When Rick Beach, owner of Perham Central Station in Perham, Minnesota, wanted to bring his foodservice program to the next level, he didn’t have far to look. He reached out to his brother-in-law Lucas Johnson, who bought the store’s existing foodservice operation, which focused on burritos. “I changed things and brought in fresh ingredients,” Johnson said.
Papacito’s Burritos became a hit with the 3,000-plus residents in an area dotted with lakes. “Perham is pretty rural. We’re an hour west of Fargo, North Dakota, and there’s not a lot of options for different food,” said Johnson.
From the start, Johnson’s strategy was to offer quick-service food focused on fresh ingredients. “My wife and I did a bunch of market research, which was riding around and eating burritos for a few weeks,” he said. “For our anniversary we had a taqueria excursion.”
Custom Burritos
At Papacito’s, customers build their own burritos. “We walk customers down the line and let them choose each ingredient,” Johnson said. “It’s more Southwestern or Mission-style rather than Mexican. We’re like the Subway of burritos. It’s what makes it interesting for people,” he said.
“We cut and marinate all our meats in house,” he said. Meats include a choice of shredded beef, pulled pork, regular shredded chicken and the most popular—chipotle-style chicken—as well as seasoned ground beef and chorizo-style sausage. “Not many people had heard of chorizo in northern Minnesota,” Johnson explained.
Papacito's Burritos has three locations in northern Minnesota, and the newest is at the Little Chief Outpost in Fergus Falls. From L to R: Zach Rogers, Little Chief general manager; Dustin Nagel; and Lucas Johnson, owner of Papacito's.
Breakfast burritos, tacos and quesadillas are on the menu, too, and there’s a fresh-baked biscuit and homestyle-gravy offer topped with sausage. A kid’s menu features tacos and quesadillas. Papacito’s also offers stuffed quesadillas, burrito bowls, salad bowls and a taco in a bag.
Portion sizes are in keeping with local appetites. “My dad and two brothers are truck drivers,” Johnson said. “They would spend $10 on lunch and would still be hungry. So, we offer something fairly substantial,” he said. Papacito’s features a regular 10-inch burrito and a large one that’s on a 12-inch tortilla. “You can spend $10 and be full,” Johnson said.
New Markets
As customers flocked to Central Station for Papacito’s Burritos, Johnson and his wife, Amy, kicked around ideas for their next venture—“either a food truck or a stand-alone restaurant,” he recalled. He opened the restaurant 20 minutes down the road in Detroit Lakes. In 2019, the third location opened in nearby Fergus Falls inside the Little Chief Outpost gas station. “We were up and running there in six weeks,” explained Johnson.
Not many people had heard of chorizo in northern Minnesota.
“The idea was to get someone in with a customer base,” said Zach Rogers, general manager of the Little Chief Outpost. “My cousin ate at the store in Perham. He liked it and met Lucas. Then, my dad ate there, and he liked it.”
Rogers is seeing the benefit of having an established food program in the c-store. “It’s busy every day,” he said.
Little Chief Outpost sells fuel, food, bait, tackle, sporting goods, camping supplies “and everything you need on the way to the lake!” according to the gas station’s website. Anglers can stock up on lures, rods, reels, live bait and terminal tackle here in addition to more typical c-store supplies like cold drinks and snacks. The outpost even stocks drills for ice fishing.
Local Connections
The burritos are made-to-order from the fresh ingredients—meat, veggies and toppings—customers choose as they walk down the line.
Johnson’s marketing strategy for Papacito’s has been incremental, especially when it comes to the second location. “Detroit Lakes is very tourist driven. We didn’t market to tourists right away, so we focused on attracting locals via social media,” he said.
Turning residents into loyal customers early has been beneficial. “They’re here all year-round. That made us successful right away. We have regulars coming in a couple of times a week,” he said, adding, “It hit the mark perfectly rather than focusing on tourists.”
Managing the social media falls to Johnson, who tries to keep things interesting. “What we do is a burrito of the month. We’ve had quite a few. We do it one month and only once, then it’s gone. We did a jambalaya burrito with andouille sausage. During Lent we do a shrimp burrito. We focus our Facebook and Instagram on that type of stuff.”
Johnson feels good about Papacito’s fit with c-stores. When someone wants food that’s fast, fresh and hot, a c-store with good food is the perfect stop before work at lunch or on the way home, he said.
What’s next?
“We’ve had a few offers to do more expansion. We’ve had offers to get into universities. We’ve kicked around franchising. For now, I’m focused on slow growth to make sure we don’t lose what we do really well,” he said.
A Burrito for Every Mascot
Lucas Johnson knew he needed to connect with the three communities Papacito’s Burritos serves. Since most small communities revolve around school sports teams, Papacito’s launched three burritos named for local high school mascots. “In Perham, we have ‘Stinger’ because the high school mascot is a yellow jacket. This includes Spanish rice, chipotle chicken, queso shredded cheese, lettuce and Chipotle ranch dressing. At Detroit Lakes, the mascot is the Laker. Our ‘Laker’ has Spanish or lime rice, chipotle chicken, queso, lettuce and the chorizo and chipotle ranch dressing. The ‘Otter’ in Fergus Falls is named for their high school mascot. It’s Spanish rice, potatoes, queso, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, chipotle ranch and seasoned ground beef.”