Central Austin Edition | February 2022

PEOPLE FEATURE

BY BENTON GRAHAM

GROWING GABRIELA’S Gabriela’s Group was originally founded in 2018 with the Gabriela’s downtown location. Since then, it has grown to eight restaurants throughout the Austin area. NORTH AUSTIN 1 Taquero Mucho (Burnet Road)

2 Seareinas DOWNTOWN 3 Taquero Mucho (West Avenue) 4 Mala Vida 5 Gabriela’s Downtown 6 Revival Coee SOUTH AUSTIN 7 Gabriela’s South Austin 8 Mala Santa

Revival Coee

COURTESY GABRIELA'S GROUP

NORTH AUSTIN

Gabriela's South Austin

Gabriela Bucio holding a drink at the newest Taquero Mucho location in North Austin. BENTON GRAHAMCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

COURTESY GABRIELA'S GROUP

BURNET RD.

Gabriela Bucio Austin woman helms her family’s restaurant empire P rior to starting a restaurant group that would go on to open eight locations, think her company would grow so big so fast.

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and millennial, followers. “At rst, we were just being ourselves. That’s who we are: we’re younger Latinos, and the community really responded to it,” Bucio said. “So once we started to grow, I started to understand the importance of what we were doing, but it didn’t hit me until Mala Vida opened. And it’s like, ‘Oh, OK, we needed this.’” Bucio also recognizes the impor- tance of businesses catering to women. “When you think of a seafood restaurant, you think of a captain or the shies and the pirate, super masculine. But I wanted a mermaid as the logo, and I wanted a nice interior, and I wanted to stay away from the cliche,” Bucio said.

DOWNTOWN

The company now has around 500 employees. Her mother and brother Salvador are also involved in the business. Gabriela’s Group includes two locations of Mexican restaurant Gabriela’s, two locations of the pink-themed taco spot Taquero Mucho, seafood restaurant Seare- inas and Revival Coee. The group also opened nightclubs Mala Vida in downtown and Mala Santa in Southeast Austin that focus on Mexican regional music. Bucio said that her businesses are loved by a broad swath of groups, but her initial success stems in part from the support of her “Mexillenial,” a combination of the words Mexican

Gabriela Bucio was working at a law rm by day and bartending at night. “I just wanted to open up my own business so my brother and I could live our dreams,” Bucio said, refer- ring to Arturo, who is the co-owner of Gabriela’s Group. Bucio was born in Michoacan, Mexico, and moved to McAllen when she was 5 years old. She lived in Austin o and on before moving to the area permanently in 2010. Gabriela started Gabriela’s Group in 2018 with Gabriela’s Downtown and has grown to a burgeoning empire with eight locations. Bucio said she always knew she would be successful, but she did not

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CENTRAL AUSTIN EDITION • FEBRUARY 2022