Nacho Mama's Cuts Ribbon, Opens Doors

On Wednesday, Sept. 11, Comanche-owned Nacho Mama’s held a ribbon cutting at its new location, 1508 W. Gore Blvd, in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Owners Rachelle Mahsetky and Tyrus Mahsetky grew their business from a food truck to a brick-and-mortar and then to a larger space.

“Quite an amazing experience but a scary experience as well because it was a little bit more than I thought, but we started out with the food truck in 2018, and we kind of outgrew that food truck. And we moved to our bigger location on Fort Sill Boulevard, where we said, ‘Oh wow. This is a big restaurant we're going to do good here,’ and we did do good there. We lasted two years there, and we were able to come across this building. And I was like, ‘Okay, let's expand again,’ and it was like a big leap of faith coming into this bigger building and a lot more than I anticipated, but I know we're going to do amazing, and…it's just kind of hard navigating the waters and trying to get used to the feel of a new building and a new restaurant coming from you know a single little owner running a food truck to now like this big 5,000 square foot building.”

Rechelle said those who eat at the restaurant will have some new experiences.

“At our other location, we did have a liquor license, but we just sold beer,” she said. “But…we're waiting for our liquor license to get transferred over here so we will have a bar menu where we are able to serve like mixed drinks and stuff with the tacos because everybody loves their margaritas and tacos, you know, so we will be doing that. We also have a party room that we could have for events for special occasions and stuff. We have a big area where we could service you know a big group of people for special occasions as well. In the other location we did not have that facility to be able to facilitate a lot of people.”

Rechelle said the family owns the building and no longer pays rent and will have room to grow.

“The reason why I started the restaurant in the beginning is because my grandma always had the thoughts of having a restaurant, and she never had that opportunity before she passed away,” she said. “I used to help her in the kitchen a lot as a child and everything and always wanted to have a restaurant one day. And then when I did have the restaurant, I was like, ‘Oh my god, what did I do?’ But it's been great, it's been amazing, and I want to keep it alive and keep it in the family because that's what Grandma always wanted is to keep the tradition alive and stuff like that, and so I'm living her dream through this restaurant.”

Nacho Mama’s started as a house kitchen.

“In the beginning, I did,” Rachelle said. “I used to do food from my house and do like little catering orders for people and parties, and this and that and people are like, ‘You need to get a restaurant; your food's so amazing,’ and stuff, and I was like, ‘Okay.’ So, I did that, and I saved up money to get the food truck, and I got the food truck and got that going. And I was like, ‘What are we going to name it?’ My husband's the one that came up with the name Nacho Mama's. I'm like, ‘Oh, that's great, you know,’ so we ended up getting a food truck, and then we did that. And we saw that there was so much need for real, authentic Mexican food in this community; everything is Tex-Mex. Where we come from, it is not Tex-Mex. I was like, ‘Where are all the taco trucks? Where's all the real street tacos?’ You know, so that's kind of what gave me the inspiration to give people the opportunity to taste what real Mexican food is supposed to be like.”

She said she’s feeling optimistic.

“It's very new to us to have like just so much love from the community, and so many people overflow this building and stuff like that,” Rachelle said. “But I feel very positive once we get it down and get the flow of things being in such a bigger building that everything's going to be just fine.”

She and her husband Tyrus worked on the building themselves.

“In between running the restaurant over there, us working there with employees and having that open at the same time of trying to get this open, it was like a lot of sleepless nights working here till late hours of the night to get it ready to open to the public,” Rachelle said. “And then in between just running that restaurant, in here it was really rough, but all the work in here, like I'm proud to say that we actually did ourselves, you know we didn't have a bunch of contractors come in here and this and that. So, I mean, I do take a lot of pride in this because we did it ourselves.”

The restaurant is ready and open for business Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday until 9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. Nacho Mama’s will be closed on Wednesdays.