When he was a little kid, Luis Peña wanted to be a fighter pilot or a police officer. Today he is the general manager and partner of Supermercado El Tapatio on Anderson Road, just off White Horse Road.
“I have three brothers and one of them started El Tapatio in Atlanta. It was a small store – much smaller than this – and he was busy,” Peña said. “At the time, I was living in Chicago and it is so cold there. He asked me to come work with him and open a larger store. That was in 2004. Today the four of us own and manage three of these stores – two in Atlanta and this one.”
He showed me some of his favorite things in the store – “tapatio” is slang for someone from Guadalajara – while we talked about life in Mexico. My mother spent the first 19 years of her life in Durango, Mexico, and Luis asked me if I ever visited Durango and what did I remember.
“My grandfather was a famous cowboy and he ran a big ranch in Durango,” I said. “Visiting the ranch was summer vacation for us when we were kids. I loved all the different fruits and vegetables. But the peppers: Grandaddy’s cowboys could eat the spiciest of peppers and not bat an eye. For me it was a trial by fire.”
El Tapatio, like most Hispanic groceries, has very little frozen food. Whenever a new customer is in the store and asks what they should buy, Luis always points them to the fresh tortillas and the bakery. I mentioned to Luis that my wife and I lived in Central America for a year and all of the towns we visited had one or two tortilla factories.
“Tortillas are important to us and ours are made of 100% corn,” he said. “Our meat, I believe, is the best. Here you can buy fresh tortillas, limes, onions, cotija and we make our own chorizo so your tacos can be amazing.”
While Luis took a quick phone call, I ordered a fresh orange juice from their taqueria. The young lady loaded a dozen oranges into the automatic juicer and two minutes later I had 20 ounces of fresh orange juice that cost only $4.
Although most of his team speaks Spanish as a first language, do not let that deter you from shopping at El Tapatio. If you love foods from Mexico or Central America, stores like El Tapatio are the place to get them. Where else can you get fresh tortillas, freshly ground chorizo, proper crema and enjoy handmade tacos before doing your shopping?
Luis divides his time between Atlanta and Greenville, and naturally he prefers Greenville.
“I love this town, it’s quite beautiful and it doesn’t have the traffic of Atlanta. And I love seeing returning customers or helping someone that is here for their first time find what they want.”
El Tapatio, at 2712 Anderson Road, is open daily.
