Meet Alan Raines of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alan Raines.

Hi alan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My first job was in a restaurant, dishwasher. Since that time I have loved the excitement and work involved in making ‘the show’ come together everyday. I was also in theatre production in school and believe there are similarities to restaurants, making it happen behind the scenes so the audience gets the best experience.

I continued to dip in and out of restaurant life throughout my 30+ years in sales, sometimes nearly leaving sales to be full time in a restaurant where a friend was the chef. For the energy. In 2000 i partnered with a Chef friend to open our first spot, a French Bistro. This was the first full on experience as the owner/operator. Big reveal! I left after a few years to raise a new son but the biz drew mw back in. That’s when Mexican food became my passion.

I opened a tiny Taqueria for an owner that knew nothing about restaurants in East Atlanta Village. The concept was simple and I was super fortunate to do this with a family from Mexico. Basically, it was a little spot based around their family cooking, which seemed perfectly normal at the time. It was wildly successful. After a short time, I realized that the owner’s ‘vision’ for the profits did not include anyone but him so I left.

Several years later, I opened the first El Tesoro in Decatur. I once again partnered with the same family in the kitchen and we were off and running again. Unfortunately, partnership ownership proved to be an issue over time. I decided that partnerships were not the recipe for restaurant success, a single ‘Director’ of the show’s performance was the only way to go and I would not have partners again. I left Tesoro. It folded a year later. I wont say I’m the best Director in the game but the person with the vision is probably best suited to execute the dream.

During all of the iterations of restaurants I had maintained a toe in the sales world. Fast forward to 2015. I left 33 years in sales and decided to find the owner of a little building in my transitioning neighborhood. One of two commercial buildings in a tiny intersection was vacant and had been for years. After two years, finding the owner and convincing him to give me a shot, we started El Tesoro as we know it now. The area had no choices for anything for a 1/2 mile in any direction, more in some. So, coffee shop or taqueria? Why not both? I had seen a few spots do both well in Austin so off we went. A 900 sq ft building serving breakfast tacos and lunch, combined with a full espresso program. And a whole 14 seats. Yes, me and the same family making the food, this was about the food and I would be there every day to kake sure people knew that. Me and two sisters and their daughters opened from 7am til 2pm, 7 days a week. It was an amazing production and the neighbors loved it! The same faces, same groups, same newborns all passed through or just hung out. El Tesoro was the anchor Edgewood needed. The show people would go see a few times a week it turned out. We added a full bar and wraparound patio after a year, proud to have 65 seats and serve food all day, adding dinner service. 4 Weeks of that……

COVID. Who knew it would last so long. With only 14 seats we had to move outside into the parking lot for to-go orders. After 2 weeks we put some tables outside. After 2 months we really started to see that people needed a place to still go, all masked up, but go. COVID never gave up and neither did we, the show must go on! More tables, 12-15 feet apart went up. More people came, knowing that they could kind of have a restaurant experience still. Eventually, we bought the empty lot next door and filled it with tables. More people. We transitioned breakfast out except for weekends and now also had a brunch spot. Crazy times. Expansion, transition, renovation became the continuous norm for Tesoro and people watched it all with masks on. They had babies, learned to bake bread and came out to eat! During COVID. We were THE spot to hang out now.

185 seats, all outside. That’s where Tesoro landed eventually and remains today. Strangely enough, we ended being an Austin style ‘patio restaurant’ by accident but happy to be one. The first in Atlanta. Through it all, we never lost the core of us, the food. Family recipes cooked by the actual family, never compromising. I did insert a few of my own food favorites that are not from the region where our Chefs are from but Mexican nonetheless.

After the 5 years of evolution and chaos we opened a Tesoro inside a brewery on the West End, operating as their in house food provider. This was a great opportunity to expand without a huge outlay of money. And the see if Tesoro was a ‘citywide’ option. It was. We found out that the original location lost customers to the West End because those people had been driving 6 miles to come to Edgewood. Now THEY had a Tesoro of their own. Yay! After 2 years we decided to take the leap and move into another brewery space that had closed in the next building of the very large West End complex. W e started planning for the move. But wait!!!

A renaissance was happening in South Downtown Atlanta. The World Cup was coming to town X 8 games. This was huge for Atlanta. One guy had recently bought 53 historic buildings in SoDo, some well over 100 years old. His plan to renovate ALL of them was just intime to capitalize on the upcoming World Cup. The person in charge of recruiting businesses was a longtime fan of Tesoro so she contacted me to be an anchor tenant. I toured several buildings and fell in love with 171 Mitchell Street. 134 years of age and character in the epicenter of the original downtown Atlanta, steps from the stadium where the soccer chaos would ensue. Let’s do it!!! (while we are also moving our West End restaurant) Let’s do it!!!

We did it. We did them both. Open two restaurants in 6 months. Renovate, outfit, staff and operate two new restaurants in time for the first game.

Nobody quit. We all made the sacrifices as a team and TWO shows launched on the stage 3 months apart. South Downtown opened for the first game, as hundreds of thousands (reports are a million plus) came to Atlanta for the madness of Fùtbol. We served a LOT of them. Behind the curtain there was a ton of chaos but the people in the seats never knew. These new shows were hits!

The FIFA crowds have returned home and now we have our new West End fans in the house and our SoDo fanbase growing alongside the amazing rebirth of the original Atlanta. It’s a little slow downtown compared to the other spots (T1 & T2) but that’s OK. We knew that was coming and we are prepared to offer space for events, meetings, travelers and locals. The trajectory is only up for the newest ‘theatres of food experience’ know as El Tesoro. We have the best actors and they are out to perform everyday for anyone that shows up.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Ha Ha Ha. There’s no smooth road in restaurant life. No bank will loan you money, very few landlords actually care if you make it, staffing can be very difficult, relationships suffer or fail It’s all challenges, even for the owners with money and experience. Every time. (see ‘your story’) As my friend and mentor says, “press on, relentlessly”. We have pushed through and been blessed by our regulars and all the new friends we make.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I consider my self a lifelong creator of things and my own way. It’s all SALES to me. Selling technical adhesives (my actual job for 33 years) or selling tacos. I can read an audience and get them what they want, not what just I want to sell them. That intersection is my sweet spot.

My work is to take that skill and build a place for people to feel relaxed and enjoy. This is the customers and the employees. I do expect a lot of employees but the ones that see why, understand and I think they see the why of it.

We’d love to hear about how you think about risk taking?
Risks. This has been a risk since day 1. Restaurants are already most likely to fail more than most businesses.

Opening in the area we did was definitely a risk.
Refinancing my house was a risk.
After the growth success we had during COVID we had a terrible year due to weather. Again, I took money from my house and anywhere I could get it to pay staff and the bills. This has happened in different ways over the years.
The risk to move out of the brewery and into our own space AND open a new spot downtown at the same time was an insane risk.
The long term success of downtown location is a risk but one I have calculated (like all of them) and I am willing to take. I believe in Atlanta and the risk that the owner of our building (David Cummings) took when he bought 52 boarded up buildings and decided to rebuild the original downtown Atlanta. That’s some risk I can get on bpoard with.

Swing for the fences! If we loose, we play again. That’s what dreamers and entrepreneurs do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.eltesoroatl.com
• Instagram: @eltesoroatl @eltesorowestend @eltesorosouthdowntown
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eltesoroatl
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/el-tesoro-atlanta-3