Meet Ivette “Lola” Olivares and Michael Flore of Lola’s Tacos in Youngtown

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ivette “Lola” Olivares and Michael Flore.

Ivette and Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started a year ago from my old crossfit gym selling tacos on Tuesdays, with a small electric griddle to warm up my tortillas, carne asada, rice, beans and other side condiments. I did this for a few months when a few gym members asked me if we’d be interested in catering for their parties. Went home and told my husband that a few people have been asking about us catering, we sat down and put a plan together to see if it was even possible. I guess it was so here we are!

The name, “Lola”, is actually my nickname that came from my roller derby years, so we found it fitting that since I was behind the grill that we call it “Lola’s Tacos”.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
This road has been challenging, from the permits to the financial backup, to getting our product out there as well as establishing our name. Not to mention there is no handbook, like “Food Truck Start Up for Dummies’, this has all been trial and error. Despite these challenges, it made us realize that we have to try harder and harder every day to achieve our goals. It’s also made us realize that we make a hell of a team!!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Lola’s Tacos – what should we know?
Los Angeles and Tijuana, Mexico inspired street tacos are what we are known for and specialize in.

When we prepare, cook and serve our food we take pride in seeing people enjoy and rave about our food as well as spreading the love for ‘Lola’s Tacos’ through social media or by word of mouth!

What sets us apart from others is our mulitas and stuffed quesadillas. A lot of folks have no idea what a mulita is until we tell them, even then they’re skeptical… it’s when they try it and it becomes their favorite dish on the menu! We’ve also done something that was inspired by a dear friend of ours that is a vegetarian, she insisted that we should look into plant base tacos; because of my Mexican culture, I felt that nopales and soy chorizo tacos would be a great addition to our menu.

We keep our menu simple Asada, pastor, chicken, and nopales!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
Our biggest cheerleaders have been our close friends that were there for our taco tasting nights, our friends that have volunteered to help us serve customers. One of our biggest mentors would be Kim Perez from My Comadre’s Kitchen, this woman has helped open doors for us and has introduced us to some amazing people, she has been by our side since day one!

As for cheerleaders and huge supporters, I would have to say Lucianne & Greg Peniston, Javier Uribe, Margo Cobb, Frank & Barbie Gonzalez, Emily Davis, Michael Markos, Mary Moreno, Kathy & Derek Olsen, Aricka Anderson, Jovan Wilder, Shooter’s World family and all our friends from South Gate, and Los Angeles, CA. All these people have helped us in one way, shape or form to get this business off the ground. To say we did this alone would be a lie, if it wasn’t for them we wouldn’t be where we are now!

Contact Info:

• Email: Lolastacos323@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lolas_tacos
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LolasTacos323/

Image Credit:
Credit for these pictures goes out to our customers that have snapped a pic of our food and Jorge from Phoenix Localista!

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