Even though working in the restaurant industry is difficult enough for an adult, Aiden Sterlin is doing exceptionally well for someone who is hardly old enough to cast a ballot.
By operating a prosperous Brooklyn taqueria while still in high school, the extremely driven 18-year-old is defying the stereotype of the Gen Z laziness devoted to TikTok.
Tacos Del Barrio, a lively restaurant in Park Slope close to Barclays Center, is owned by Sterlin. It serves Mexican food that is freshly made every day in-house, including his tres leches cake ($6.50), burritos the size of duffel bags ($14.95 for carne asada), and juicy tacos al pastor ($4.95).
His taco shop opened just last month and is currently serving about 165 checks every day, with a second store scheduled to open in FiDi this fall.
Sterlin, who oversees a workforce of eight, stated, “I learn everything from scratch. And I’m just going day by day.”
“My biggest goal here at Tacos Del Barrio is that once people come in through the doors, hopefully, you leave with a better feeling.”
After attending classes at James Madison High School in Midwood from 7 to 11 a.m., the confident senior rides his electric bike across Brooklyn to Tacos Del Barrio, where he works hard from 12 p.m. to 12 a.m.
He only gets three to four hours of sleep every night because he has to finish schoolwork between midnight and three in the morning, which he frequently does at the counter of his restaurant.
Sterlin maintains that [school] remains the “number one thing at the end of the day,” saying that “business is business, of course.” However, I must graduate.
How does this young, aspiring Danny Meyer manage to juggle all of these responsibilities without any prior restaurant industry experience? He gives thanks to his three years as his high school basketball team’s captain.
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“This work ethic came from being an athlete first,” the food world wunderkind stated. “I think of work like basketball. I have my starting five (employees) and I’m going with the flow.”
He discovered the opportunity while working out at the Lifetime gym, where he grew close to the proprietors of Poke Bowl United, a fast-casual company with 14 locations around New York, New Jersey, and Long Island. It was similar to a high school star being recruited by the NBA.
Sterlin recalls, “[We were] working out three, four months, five and every day. And they were like, ‘hey man, we love your work ethic.'”
The team clarified that they were “signing a lease” in Brooklyn and that they intended to offer the teenager the “reins,” so long as he could think of something good. There was a huge Mexican emptiness in the neighborhood, according to the starry-eyed Sterlin.
They had faith in me. “A kid with no money,” Sterlin said, investing all of the money he had saved from lifeguarding in the business while the Poke Bowl team took care of the remaining background, finances, and logistics.
The best aspects of his favorite taco joints were compiled by him after he spent months researching Mexican restaurants, which meant missing his favorite basketball practice.
These included the housemade corn tortillas and core protein bases like Los Tacos No. 1 and a popular battered fish taco like Los Tacos’ sister restaurant, Los Mariscos.
A variation on Trader Joe’s “corn ribs,” one of the young restaurateur’s proudest creations, is elote, savory Mexican street corn seasoned with queso fresco and chile spice, which is divided into bite-sized portions like maize McNuggets ($5.95).
The high school star, however, believes that working in the restaurant industry is the “hardest industry in the world.”
Overall, Sterlin adores the flexibility and originality.
On June 23, Sterlin will graduate from high school, giving him more time to devote to Tacos Del Barrio.
