By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post
Crowded tables chattering while dishes clink in bus tubs make up the regular background noise for T-Lo's owners, Evan Velasquez and Jordan Long.
Before T-Lo's, the owners worked at other restaurants and establishments throughout Salina, often together like Velasquez at the Salina Country Club or Long at Martinelli's Little Italy next door.
Occasionally, the pair worked together as managers, like at the Rolling Hills Zoo. With years combined, the team has over three decades in the restaurant industry, and last year, they decided to open a food joint together.
"We've had the idea for T-Lo's or opening restaurants as soon as 2016, but we're just kind of young and dumb back then," Long said. "We never did it, and we put it on the back burner and went and got other jobs, and then this place opened up, and we executed it."
T-Lo's opened on Santa Fe Avenue next door to Martinelli's Little Italy in July this year, serving its customers sandwiches, wings, and homemade potato chips.
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The love of the restaurant business and making food drove Long and Velasquez to open T-Lo's, but its initial business location could have been McPherson instead of Salina.
While looking at a building in 2016 in McPherson for T-Lo's initially, Long said he and Velasquez at the time could not move forward with the establishment.
"It takes a lot more money to open up," Long said. "(There are) weird hurdles like getting your tax registration, your food license, your sales tax registration."
According to the pair of owners, their current challenge is waiting on a liquor license to provide beer to its customers on weekend nights, which recently expanded its hours to 9 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.
Velasquez and Long said their extensive careers in the food industry helped them start the downtown establishment at 156 S. Santa Fe Avenue.
"We had to price out menus, we had to execute catering events, and it was just two of us working in basically the same kind of kitchen we're working on right now," Long said.
Another aspect Velasquez said he enjoyed was the freedom from being an owner, allowing him to make decisions he felt best for the business.
"Oh, it's nice to cook food we want," Velasquez said. "There's been times where I've been working in other places and had ideas like, 'Hey, I think if we do this, it could work this way,' and it isn't awesome to get told no to stuff like that."
Reflecting on their careers, the pair said working in various positions within the restaurant business armed them with knowledge other business owners may be unaware of.
From server to management to owner, Long said managing customers and staff are critical components of the food industry, which he and Velasquez have extensive experience with.
The owners stressed the need for preparation to make a restaurant successful, from cooking to menu design — Long said preparation and flexibility were vital for T-Lo's.
"Know your concept and know what you need," Long said. "Be ready to adapt after day one because we took some off the menu on the first day."
T-Lo's is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Wednesday, and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursday through Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sundays.
Long and Velasquez said T-Lo's is on delivery services like GrubHub, UberEats and DoorDash.