Former Tucsonans bring Sonoran hot dog magic to Austin, Texas

AUSTIN, Texas

If you’re from Texas and you ask Miguel Kaiser the meaning behind the name of his T-Loc’s food truck, he’ll smile and say it stands for “Texas Local.”

But if you’re from Arizona, you won’t even bother asking.

You’ll know once you see the ubiquitous University of Arizona block “A” sticker on the back door of the trailer, right above the University of Texas Longhorns insignia, and the Ben’s Bells “Be kind” clover stickers adorning the windows: Tucson Local.

T-loc might not be in the Arizona vernacular, but customers from Tucson and Phoenix “put it together,” Kaiser said of the name he gave his almost 10-year-old Sonoran hot dog and burrito restaurant.

If T-Loc’s Tucson bona fides aren’t clear from appearances, check out the menu of Sonoran dogs, grilled bacon-wrapped hot dogs tucked in a pillowy-soft, slightly sweet steamed and grilled roll, topped with pinto beans, diced tomatoes and onion and drizzled with mayo, mustard and mild chile sauce.

“Nothing like the Sonoran hot dog stands out in Austin,” Kaiser said. “It represents Tucson and Mexican style.”

Kaiser grew up eating Sonoran hot dogs during the chunks of his childhood spent in Tucson, which was the first to bring the Hermosillo-born Sonoran dog over the border in the early 1990s. The hot dogs are a Tucson staple that has since made its way to Phoenix and a couple California cities.

But when Kaiser and his business partner Zulma Nataren launched T-Loc’s nine years ago, no one in Texas was doing it, and very few people even knew what they were.

Inspired from childhood

Kaiser’s love of Mexican food and cooking came from his Mexican grandmother and his mother, but it was his globe-trotting businessman father who instilled his foodie passion.

“I remember as a kid he was always grilling and hosting parties,” said Kaiser, who graduated from Amphi High and studied illustration at Pima Community College. “One thing I learned is when you host a party, you invite people and they don’t have to bring anything. I always had that in mind.”

Kaiser was working in the medical field when he decided at age 30 to follow his passion for cooking.

“I always had an interest in culinary,” he said, recalling how he would watch the chefs grill steaks at El Corral and was fascinated by the cooks working the open kitchen at La Parrilla Suiza.

Kaiser attended the Scottsdale Culinary Institute and landed an internship in Thomas Keller’s storied New York restaurant Per Se. When he returned home to Tucson, he worked in the kitchens of several resorts before meeting Nataren, who also worked in resort restaurants.

The pair decided they wanted to go into business for themselves, focusing on Mexican street food.

“The goal was Sonoran hot dogs,” Kaiser said. “My mom was like, ‘Wait, you’re going to leave your job to do hot dogs?’ Yep.”

Dreaming out loud in ATX

Kaiser and Nataren knew they would have to move to pursue their restaurant; there was no way to distinguish themselves among Tucson’s crowded and storied Mexican food community.

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But Texas.

Texas could use some Mexican food love and excitement.

They flirted with San Antonio, but there was something about Austin that resonated.

“It’s like Tucson, small city supporting a university, but there’s a lot of corporate money coming in,” Kaiser said.

The city also has a vibrant food truck scene, but none were doing what Kaiser and Nataren had planned.

It would take them a year of working two jobs and scrimping and saving before the pair was able to buy a food trailer. It took another six months to renovate the trailer and install the kitchen before they were able to open in 2014.

Initially, the venture was a part-time gig; they kept their day jobs to pay living expenses while they worked to introduce Austin to the flavors of Tucson. In addition to Sonoran hot dogs, they offer other Tucson favorites including tacos, carne asada burritos and ranch fries.

After a few years, they ditched their day jobs and focused on T-Loc’s full-time. The restaurant quickly earned rave reviews on Yelp and landed it on top of the crowd-sourced review site’s list of the highest-rated restaurants in Texas.

Within a couple of years, more accolades started flooding in. In 2018, they snagged best hot dog in Texas from Insider, and Money magazine listed them as No. 6 on its Top 10 hot dog joints in the country. Food & Wine in 2020 named T-Loc’s Sonoran dog as the best hot dog in Texas; in that same listing, El Guero Canelo was the top dog for Arizona.

It was named the best burrito in Texas in 2019 by Insider, which gave Arizona’s honor to Tucson’s own Barista del Barrio. This year, Yelp chimed in on the burrito question, naming T-Loc’s the top burro in Texas; Barista del Barrio got the Arizona nod.

Food you can’t find anywhere else

Those accolades were not what brought Robert and Jayne Hancock to the 5000 Burnet food truck park on the bustling Burnet Road just north of downtown Austin one Friday evening in mid-May.

“This is the only place where you can get real carne asada in Austin,” Jayne Hancock insisted. “We’ve lived here 12 years and we couldn’t find anyone who has good carne asada until we found these guys.”

T-Loc’s is one of seven food trailers set up in the non-descript park Tuesdays through Saturdays, but on most nights, it has the longest lines and most steady traffic.

On that May Friday night, Erick Rodriguez, representing his Phoenix roots with a Devin Booker Suns jersey and Common Hype ball cap, and his girlfriend Aliana Saldivar showed up for the hot dogs. It reminded him of home, said the Phoenix native who is serving in the military.

Twenty minutes into the night, a small line had formed. Kaiser took orders while carne asada sizzled on the grill behind him, and Nataren composed hot dogs from the counter next to him.

Kaiser said T-Loc’s gets a lot of customers from Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, and he likes to think it’s because he takes great pains to keep the food authentic, Fed-Ex’ing 650 buns a week from Alejandro’s Tortilla Factory on Tucson’s south side and big, thin tortillas from a producer in Agua Prieta, Mexico, near Douglas.

“People from Arizona and Sonora come. It’s kind of like a reminder from home,” he said.

Kaiser said he and Nataren are working on plans to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant once they find an ideal location.

Learn more about T-Loc’s at tlocs.com.