Bussin’ Birria cooks up brick-and-mortar launch with Elevate

Bussin’ Birria cooks up brick-and-mortar launch with Elevate

When Bussin’ Birria held its grand opening celebration, the new taco shop had been serving up all sorts of tacos, nachos, and gallons of queso because neighbors were eager for some new tacos — even before the furniture arrived.

“We opened a few weeks early due to the demand of the neighborhood,” said co-founder Chikufam Okoroji. “When we put up our signs and started doing the finishing touches, people were literally knocking on the door and sending us Instagram messages. So, this community was ready for our tacos and has been very welcoming already.”

The founders turned to Elevate Hennepin, Hennepin County’s business support initiative, for guidance to meet that enthusiasm for tacos with the complexities of opening a restaurant.

The first location of Bussin’ Birria opened in the Mall of America, but Chiafukam Okoroji said this location west of Bde Maka Ska in Minneapolis is quite different from the small, mall outlet.

For Chiafukam, the new location represents far more than added space. It’s a chance to unleash creativity in the kitchen and build deeper community connections.

The new location also came with some challenges. Being in the Mall of America food court means a lot of potential customers are already there, but the brick-and-mortar spot required more marketing and some new hats for Chiafukam and his co-founders Amol Dixit, founder of Hot Dish Indian, and Mark Addicks, founder of Mason Jar restaurants and a marketing leader, who spend much of their time on restaurant operations.

That’s where Elevate Hennepin came in. Chiafukam and Amol connected with multiple advisors for things like legal guidance and HR and compliance changes, including the rollout of the state’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave requirements.

“They made sure we were buttoned up and compliant. Without their help explaining it in plain language, I might’ve set something up incorrectly, and that could hurt employees,” Chiafukam said.

Co-founder Amol said that was a huge help to bring expertise to the small ownership team.

“We don’t have an HR department. And we don’t have a marketing manager. Elevate filled those gaps for us,” he said. “It’s been such a great resource.”

Elevate advisors Mary Quinn McCallum, founder and principal consultant at Field Guide, and Jen Jones, founder and principal consultant at Whip-Smart, became essential marketing partners leading up to the launch.

“The main thing we worked on first was the positioning. There are lots of great taco shops, so it was about digging into why this is different,” said Jen. “Birria isn’t just a kind of taco, it’s a 12-hour process with so much more behind it. That became the cornerstone of the story.”

That story turned into a marketing strategy, positioning, and a long-term marketing plan.

“We did everything from grassroots ideas to planning the grand opening, inviting key people, developing key messaging, and doing media pitching,” said Mary. “Then we built a marketing plan with phases: what they can do right away, what to do this weekend, and long-term ideas.”

The support took the guesswork out of everything else and allowed the Bussin’ Birria team to execute on the plan instead of stressing about the whole range of other business fundamentals while cooking birria.

“Anybody looking for help, check out Elevate Hennepin, I would always recommend it,” Chiafukam said. “The stress just goes right out the window.”