{"id":467786,"date":"2026-10-16T12:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467786\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T12:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T12:02:07","slug":"3-generations-of-women-bring-baja-street-food-to-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/467786\/","title":{"rendered":"3 generations of women bring Baja street food to Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, Cristina Everett and her family brought a taste of Ensenada, a coastal city in Baja California, to East Austin. Their food truck, Ensenada ATX<\/a>, opened in June 2022, serving up Baja-style seafood tacos the family grew up eating.<\/p>\n

Everett spoke with host Mando Rayo in a recent episode of Tacos of Texas<\/a> about the traditions behind Ensenada\u2019s seafood cuisine, the family\u2019s entrepreneurial roots, and the challenges of growing a business in Austin. <\/p>\n

Bringing Ensenada to Austin<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brought exactly what you would find in Ensenada to Austin,\u201d Everett said.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Ensenada, Everett grew up surrounded by the city\u2019s seafood and street food culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey claim that the birthplace of the fish taco is in Ensenada,\u201d Everett said. \u201cWe have all the fresh seafood you can think of, the fish tacos, you\u2019ll find them everywhere. \u2026 The culture in Ensenada is about street food.\u201d<\/p>\n

The family also draws inspiration from Ensenada\u2019s Mercado Negro, a well-known seafood market.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur aprons at Ensenada are yellow because the people who sell you the fish in Ensenada are always wearing the yellow aprons,\u201d Everett said. \u201cWe wanted to honor that, you know, and bring it fully to Austin.\u201d<\/p>\n

3 generations of women behind Ensenada ATX<\/p>\n

The idea for Ensenada ATX began when Cristina Everett\u2019s sister, Stephanie Everett Martin, moved to Austin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she moved out here, she was like, \u2018Mom, there’s like no tacos,'” Cristina said. Stephanie encouraged their mother, Liz Everett, to bring those flavors to Texas and open a food truck.<\/p>\n

Cristina, who had previously operated food trucks in San Diego, joined the effort. The result is a business built on three generations of women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom, my sister and myself and Christelle, my daughter, being the third generation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Cristina credits her mother for inspiring her family\u2019s work ethic.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom has been a hustler ever since I have memory,\u201d she said. “Even when we were in school, she would sell cheesecakes, you know, and she was always doing things to fund the school stuff.”<\/p>\n

Cristina’s mom has influenced her daughter Christelle, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom was frying the fish and Christelle was cleaning tables, you know, and like picking up plates and stuff like that. And then our AC went off,\u201d she said. \u201cMy mom’s like \u2026 girls if we can do this we can do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment sparked Christelle\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was crazy,” Cristina said. \u201cAnd then that’s when Christelle also was like, ‘I want to make brownies, Nana, you don’t have desserts, you know?’ It just all came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

From taco truck to store shelves\u00a0<\/p>\n

The flavors of Ensenada extend beyond the truck.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Cristina founded Ensenada Salsas, bringing her salsa macha, which has long been a staple of Ensenada\u2019s menu into retail stores. She described the oil-based Mexican condiment as \u201cthe Mexican version of the Asian chili oil.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cristina was nervous to pitch her salsa to stores, but her daughter encouraged her to follow through and be brave.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s like, mom, you taught me how to be brave. Now you go in there and you do it, or do you want me to go in there?\u201d Cristina said. \u201cI’m like, no, I’m going to go. And literally, yes, that store took my salsa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building on family values<\/p>\n

Building a food business also means managing long hours, unexpected setbacks and the pressure to keep moving forward. Cristina said the work requires patience, research and a willingness to learn from mistakes. She returns to the guiding principles that shape how her family treats its customers: consistency and kindness.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s just about showing up every day, doing things right, treating people the way you want to be treated, because that will leave a mark,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For anyone curious to try Baja-style seafood in Austin, Cristina has a straightforward invitation: \u201cThey don’t have to pay an expensive ticket to get to Baja,\u201d she said.\u201d They can just have Baja right here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out\u00a0the full episode on the Tacos of Texas podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years ago, Cristina Everett and her family brought a taste of Ensenada, a coastal city in Baja…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,10533,159186,18846,1831,152420,3292],"class_list":["post-467786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-austin-tx","tag-ensenada-atx","tag-food-truck","tag-podcast","tag-tacos-of-texas","tag-where-to-eat"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}