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Mauricio Del Moral launched the Don Pastor Food Truck on April 17, 2021, a year into the coronavirus pandemic, but says that he has had the support of his neighborhood from the get-go.
“The Riverwest Neighbors have never stopped supporting us,” says Del Moral. “On the annual anniversary of Don Pastor we did the $1 tacos and lines were incredibly long.”
Although Don Pastor is Del Moral’s first food truck, he’s anything but new to the kitchen.
“I have worked since I was 8 years old, helping my mother sell food from home when we were in Mexico,” he recalls, “and when we came to the United States I decided to work in different restaurants and my experience grew even more.”
Del Moral’s beloved pizza birria and vegetarian options are now Riverwest favorites.
Though he’s enjoying the truck, don’t be surprised if the truck is only the beginning for Del Moral.
“This is my first food truck but I am dreaming big,” he vows. “I always say, ‘the sun shines for everyone,’ and, I don't know, maybe soon we get a Don Pastor Mexican Bar & Grill in Milwaukee.”
In the meantime, Del Moral has set his sights on Milwaukee Taco Fest, which takes place at Summerfest on Saturday, June 17.
Last year, Del Moral told me. “I am very excited for this Taco Fest. I am confident of my flavors and cooking skills and it will be a fun competition. We hope to take this trophy to Riverwest!"
His confidence was well-placed as Don Pastor won the 2022 Taco Fest voting.
Type of food: Our food is Authentic Mexican Food with different recipes from different states.
Most popular item: Our most popular taco is the Al Pastor Taco, our marinated pork cooked to perfection in a trompo. We also have lots of requests on our pizza birrias. Birria pizza is a 12-inch big beef birria quesadilla, made with flour tortillas. It consists of layers of flour tortillas crisped up, topped with birria and cheese, cilantro and onion.
Vegetarian/vegan/gluten-free options: We make everything possible, from vegan and veggie friendly, lard-free. we have veggie tacos, veggie burritos, veggie tortas and veggie quesadillas. We have different gluten-free items on our menu staring with our tortillas and bread.
Where can people find the truck? When we first started we were parked in front of the Pumping Station Park on Humboldt and Chambers, near Colectivo, but the endless construction started and we had to keep working so we moved to Center and Pierce (604 E. Center St.), Monday-Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
You can also follow us on Facebook we always update our hours and when there is an event we always try to post it.
If you could park your truck anywhere for one day where would it be? If I could park anywhere in the world it will be inside Disney World in Orlando, Florida.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He can be heard weekly on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories.
