Northwest Austin Edition | March 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 locations 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 holds 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 recently expanded restaurant empire P rior to starting a restau- rant group that would go on to open restaurants burgeoning empire with six concepts across eight locations. Mexican and millennial, followers. “At rst, we were just being ourselves. That’s who we are: we’re younger Latinos, and the

MOPAC

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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 Seareinas and Revival Coee. The group also opened nightclubs Mala Vida downtown and Mala Santa in South- east Austin that focus on Mexican regional music. Bucio said her businesses are loved by a broad swath of groups, but her initial success stems in part from the support of her “Mexille- nial,” a combination of the words

throughout Austin, including the latest Taquero Mucho in Northwest Austin, 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. She lived in Austin o and on before moving to the area permanently in 2010. Bucio started Gabriela’s Group in 2018 with Gabriela’s Downtown and has grown the business into a

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.

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SLAUGHTER LN.

NORTHWEST AUSTIN EDITION • MARCH 2022