Gabriel Fuentes attended PSJA High School where his father, Edgar, led the band. After graduating, he headed to Houston for college, working part time at a popular restaurant. It was where Gabriel got his first taste of cooking. He savored it.

“Life happened,” he said, and college and cooking were traded for construction.

Fuentes opened a company in Houston before eventually returning to Alamo. He stayed in the construction business. An aspiration to cook stayed with him, recalling how much fun he had doing it. He continued with his construction business until the Great Recession hit during the 2007-to-2009 years. It was at that time, he said, “when I lost everything.”

A suggestion from a family member got him thinking about his next step in life. A cousin he considers a mentor in life recommended he go into the cooking business given his talents in that field. 

He recalled thinking, “I had my own construction company, and now I’m going to work on a cooking line?”

Gabriel took odd jobs for a while, “trying to make money any way I could,” he said.

Two things happened that led Gabriel to take a different course. First, he met Larry Delgado, a chef.

“I fell in love with the way he cooked, his attitude, everything,” Gabriel said.

Then he met another chef, Vladimir Cruz of the Patio on Guerra restaurant in McAllen. 

“I told him I didn’t have experience as a chef, but I could cook,” Gabriel said. “He gave me an opportunity.”

Cooking Up A Passion

Gabriel absorbed everything he could while also forming friendships with other local chefs. He would meet the director of the Covenant Christian Academy, who offered him a job as a kitchen manager. His wife, Hortencia, also accepted a job there and they enrolled their three daughters in the school. 

Gabriel cooked fresh and healthy meals for the students and monthly meals for the school’s board. Catering events would follow. He was contracted to cook meals at St. Alban’s Episcopal Day School in Harlingen. In 2016, Gabriel got a call from a friend that the owner of a food truck was leaving the business and wanted to sell his work vehicle.

“I had always wanted one,” Gabriel said of the food truck. “I met with him the next day and bought it.”

Reaching Success 

He already had a name. It was Nuri by Roman Gabriel. Nuri means “fire” in Hebrew, and his full name is Roman Gabriel, so he brought the two together to name his new business. He already had an idea in mind regarding what he wanted to offer from his food truck.

“I wanted to sell Austin-type tacos,” Gabriel said.

He knew of several Korean/Asian chefs who cooked with a Mexican twist. Gabriel turned it around by being a Hispanic who would cook with a Korean twist. He and Hortencia would begin with short rib, pork belly and fried chicken takos, a “k” instead of “c” for the Korean twist. They would add Hortencia’s popular salsas.

They parked the Nuri food truck in the McAllen Food Truck Park in 2016. Their business was not initially successful. They changed things up by going to the style of tacos that Hortencia knew as a child in Cuidad Valles, Mexico. A new line of Nuri Takos was born with menu selections offering cecina, chorizo, cheese, onion, cilantro and guacamole. 

Business improved, but they made plans to sell the truck.

“Right then,” Gabriel said, “a friend texted and said we came out in Texas Monthly.“

It read that if Nuri had been around the year before, it would have been a solid contender for the magazine’s “120 Tacos You Must Eat Before You Die.”

The magazine plug’s effect was immediate. Their sales soared and Gabriel resigned from St. Alban’s at the end of May to run Nuri full time. The truck could not provide the prep space and storage needed to meet the demand. They needed a brick-and-mortar location, but where?

One night, they went to eat at a restaurant next to Chick-fil-A on North 10th Street, but found it had closed. They had their answer on where to locate. Their first two years at the new location were busy but they incurred too much debt.

“Failure is good,” Gabriel said, recalling those early struggles. “It teaches you so much. And business is said to thrive in year three.” 

Success Arises From Failure

For Nuri, year three turned out to be 2020, the year a global pandemic hit. They rearranged the restaurant to have prep space for catering and curbside meals while placing their focus on the community. They supported those in essential jobs in the medical and law enforcement fields.

“Supporting our community is one of our core values,” Gabriel said. 

What they gave, they received tenfold. Cravings for the Nuri Tako favorites didn’t wane.

“We have to give a big ‘thank you’ to our community,” Gabriel said. “We couldn’t have made it through the pandemic without you.”

Gabriel and Hortencia also breathed new life into Obreras del Bien Charitable Foundation, which was started in the 1940s by his grandparents to donate blankets and food to people in Alamo.  

The new year looks bright for Gabriel and Hortencia. In 2022, they plan to open a new restaurant in Mission and possibly a second McAllen location.

For now, Gabriel and Hortencia are savoring every moment.