A downtown Penticton staple has new owners.

Tacos Del Norte has sold to a pair of cousins, including Nick Dosantos, a 25-year-old Osoyoos native fresh out of business school.

In addition to being fed them regularly by his grandparents, he grew up crossing the border multiple times a week for tacos.

“We always had to go to Oroville to try to find authentic street tacos,” he said. “I finished my business degree in Edmonton and didn’t want to sit in an office all day.”

“So me and my cousin Emily Patrocinio were like, let's start a taco shop,” he added.

The cousins purchased the business off Ian Nelson, who started the food truck and storefront six years ago. He announced the sale via Facebook while on vacation in Mexico.

“All the cool catering events we did, all the concerts, festivals,” Nelson said. “All of you regulars that keep coming in day after day slaying plates of tacos emptying my beer fridge as fast as I can fill it, thank you.”

Dosantos said he recently took his own trip to Mexico, spending a month getting inspired by the local street food. They plan on renovating the space and installing a new kitchen and hope to be reopened within a month.

He says customer favourites will stay on the menu.

“The tacos that Ian had, he called them inauthentic tacos, we will be keeping those still for everyone that enjoyed them,” he said. “But we will also bring the authentic side from my grandma’s recipes.”

From Mexico, Nelson encouraged his customers to support the new owners.

“They put all their chips on the line for this one...show these guys a lot of support,” he said. “We did really good setting the bar making good tacos for Penticton, I started it because Penticton didn’t have that yet. I’m really happy how it went, but these guys are going to be better.”