UPDATE:
Multiple people have reached out offering financial help to the owner's of 'Taco Del Norte, including a fellow small business.
Restaurants across Dallas-Fort Worth that have been forced to bend and adapt to the restrictions of COVID-19 are now, in some cases, starting to break.
“It’s been terrible,” said Martin Cardona, owner of Tacos Del Norte in Fort Worth. “This is the worst thing I’ve experienced."
Cardona said after his restaurant missed out on the first round of federal Small Business Administration loans, and being told by his landlord to pay up or get, Tacos Del Norte will shut down.
“I feel like it’s very unfair, I honestly feel like it’s just an excuse to get us out of here, all we asked for was a month,” Austin Cardona said of their landlord’s lack of patience.
Tuesday, the Cardona’s began to sell off much of their kitchen equipment and furniture.
“It is hard to see all this stuff go, I don’t think it has hit me yet, maybe when all this stuff is empty and gone then I will probably break down,” Martin Cardona said.
They hope they will eventually be able to start fresh when things begin to normalize. But as recent weeks have shown them, nothing is certain.
“It’s just an investment, something that we are married to and we have to keep going forward,” Austin Cardona said.
