Successful taco truck preparing for winter

Businesses that depend on customers being outdoors are bracing for the winter.

Dia De Los Tacos has been serving Mexican food to go for nearly a year now. The food truck has proven to be a hit in downtown Marquette, with a large number of repeat customers. However, this will be its first full winter season in business.

“We’re going to start targeting some more special events where there’s going to be a higher concentration of people, whether or not the weather is agreeing,” Dia De Los Tacos co-owner Mike Walker said. “Also, we’ve got a lot of faith that Yoopers are hardy folks and know how to handle (weather). I mean, they’re here; they know the weather is going to happen.”

Dia De Los Tacos recently received a Michigan Economic Development Corporation grant. The MEDC says that by 2017, food trucks will become a $2.7 billion industry in Michigan each year.

“There’s a lot of costs that obviously are incurred in running any business, and the fact that the state wants to support the mobile food industry is really forward–thinking, really progressive,” Walker said.

The business is named after Dia De Los Muertos, or Day Of The Dead, a Mexican holiday period that begins on Halloween. Dia De Los Tacos employees will be in costume inside the truck on Thursday to celebrate.