By: Stephen McCollum

Almost everything you need to know about Taqueria Los Hermanos, known around town as The Sisters restaurant, can be summed up by the experience of one customer.

“The hours! Grr. A business needs to be open when customers need it….Otherwise, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.” Obviously this person didn’t inquire about the hours before his visit. But to his credit, he tried again.

“I went yesterday for lunch,” he wrote. “I’ve started to adjust my eating schedule to when they are open. It’s so good. They have young kids and family. I get it with the limited hours.”

Diana Godinez and Jazmin Juarez will mark three years in April of balancing their commitments to their children and their delight in preparing tasty authentic Mexican food on the site that was once Willman’s Grocery Store at 322 South Cherry Street.

Graduates of Blackford High School, they arrived in Indiana from California when their stepfather took a new job with Five Star Roofing. They are so close, as sisters and as business partners, that one can start a sentence and the other finish it without skipping a breath.

They actually tried to be open five days a week for almost two years. But the responsibilities of family—Jazmin’s daughter Alicia (13), sons Brandon (8), and Julian (1) and Diana’s daughter Vanesah (12) and son Daniel (7)—plus the demands that accrued to all the weekly shopping to ensure their commitment to fresh ingredients started to take its toll. They have to shop in Muncie, Anderson, and Indianapolis to get everything they need.

“We just had to scale back,” said Diana. “But our regular customers understood,” added Jazmin.

“We have fun,” they said.

Like so many small enterprises, Taqueria Los Hermanos doesn’t have a budget for advertising, so they’ve relied on Facebook and word-of-mouth to sustain the traffic. They’ve had diners from area towns like Portland, Upland, and Muncie. Although there is adequate space in the restaurant, they say a big portion of their business is take out orders. 

Both Jazmin’s husband, Brandon, and Diana’s husband, Frank, encouraged their wives to start the restaurant. That explains the name: Hermano means brother but Hermanos can mean siblings, brothers and sisters. The brothers-in-law are totally behind the restaurant but just couldn’t carve out enough time from their full-time jobs. But now that they are immersed in providing quality food to very happy customers, the Sisters are feeling more invested in the long term.

“We get a lot of positive feedback from our customers, who say they don’t want us to close,” said Diana. If comments like this customer’s are any indication, Taqueria Los Hermanos by The Sisters is in the right business.

“Amazing food. Best tacos since I lived in Tucson, Arizona. Great and very friendly staff. Will definitely be going back”

Hours: Wednesday & Thursday, 11-6, Friday 11-8. (765) 499-2013 for carry out orders. Go to Taqueria Los Hermanos on Facebook to learn about specials.