GiGi’s Taqueria serves up real-deal Mexican street food with a Folly attitude
By Lorne Chambers | editor
In many metropolitan areas, including parts of Charleston, food trucks are all the rage. Often selling things like braised pork belly and Brussels spout flatbread topped with a Korean kimchi kale slaw and poached pears with a pomegranate reduction drizzle. But the origin of the food truck came from a much simpler place.
Originally food trucks didn’t offer pretentious and expensive hipster foods. They offered simple, honest things at a fair price. They offered things like tacos. The taco truck is a true thing of beauty and Folly Beach’s newest food truck, GiGi’s Taqueria, is just that. Not to say that GiGi’s doesn’t have flair or flavor in its authentic cantina-style tacos, monster burritos, quesadillas, and tortas. They have it by the bucketful.
Hailing from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Awilda Sanchez learned the art of taking simple ingredients and making authentic Mexican dishes, while managing a Mexican grocery in Goose Creek. “The woman who owned the store introduced me to Mexican food and I fell in love with it,” says Awilda. “I really became immersed in it.”
When Awilda bought the taco truck from the same woman, who is from Sinaloa region of Mexico, she said that her one stipulation was that she teach her how to make real Mexican food. Awilda learned how to make authentic dishes like carne Asada (grilled steak), carnitas (fried pork), and Chicharones (a pork skin stew), and homemade chorizo (Meixcan sausage), which are all fixtures on the GiGi’s menu along with occasional daily specials, like fish tacos, made from whatever the fresh catch of the day is; sometimes its wreckfish, sometimes snapper, sometimes wahoo.
Armed with proven recipes and a passion for Mexican cuisine, Awilda needed two things if her taco truck was going to get off the ground — she was going to need a good location and she was going to need some help. She needed someone who was just as passionate about what she was doing as she was.
Enter Awilda’s brother-in-law Erion, an Albanian native who has years of restaurant experience, managing restaurants in Miami and was the former head server at Tabbuli Mediterranean Grill downtown.
Erion’s high energy and engaging personality was just what GiGi’s needed to become a reality. As for the location, Erion explains that upon moving to Charleston about three years ago, he fell in love with Folly Beach. So it was only natural that they set up shop just off the beach across from the Pier on East Artic Avenue.
GiGi’s often has a line of folks who have heard about the taco truck, which has only been a fixture on Folly Beach since the start of summer but has already developed a pretty regular following. In addition to the steady stream of hungry beach goers, Erion says that he has gotten to know many people on the island because they have become loyal GiGi’s supporters. Although their restaurant has wheels, Erion says he has no plans on moving up the road any time soon.
Located at 105 East Arctic Ave., you can also find GiGi’s Taqueria on Facebook.
