LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A local restaurateur is making his mark in the Las Vegas valley by turning his ghost kitchen into a restaurant.
Tino Rodriguez says the food he creates is “Mexicue,” or a fusion of Mexican ingredients and American barbecue. His restaurant, Humo Barbecue, recently opened in Henderson, but the road to get there included a few stops along the way.
Rodriguez spent nearly 20 years cooking barbecue and helping a company open more than a dozen restaurants across the country.
“I opened about 13 restaurants, and it just kind of soared from there in the barbecue industry,” he told FOX5.
After that success, Rodriguez was inspired to branch out on his own.
“I was running seven barbecue restaurants and… I felt like I was the owner myself,” he said.
That led to an opportunity to open up a ghost kitchen in a Henderson bar. “I had a friend that was the owner of Gambit, and he let me know that he had some space at lunchtime … [so] I could sling some barbecue.”
Rodriguez says while he was grateful for the space to work, he quickly realized it wasn’t for him.
“It didn’t work for me… because we were a no-name company, no one really knew us, and I didn’t have a way to get out there,” he shared.
He says all his previous restaurant and ghost kitchen experiences made the transition smooth when it was time to open Humo Barbecue.
“Having your own space, there’s nothing like it,” he said. “It’s like going from roommates to having your own house or living on your own. There’s nothing that can compare because you just run your own thing.”
While the owner and pit master has led his team to where they are today, Rodriguez says social media influencers also helped make this journey possible.
“Our first influencer was Jose the Taco Guy. He came in and I don’t know how he heard about us, somebody told me he was a friend of a friend,” he said. “He came in and put us on social media.”
He added, “There’s a bunch of influencers out there that did a lot for us and one just piggybacked off the other…”
If you’d like to give Humo Barbecue a try, it’s located on Sunset between Pecos and Sandhill.
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