A small wooden building that could easily be overlooked is now the location for late night $2 tacos.
The non-traditional restaurant, Sauced, is owned and operated by three University of Idaho undergraduate students and will celebrate its grand opening Monday.
Special grand opening hours are 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. to 3 a.m.
Normal business hours are 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and winter late night hours are Friday and Saturday from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., closed Sundays.
Sauced is a tacos and fries shop that features 10 globally inspired sauces to smother your tacos, burritos or fries with, said Samantha Hansen, head chef and co-owner of Sauced.
When talking about opening a restaurant the immediate answer was global tacos, which she said are a trend right now.
“Tacos are a really excellent medium for global flavors because the whole world, every food culture, has a similar presentation, flatbread and meat,” she said.
The menu is very simple, which works well with the location — what Hansen called a glorified food stand. She said the idea is fast food in terms of prices and speed, but to produce homemade, cooked to order food.
The 10 home recipe sauces include South Carolina BBQ, ranch, taco cream, salsa roja, salsa verde, Ethiopian Berbere, curry, Thai peanut, vanilla teriyaki and queso.
Six of the sauces are vegan friendly.
Sauced is an alternative-food-lifestyle-friendly restaurant, she said. Meaning they are very conscious and open to those with any type of food allergy, restrictions or choices.
“For those people who are scared by the phrase vegan, don’t be,” said Max Cowan, co-owner of Sauced. “It’s a total accident, they taste fantastic. It’s not a vegan sauce, the sauce just happens to be vegan.”
All the food is made with fresh vegetables and organic ingredients, Hansen said. Though seasonal changes make this difficult, Sauced is trying to source locally as much as possible.
“We’re unique and we provide something that no one else in the area provides,” Cowan said. “There are flavors from around the world that you can’t get anywhere else here in Moscow.”
The idea of opening a restaurant did not start in a conventional way.
“We were at The Garden, having a couple drinks, when I said, ‘Hey, I really want a taco but no one can drive us to Taco Bell.’ Then Sam said, ‘We should do something about this, what if we opened a taco place?”’ said Amos Rothstein, co-owner of Sauced.
When the property became available, though it started out as a drunken idea, the thought of it actually working started to form, Hansen said.
“The realtor really helped with the finances and process of buying the property,” she said. “After that it just unfolded and became a reality.”
A taco tasting party was held in order to assess the feasibility of opening a restaurant, she said.
About 70 people showed up to give their opinion of the 10 different sauces. The owners received their data and approval ratings, taking the feedback and producing a product that people are willing and ready to buy.
Hansen said Moscow has a very healthy late night crowd, who don’t have many options of late night food. Sauced is close to campus and close to downtown, making it a great place for late night snacks.
All three of the busy owners have thought about how this is going to affect their schedules because they are not just students, but student leaders as well. However, their class load can be lowered and they will make sure to plan their future class schedules around the hours of the restaurant, Hansen said. Their schedules are full but flexible.
“We don’t have families to worry about or steady jobs to worry about,” she said. “We’re in the right place in our lives to just do something just a little bit crazy.”
The trio hopes to hire another employee in the spring as long as they are making enough money and moving enough products to sustain the investment, she said.
“We are letting students know that this is not an impossible thing to do,” Rothstein said. “You as a student, if you have an idea and have good people and have a way to find means, can make a business. There are a lot of good ideas here at UI and there aren’t enough of them coming forth and we are doing that.”
Hansen said at UI the legacy of leading is often talked about and as students, the owners of Sauced are doing this in a variety of ways.
“We are really lucky in Moscow, to have a town that supports its students and vice-versa,” Rothstein said.
Emily Aizawa
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