The messenger, a fellow chef in Houston, wrote: “You made it!!!!” For a split second, Davila’s vision blurred. Goosebumps rose on his tattooed arms. Then he made a fist, gave a slight muscle flex, and wrote back, “Wow, I can’t believe it!”
Less than four years after opening Stixs & Stone, a Mexican-Asian fusion restaurant with only eight tables, Davila was named a James Beard Award semifinalist.
His mind raced in the barber chair, memories swirling. There he was in 2018, selling tacos at a farmers market bustling with customers, but he had only two: his mother and grandmother.
There he was at a taco truck throwdown, the only competitor serving out of a tent.
There he was, down to his last few hundred dollars, thinking he might have to go into another business.
And there he was, telling his instructor at culinary school that he was going to drop out because he wasn’t good enough.
