CHARLEMONT — After several decades apart, former high school classmates Jean Brisson and Todd Houston found their way back to each other four years ago in a familiar way: on Facebook. The pair got reacquainted over a cup of coffee, began dating, got engaged and recently opened a restaurant in Charlemont.
The Lazy Tacos, located at 90 Main St., focuses on serving meals that can be prepared quickly, without compromising on health or flavor, Houston said.
“I’d consider us ‘fast casual,’ because it is a laid-back situation,” he said. “But it’s healthy, it’s quality food, cooked from scratch.”
On the menu are a variety of Mexican dishes: quesadillas, tacos, burritos and rice bowls. Some are traditional, while others have a New England flair — for example, a lobster taco was a special a few weeks ago. Fresh smoothies, made with only fruit and ice, are also offered, inspired by a recent trip to Mexico, Houston said.
Houston said he chose to open a Mexican restaurant in particular as he has visited the country and felt inspired by the flavors and variety of the cuisine. It also made sense financially, he said, because the same ingredients can be used in multiple dishes.
“You can make it as plain as possible, if there’s a little kid, it was really adaptable,” Houston said. “It’s just something that clicked that I thought I could work with.”
Also, Houston said he hoped to offer something different in Charlemont, as the town eateries have typically been limited to pizza restaurants and cafes.
After a busy first few weeks, the two have their sights set on expanding next door to create a gathering place. They have already hired two part-time locals to help on weekends and have extended their hours, opening Thursday to Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. And while hours will be long, Houston said, he feels committed to the business.
“It’s a commitment, but we have a vision, where this could really be part of the community,” he said.
The couple attributes a mixture of timing and good luck to the restaurant coming to be — plus a lot of nights and weekends spent gutting the bathroom and scrubbing grime off the walls.
While Houston had harbored a dream of owning a fast casual restaurant for decades, he and Brisson both worked full-time and couldn’t envision how they would manage both. But this year, after becoming inspired by the vacant space at 90 Main St., they bit the bullet.
“He was just totally excited, like: ‘We can do this,’” Brisson said of Houston. “And we could afford the rent.”
The couple leased the space and got to work, spending every free moment they had in the restaurant scrubbing and painting and doing repairs. They paid out-of-pocket on everything from rent to repairs to ingredients, Brisson said.
“We can always make money back,” Houston said.
The restaurant is adorned with personal touches: carefully selected and refurbished second-hand furniture, walls painted bright red and orange, and framed photos from recent trips to Mexico.
“We put a lot of love into this,” Brisson said.
Initially, the two planned to keep their jobs and work during the day, Houston as a detox center chef and Brisson as a social worker for a Boston-based company that supports low-income elderly people. That idea didn’t last long, though.
On opening night, May 23, the two sold out of their stock, “scrambling” to the grocery store the next morning to buy more ingredients. In only a couple of weeks, Houston stepped down from his job, working there intermittently now. Brisson kept her day job, though she comes in most evenings to serve customers at the register.
“Charlemont’s small, so we didn’t anticipate that we would get as much positive feedback, or people from the community to be super excited by what we’re doing,” Brisson said.
While many Charlemont businesses rely on tourism and only stay open in summer, The Lazy Taco will be open all year. As they are locals themselves, the two say they want to bring their community a healthy, reasonably-priced place to gather and eat, no matter the season. This summer, about 30 percent of the restaurant’s patrons are local, while 70 percent are tourists, Brisson estimated.
“When we first realized we were actually going to pursue this and do it, we really talked long and hard about the fact that when this tourist season ends, the locals are still here,” Brisson said. “Those are the ones that are going to carry us through.”
The restaurant also offers catering for events and parties. The couple has served food at “a couple house parties,” Houston said, and recently catered Charlemont’s white water river festival.
“I’m hoping that gets our name out there,” Houston said.
While this is the couple’s first time owning a restaurant, Houston has worked as a chef for his entire career. After high school, Houston joined the military and was made a chef, an assignment he didn’t mind as he always enjoyed cooking while he was growing up.
“It comes naturally to me,” Houston said.
After leaving the military, Houston moved to fine dining, working as a chef in a variety of country clubs. Three years ago, he became a chef in a recovery center for individuals with substance abuse issues. Houston said he was proud of the food he served at the facility, even on a limited budget of roughly $7 per person, per day.
“We did everything from scratch, as much as we could,” Houston said. “Fresh vegetables, whole pork loins and chickens. … It was restaurant quality food in a detox setting. It was really cutting-edge, it was kind of unheard of, because most of those places it’s thaw-and-serve canned stuff. The nutrition side is overlooked.”
Brisson said she has gained a deeper appreciation of Houston’s work after watching him create a menu — and an array of delicious Mexican dishes — out of thin air.
“I have a whole new respect for Todd,” Brisson said.
Reach Grace Bird at gbird@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 280.