Veronica Piñon is up making tamales and breakfast burritos before most of Kearney wakes up, and now she has a second storefront to fill with them. On Oct. 1, she opened Piñon Market Grab-n-Go, a drive-through Mexican carry-out at the corner of West 24th Street and Central Avenue, a new venture that supplements the market she has run since 2021.
Piñon already owns Piñon Market at 527 E. 25th St., a shop she opened in June 2021 after receiving a Center for Rural Affairs Express Loan that April, according to the Center for Rural Affairs. She combined that loan with her own savings to cover startup costs, and the organization also walked her through bookkeeping, QuickBooks, pricing, marketing and food service management, the group reports. The Omaha World-Herald reported that Piñon learned the space at 24th and Central had come open after its prior tenants moved out, and she called the building owner herself to ask about renting it.
From Night Shifts to Running Her Own Kitchen
Piñon grew up in San Luis de la Paz in south-central Mexico and moved to the United States 39 years ago, according to the Omaha World-Herald's reporting. Before opening her own businesses, she worked in restaurants and factories in Texas and Oklahoma City, including six years of night shifts, the paper notes. She has lived in the Kearney area since 1993, according to the Kearney Hub.
That history of early mornings and long hours carries into her new venture. The Omaha World-Herald reports Piñon arrives at 4 a.m. to begin cooking in the Piñon Market kitchen, before the food makes its way to the Grab-n-Go counter. The new location is open Monday through Saturday, with hours of 6:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., and it is closed Sundays, per the paper's account.
A Menu Built on Homemade Staples
The Grab-n-Go menu leans on from-scratch Mexican cooking alongside some American comfort food. The Omaha World-Herald reports the drive-through sells breakfast burritos, enchiladas, sopes, tacos, tamales, refried beans, Spanish rice and salsas, plus hamburgers, grilled chicken sandwiches, BLTs and chicken noodle soup. Spicy nachos are also among the items on the Piñon Market shelves.
Piñon told the Omaha World-Herald she wanted the new business to support Hispanic people in the community by blending Mexican and American cultures. That same instinct shaped her original market, where she prepared fresh burritos in-house and stocked the shelves with piñatas, spices, meats, produce and religious items, according to the Center for Rural Affairs. Piñon Market's shelves hold chiles, coffees, teas, candles, cowboy boots, religious items, christening gowns, chimineas, pottery, piñatas and cookware alongside its food.
Growing a Team and a Nebraska-First Vision
Piñon Market has six employees, the Omaha World-Herald reports. GROW Nebraska's food mentors have also pitched in on the business side, helping with packaging, labeling, distributors and co-packers, according to GROW Nebraska.
Piñon has said she deliberately chose to root her business in Nebraska rather than expand elsewhere. “I had the opportunity to be a traveling market and go other places, but I wanted to concentrate on Nebraska. Kearney is the heartland,” she told GROW Nebraska. Piñon Market also has an Instagram account.
