On the part of his study abroad to India in 2010, Bert Mueller stayed with a host family in Jaipur. Mueller and some of his classmates who were also studying abroad brought their respect for the food of the families of their countries of origin.
“They didn’t like Mueller a lot,” says Mueller about the food he brought from the United States. But he noticed that another classmate had exactly the opposite experience.
“One of my friends was of Mexican origin and she would make fries, sauce, beans and tortillas,” he says. “One day I arrived at the house and I saw that I had made this food for the family with which I lived and loved food.”
Mueller had really consulted a business, his specialty in the faculty of William & Mary was music and public policy, but seeing a family that never had a Mexican cuisine that enjoyed it so much, hears an idea.
“Something clicks on my head so maybe this was something I could do: I could bring a kitchen inspired by Mexican to India,” he says.
After finishing his title, Mueller, 22 years old at that time, returned to India to open Burrito de California, a southern -style burrito restaurant in California.
Today, 12 years after opening the first brick and mortar, there are 103 locations throughout the country.
‘Nothing is predictable’
Mueller attributes his decision to study abroad at India to be an “contrary.”
“I wanted to go to a place that was radically different from the United States, so I decided that India was the place so that, in the first place, I loved Indian food and the second, people spoke English,” he says.
While some of their classmates found unpleasant cultural differences, Mueller.
“Nothing is predictable,” he says. “Every day is different and, therefore, if you find boring monotony, if you find boring comfort, then India is a perfect place to be.”
Photo courtesy or Bert Mueller.
After graduating in 2011, they decided to actively execute the vision that had the degree of duration and start a Mexican restaurant in India.
Mueller and his partner businesses, two childhood friends who since then left the company and returned to the United States, chose Bangalore, the fourth largest city in the country, for the first location of the restaurant. Being a Center of IT that many residents had traveled to the United States and probably had tried Mexican or adjacent food.
Mueller estimated that it would cost $ 100,000 US dollars to open their first store, so he raised $ 250,000 of friends and family “to be careful,” he says.
The first location won around $ 500,000 at the doors of USD the first year, according to the documents reviewed by CNBC. And the original $ 250,000 in funds ended up being enough for Mueller to open two more stores.
Since 2012, Mueller has continued to open locations in Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi. In 2024, California Burrito brought $ 23 million in income.
‘I never wanted to quit smoking’
The success of the brand occurred despite some unique hard boats.
“The biggest challenge was that the person we had hired at the beginning to execute our entire operation and help us was a very crooked individual,” says Mueller.
He hired an area manager who had worked in other restaurant chains.
“I was very well educated,” he says. “Hello, a great English spoke, so it was easy to communicate with him. And he was very helpful. He would go to look for vendors. I would recommend vendors. He made lives in the land of Musier.
Mueller soon discovered that the man who hired was charging suppliers twice the cost of the products and had plans to replicate the California Burrito.
“I would call government officials to the store and say we hurried to X, and Y Z,” says Mueller. “He would collapse with the vendors to do things. And then he left and began his own Burrito restaurant, which failed.”
The reverse did not deter it from making California’s burrito as successful as possible.
“My mom is a marathon broker, and I have that feature in me,” he says. “You have to continue until you reached the finish line. And I never wanted to quit smoking.”
Mueller’s original plan was just staying in India for five years, he says. But after all those initial five years, he realized that it would be better if the company grew are its own ingredients.
Now, California Burrite, sources from five different chicken suppliers and planted 500 avocado trees, some of which were trampled by elephants. The company cultivated tomatillos in Karnataka, but “a lot of rain arrived and eliminated the entire issue,” he says.
Investing more in the agricultural aspect of the supply chain caused Mueller to start “thinking in decades,” he says.
And, as for now, his stay in India feels indefinite: “I don’t have a planned departure date in my mind. I love India. India feels at home and at home, you immerse yourself a lot to leave.”
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