What’s your name, and what do you do?
My name is Milo Ramirez, and I’m the founder and owner of Salsa Limón.
When did you first open Salsa Limón?
We started this taqueria in 2006, and over time, we’ve grown to five locations. We actually opened our first location inside a Mexican mall (our La Gran Plaza location), even before we started bringing our food truck around the TCU campus.
Have you always wanted to own your own business?
I have Oaxacan roots, and I come from a village that’s very entrepreneurial. If you have a mango tree in your backyard, you’re commercializing and monetizing it, whether it be selling the mango fresh or turning it into a mango candy. My grandparents instilled in me from a very young age that I was going to be an entrepreneur and own my own business.
What was this building before you moved Salsa Limón into it? And how did you acquire it?
The Distrito building was originally home to a Quiznos when it was located on University Drive, and I loved it. They totally made it feel like a corporate store though. I saw the bones of this building—the panoramic window, the curvature, simplicity, and proximity, and thought at some point, I’d love this to be a Salsa Limón. Years later, that Quiznos went out of business, so we had our chance.
Why did you decide to move this building from its original location on University near West 7th to The River District?
I’ve known Chris Powers at Fort Capital for many years and have always thought this area was an incredible part of Fort Worth. When I found out the building was going to get demolished due to new construction, The River District and Chris Powers came to us and said, ‘let’s save this building and give it a new home in the District’. We were literally able to take it off the ground, cut the slab, and move it about 3 miles to The River District. We feel it gives the whole neighborhood some character, and I think it’s fantastic.
What has it been like since moving Salsa Limón to The River District?
It’s been fantastic. We have a ton of customers from all walks of life, which is what it’s all about. Everybody is welcome. We have a lot of local customers who have recently moved in, as well as many who have already lived here for a while. There’s an amazing mixture of community here. Some people walk over here with their kids in their strollers; it’s really become a dynamic and walkable community. We love being here!
Tell us how and why you name all of your Salsa Limón locations.
We like to nickname all of our locations. Since we have five, we didn’t want them to all be the same or name them Salsa Limón #1, #2, etc. We wanted each location to embody a little bit of the neighborhood and the relationship it has with the neighborhood. When this one was located across from the museum, its name was “Museo,” which means museum in Spanish. Since we moved to The River District, we crossed out “Museo” and wrote in “Distrito”, which means district.
Salsa Limon is by far the favorite restaurant of myself and three daughters. We are at any given location at least 2 times a week. It is the closes to my mom’s home cooking!
It’s so much our favorite that my High Senior had her senior pictures taken at the White Settlement location.
Muy bueno!!
Actually, the building was home to the original J.J.’s Oyster Bar, then a hamburger joint and then Rush Street owned by Chuck Carr. Chuck gutted, cleaned, painted and remodeled the space to create the Chicago deli. The building is beautiful and a lot of work from Fort Worth residents went in to make it historic, not Quizno’s!