Augusta, GA
New food truck brings authentic Mexican cuisine to the Augusta area
Augusta Eats – Taqueria Las Ruthis food truck open in CSRA
Ivan Soriano, owner of Taqueria Las Ruthis food truck, talks about the food truck’s beginnings and its menu.
Katie Goodale, Augusta Chronicle
Ivan Soriano remembers how his mother, Ruth, would cook Mexican delicacies not only for their family but also for their neighbors and friends.
She’s still cooking – just in a smaller space and for a much larger audience.
The smaller space is Taqueria Las Ruthis, the Sorianos’ food truck serving authentic Mexican food. The larger audience is the Augusta area, where the Sorianos brought their business about a month ago.
Taqueria Las Ruthis’ social media pages tell customers where the trailer will be parked each week. The address where they park most often is 2058 Central Ave., a Chevron station and convenience store at the corner of Central and Heard avenues on the edge of Augusta’s Summerville neighborhood.
After the Sorianos moved from Mexico to West Palm Beach, Fla., they operated a brick-and-mortar restaurant there that lasted about four years before closing. A couple of years later, family members began starting and running their own food trucks.
Ivan Soriano also worked at a Miami-area hospital as a chef, where he prepared meals for patients and medical staff. Eventually, he said, “I saved up enough money to make my dream come true.”
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The family stays close and connected even though relatives’ food truck businesses are far apart. Family members began going their separate ways from the higher-priced Miami area with trailer-sized full kitchens in tow, staying as close as Boca Raton, Fla., and moving as far away as Virginia.
Soriano chose to move to Augusta at the urging of his sister, who had already moved to the area. The number of potential customers in well-to-do neighborhoods, and the proximity to South Carolina, helped him make his decision.
Taqueria Las Ruthis’ menu features tacos, burritos, open-faced sopas and tortas, which are ingredient-packed Mexican sandwiches. The foods’ many flavors — some secret, some not — are courtesy of Soriano’s mother, who also works in the food truck.
“My mother, she’s cooked for like 40 years,” Soriano said. “Her seasonings, her flavors, are all her.”
Currently the most popular menu item is the QuesaBirrio – a soft flour tortilla filled with beef brisket, cheese, cilantro, grilled onions and white cheese, with a savory birria dipping sauce on the side. In a short time, the food has become Internet-famous.
“It’s delicious. It’s been a hit so far,” Soriano said. “Now it’s on TikTok. Now everybody wants to try it.”
The logo for Taqueria Las Ruthis shows charming painted caricatures of the two relatives who share the same name – Soriano’s mother and his daughter.
“They look alike a lot,” he said. “It’s a family business, just growing and growing, and we’re helping each other.”