A La Quinta man who has spent 10 years catering large banquets and parties, opened his own restaurant in Indio.

Armando Gonzalez, 45, opened Tacos Gonzalez about a month ago in an outlet at the intersection of Jefferson Street and Highway 111 so that local families could enjoy his family's recipes.

From tacos to tortas, Tacos Gonzalez serves a wide range of Mexican food. Gonzalez steams the tortillas for his tacos just the way his family did back in Guadalajara, where he grew up.

He also makes a strawberry horchata, a rice drink, that is his own grandmother's recipe.

“For me, it is one of my gifts to make very good food,” Gonzalez said.

The restaurant, he said, has had an average of 200 people daily. Many of those customers, like the Ayala family, had used Gonzalez's catering services.

Indio resident Rafael Ayala, 41, said his family has been to the restaurant five times since it opened.

“This is probably the best taqueria there is because of the way that he cooks his food,” Ayala said. “You can see the quality.”

Born and raised in Gudalajara, Gonzalez said he grew up in the catering business. His father and uncles were professional caterers, and the name of their business was also Tacos Gonzalez.

Gonzalez came to the Coachella Valley in 1982 and worked at the Spa Resort Casino as a server for almost six years. He then worked for Las Casuelas Nuevas in Rancho Mirage for 14 years and started his own catering company, also called Tacos Gonzalez, 10 years ago.

“I like being my own boss and having my own business,” he said.

He started by using his family's secret recipes and found himself catering at least two large parties every weekend. At one time, he catered the opening of a Palm Desert apartment complex for 500 people.

However, his catering services require a minimum of 50 people. Five years ago, Gonzalez began thinking about opening a restaurant so local families could enjoy the food as well.

The opportunity to open a restaurant came in February when Gonzalez saw an empty space on Jefferson Street and Highway 111.

“It was a perfect location because of the traffic and because it is at the border of two growing cities, La Quinta and Indio,” he said.

It took seven months to get the restaurant open. Planning a restaurant takes a lot of work and Gonzalez said he revised his design plans for the restaurant three times.

“This is a big step,” he said. “I did not want to mess it up.”

Now that his restaurant has opened for business, Gonzalez said he will continue his catering company. His long-term plan, however, is to make his restaurant successful.

“I am happy,” he said. “This was my dream, and it has been accomplished.”