A flavour of Mexico has landed in Dungannon town offering people a tasty new takeaway option for lunch and dinner without the usual guilt.
Desburrito opened its doors to the public on Greers Road in the town last week and is already seeing returning customers coming back for more.
A sister enterprise of the Desburrito store in Armagh, the new Tyrone outlet is managed by Declan McGee, who swapped a career working as an engineer in the Aerospace industry to branch out in the food business.
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Speaking to MyTyrone, Declan explained how he decided to take on the new business under the guidance of his brother-in-law Conall McKee, who started the Armagh operation.
"Conall had seen the Boojum model in Belfast and knew there was an audience for it and he hoped that it could work in Armagh so he put a plan together and he opened up in February 2020, three weeks before the pandemic hit so he was closed straight away and was closed for five or six months before he could reopen again.
"He had originally a sit-in restaurant and when they reopened he was only allowed to do takeaway and he found the flow was better so he changed it and kept it as a takeaway and he has gone from strength to strength.
"In his first year they were nominated for the NI Takeaway awards and made it to the final six for the healthiest takeaway in Northern Ireland, so he knew at that point that something was working."
Declan says the unique thing that he believes attracts lots of their customers is the healthy way their food is cooked and prepared.
He explained: "The foods we serve here, there are no oils involved, there is no frying, everything is steam cooked, all the rice, the beef, pork, chicken etc are all cooked in their own juices on a slow cook overnight in our own special herbs and spices. It's good healthy food, it's a guilt-free takeaway, it will fill you but you won't feel rubbish after it.
"In Armagh, they teamed up with the Hydeaway gym and all their members get 10% off so we are hoping to do something similar with gyms in Dungannon as well we've spoken to a few gym owners."
Having left his career in the aerospace industy, the 39-year-old had plans to move to Spain, but brother-in-law Conall had other ideas for a Desburrito expansion.
"I was actually working as an engineer in the aerospace industry up until February, but I was working in Crumlin and doing shift work, and the driving up and down the road and having two kids, my health was starting to become affected and I had quite a bit of time off because of that. I actually had made a plan that I was going to move to Spain, I have a brother that lives up there but Conal said it was time to branch out into a second store so he said I wasn't going anywhere.
"I spent some time in the Armagh store seeing how the business runs from the back, in the kitchens, how to handle deliveries when they come in, temperature control things like that and just learning the recipes that are under lock and key.
"So then it was up to me to come down here and get it started, now his input was absolutely massive, this place wouldn't have opened without his input, but it was up to me and the cook in Armagh who is responsible for the recipes, he is also a joiner by trade so he and I worked in here to the wee hours of the morning for the last few months getting it ready."
A colourful and highly detailed mural adorns the wall of the Dungannon store, in the same way as it does in Armagh, which Declan says has proved a hit with customers .
"The mural was painted by a childhood friend of ours, Christine McKinney from CMK Doodles, she painted the mural in Armagh when it first opened, and people still get their pictures taken beside it, so we got her down here and she said this is some of her best work, she has a real talent."
Having been opened for just over a week, the new eatery has been getting rave reviews with customers returning sometimes twice in one day for more!
"The reviews we have had from the opening weekend have been phenomenal and we don't know any of these people. We had a girl in here on Saturday and she is a Mexican food connoisseur, she has been all over the world, she was naming all these famous places in America and Japan that she has eaten. She had a burrito and she said she would be back, that was 2pm on Saturday and she came back at 4pm and ordered double what she had the first time and she was here this morning before we opened the doors.
"We also had a guy from Mexico in on the opening day and I can speak some Spanish and his English wasn't the best so I got chatting to him and he said the food was better than he can remember at home, so we thought he might have been trying to blow us up and be nice to us but he came back on Friday and again on Saturday, so we are doing something right."
Declan said he's glad to see a once neglected and forgotten about part of the town come to life with more business.
"It's great to see more customers coming down to this part of town with us and the Mackle's just a few doors up it's great to see a bit of vibrancy about this part of town and hopefully that continues," he added.
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