First-Person Interview: Daniel Contreras

Editor’s Note: Daniel Contreras, owner of El Guero Canelo restaurants, has been serving authentic Mexican food to Arizona residents for 25 years. His most famous menu item is the Sonoran Hot Dog. The James Beard Foundation bestowed a 2018 America’s Classics Award on El Guero Canelo in January. Below is an edited transcript of an interview of Contreras by el Restaurante Publisher Ed Avis.

            I came to the U.S. in 1979, when I was 18 years old. I didn’t even know how to say “Hi.” I grew up in Magdalena, in Sonora, Mexico. My first job in the U.S. was as a dishwasher in the restaurant at a Travel Lodge hotel in Tucson. I was a dishwasher for about three months, and then I asked a bus person how much he made, and it was $3.35 plus tips. I made the same but no tips, so I took his job.

            I worked at the Travel Lodge for about a year, then a little while at the Sheraton Pueblo, then as a waiter at El Minuto Café, a Mexican restaurant. I was there for another year or so. After Minuto I worked at a water well company, and then for a long time I sold jewelry door to door during the day and waited tables at night. But I always dreamed of being a business person.

            When my wife Blanca and I got married in 1987, we used to go to Nogales to have hot dogs and tacos, because we couldn’t find real Mexican food in Tucson. I grew up eating Sonoran style hot dogs and carne asada, but we couldn’t find that around here. That’s when my idea started coming into my head – I should open a restaurant or a taco stand.

            In 1993 we opened our restaurant. It was 10/20/93 at 4 in the afternoon when I sold

my first taco. How can you ever forget that? We sold $240 the first day.

            At the beginning we didn’t sell hot dogs. We sold carne asada. The reason we started selling hot dogs was because our stand was so small that people thought it was a hot dog stand, so they started asking me for hot dogs. My wife had been selling Sonoran style hot dogs at a different spot, some where in between 1993-1996 we got together and started selling them here.

            Sonoran style means we cook the wienie on the grill wrapped in bacon. Then we put it

in the bun, and put cooked pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, mayonnaise, mustard and jalapeno salsa on top. That’s the kind of hot dog I ate growing up.

            I call my restaurant the Mexican McDonalds. You order your food, pick up your food and then eat at the picnic style tables.

            I have the most wonderful customers in the world. Some of our customers who were just kids now come with their kids and their grandkids – whole generations of customers. I’m really proud of that.

            We opened a second location in 2007, and at the same time I decided to open a tortilla factory and bakery in Magadalena. We make the tortillas and buns for our restaurants there.

            In 2011 we opened the third location, and at the same time I opened my own meat market in Tucson. The reason I opened the market was to control the quality, the best in the world. In 2015 we opened our only location outside of Tucson, in Phoenix.

            Now we have around 140 employees. I’m very proud and happy that we can support so many people. I have three children and three grandkids. My son Gregorio works in the restaurant. He’s 24. He was born with the business, a month after we opened.

            The James Beard Award is amazing for us. I didn’t know anything about it when they called in December and started asking me for this and that. I said, “I don’t even know who you are.” But I am very happy for this company and my 140 employees. I want to thank James Beard, and Tucson, and Phoenix, and all my customers. We are what we are because of them.

            I like to end up all my interviews with this: Nobody is allowed to take away your dreams from you, nobody not even your parents.