Gustavo Fuentes admits that his social media game still needs a bit of work. The owner and operator of the acclaimed Dorados taqueria in Hudsonville, Michigan, told us, “I could say I'm a little shy about social media. I guess I need a little bit more exposure.”
Perhaps, but it seems like the word is already out on Dorados, which has more than 1,000 Yelp reviews and a near-perfect rating! So how exactly did Gustavo do it? We found out during a special edition of So You Want To Run a Restaurant live from the Gordon Food Service Food Show in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Gustavo joined co-hosts Claudia Saric and Spencer Michiel to share his story.
Food, Family and Tradition
That story begins in Guanajuato, Mexico, where cooking was simply a way of life. Guanajuato neighbors the state of Jalisco, which contains the tourist mecca of Puerto Vallarta and is famous for producing nearly all of the world’s tequila. Naturally, food is an essential part of the culture in the region.
While tourists may flock to the resorts and nightspots to eat, locals do things a little differently. Gustavo explained, “Where I grew up, you didn’t go out to eat a whole lot. We always cooked at home. Mom was always cooking for us. Grandma was always cooking for us.”
Gustavo learned the basics at a young age. Even before he left Mexico for the U.S. at age 13, Gustavo already knew how to cook a few things. Still, when he got his first real kitchen job, he wasn’t prepping dishes. He was washing them.
Five Takeaways From Our Chat With Gustavo Fuentes
Today, Gustavo works with a Michigan-based restaurant group and oversees operations for Dorados as well as two additional neighborhood staples – El Burrito Local in Grandville and, as of August 2025, a fusion concept called Alicia’s.
To find out how Gustavo turned family tradition and personal passion into a growing portfolio of unique dining concepts, check out the whole episode. For the best moments from our chat, read on.
1. Never Stop Learning
Even after his arrival in the U.S., family played a central role in Gustavo’s professional development. He may have been washing dishes in the family restaurant, but he was also learning new skills every day. His uncle was the chef and his brother was the manager. Each was a major influence on Gustavo.
“It was kind of funny,” Gustavo mused. “My uncle would be like, ‘Hey, come over here. Start stirring up the rice. Then my brother would come in and say, ‘You're gonna come outside and start serving.’”
This “back and forth,” as Gustavo described it, gave him incredible hands-on training in both the front and back of house. This immersive education would prove vital when he founded Dorados.
“Once you become an owner, you’ve gotta learn it all,” Gustavo observed. “And I’m still learning a lot of new things. You think you know enough, but there’s always something new. You can never stop learning.”
2. Courting Customer Feedback
As we pointed out earlier, Gustavo is part of a restaurant group with multiple restaurants. Though his own roots are in Mexican cuisine, Gustavo has also been busy developing new concepts that incorporate elements of Italian and American food for the menu at Alicia’s. He admitted to us that he was apprehensive to venture into this unfamiliar territory at first.
“I didn't just do the Mexican side,” said Gustavo. “We added pasta, for example, on the Italian side. We added handhelds on the American cuisine side.” He credited Gordon Food Services (GFS) for both being his food supplier and a strong source of support as he stakes out new culinary territory. But Gustavo also stressed the importance of getting feedback directly from the diner.
He recalled, “From the beginning, I was just trying to get everybody's input. Since day one, I was always in there, going around to the tables, making sure people knew that we were cooking from scratch, having them try new things, and just having them give us feedback.”
Gustavo used this feedback to make adjustments and improvements to his food in real time. “And so far,” says Gustavo, “it's been working good, to be honest.”
3. Keep Your Kitchen Flexible
Customers increasingly expect personalization out of their restaurant experience. As cash-strained consumers become more selective about how and where they spend their money, restaurants must be prepared to handle things like dietary restrictions and substitutions.
Gustavo pointed out that you want your kitchen to be adaptable. Your team should be able to handle these restrictions and substitutions without fundamentally altering a recipe. Gustavo pointed to spice level as a perfect example, especially when it comes to Mexican cuisine.
“A lot of people will say ‘It's too hot.’ And a lot of people will say, ‘This isn't hot at all.’ And you have to try to please everybody up to a point,” said Gustavo. “So if somebody requests a little less or a little more heat, we can do it without changing the whole idea of the dish.”
4. Stay Present
Gustavo offered a word of caution to those with growing restaurant businesses. He noted that quality control can suffer if you allow yourself to become detached from day-to-day operations at each of your locations.
“Of course, you can't be present on site in every single restaurant you open 24/7,” said Gustavo. “But you’ve got to swing by. You’ve gotta be around. I feel like you’ve got to make sure it's working.”
“Sometimes people get successful and they forget about where it started and they're just not there anymore,” Gustavo said. The key to his consistency, and to his sterling customer reviews, is Gustavo’s own personal level of involvement in the consistency and quality control at every location.
5. Make Your Customers Feel Like Family
That quality control extends through everything from the menu to the customer experience. For Gustavo, the most rewarding part of this business is “the moment when people walk up to you and tell you how good the food was, how good your service was, and how good the overall experience was.”
To Gustavo, this is really what it’s all about. His restaurant group operates across multiple locations but they are tied together by a single thread. What these locations all have in common, said Gustavo, “is that customers feel welcome when they come in. They feel like family.”
Grow Your Business With the Right Tech
So how can you expand your business and maintain that same level of consistency, quality control, and personalized service?
The right technology can help you gather customer feedback, streamlining operations across multiple locations, manage individual customer preferences and much more! But which solutions make sense for your business? Reach out to one of our in-house restaurant tech experts today for your free, personalized consultation.
