't just a fat cat, there he was behind the grill in West Lafayette slinging burritos.
Looks like he's stuck with the Burrito business.
https://williamsonsource.com/chile-burrito-brentwood-tn/
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