Meet De’Shanae Lewis of Taco Bout Crab

Today we’d like to introduce you to De’Shanae Lewis. 

Hi De’Shanae, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I’m 30 years old, married with two children. I was born and raised in Middletown, Ohio. Graduated high school at age 15. After high school, I went to get a STNA certification at age 16. I had huge dreams of becoming a nurse so I set out to achieve those dreams  in 2017. Nursing school was a crazy adventure. I went through so much trying to obtain my nursing licenses. During nursing school I had my youngest by c-section and rushed to returned back in two days. Total mistake, I suffered from postpartum depression afterwards. I also became very sick from food poisoning and had to be hospitalized. After missing two weeks of nursing school… I was still determined more than ever to finish. I finished all my exams and passed. The last step to graduation was our exit hesi. At that time, the school wanted us to have a 900 to pass; I scored 898. So unfortunately I couldn’t graduate and become the nurse I dreamed to be. At this point in my life, I become depressed… I had it in my heart and mine I was going to be a nurse… and it was devastating not to achieve that. I found myself angry at God… but one day, I began to pray and ask for my purpose… By this time, Covid hit… I was burned out working in the medical field as a STNA. So I begin to bake desserts in my house for extra money, so I didn’t have to work as hard. I became super popular and well-known for desserts. One day while waiting on the desserts to finish baking… I sat down and begin scrolling on Facebook. A well-known popular taco (birria tacos) kept popping up on my timeline. Everyone was sharing the tacos, but nobody sold them. So the hustler in me seen this as an opportunity to make money. I already sold desserts… why not sell tacos and desserts. I had never in life tasted those taco before, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I made them how I thought they would taste. I also asked for my customer’s feedback. They played a huge part and helping me perfect the birria tacos. The success seemed overnight, I blew up so large the city told me I had to get a restaurant or else they would be forced to shut me down. They didn’t want to because many of them, including the police brought food from my home. In the meantime, I began to look but knew in my heart I couldn’t afford a restaurant. At that time, I was living check to check… selling tacos & desserts for extra money. My mom & dad still pushed me to look for a place. I found a tiny shop… that was $740 a month. The landlord was a cool guy and was ready to meet up so I can sign the lease. Like I stated earlier, I knew I couldn’t afford it and began to back out. My dad who lived in Cleveland at the time, was in town to take me to sign the lease. I looked at him and said, “dad, I can’t sign this lease… I don’t make enough money” he said, “baby, if this is for you, God will give you every resource you need to be successful. Just trust in him.” Let’s just say I signed the 3-year lease with my dad present. I didn’t know how I would pay the rent or come up with the equipment and the hood system I needed. (85,000 worth) but baby, let’s just say God showed up and showed out. He placed people in my life who believed in me. My boss Don at the time… wrote every check I needed for equipment and the hood system. My mom paid the rent for a whole year until it was ready to open. Many people wondered why it took a whole year to open. During Covid, I lost the most important man of my life, my dad to Covid. He was my biggest supporter and was the main reason I even signed the lease. He is now the reason I go so hard. I want to continue to make him proud. Within that year, I opened Taco Bout Crab… located at 2021 Tytus Ave, Middletown, Ohio 45042. It became such a huge hit within our first year I began the process to open the second location, 2330 reading road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. Looking back, I would never think I would be this big entrepreneur. It’s funny how we have a picture in our mind how life is supposed to be, but Gods is so much bigger. Taco Bout Crab has opened many doors for me… I own a smoothie cafe that’s coming soon called Smooth Toss. I’m also a Credit Repair Specialist and repair many individuals’ credits and teach courses on how to become a specialist as well. That business name is HLN Credit Repair Solutions. Can be found on Facebook and www.hlncreditrepairsolutions.com.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No smooth road… being a first-time business owner, I probably lost 100,000 due to lack of knowledge in the restaurant industry, but I gained 100,000 worth of knowledge because of not knowing. Some struggles have been time management. Balancing home life and not being a salve to the business. Learning how to be a boss and not an employee. Managing employees & having to wear all the hats. When you first start out… you have to wear every single hat and that can become exhausting.  It’s extremely important so you know everything about your business so in the beginning wearing the many hats are necessary.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Taco Bout Crab is a place that specializes in Birria tacos & Seafood boils. We are very known for our birria tacos. What sets us apart than other places who offer birria tacos. We are the only place in the tri-state that offers 5 different meat options for the birria tacos. Chicken, beef, steak, shrimp, Crab are the options. The biggest thing about my brand that I’m proud of is the quality in the food. All of our foods are made fresh and cooked to order. We take extreme pride in our excellent customer service. We want our customers to feel like family and at home. We put a lot of love and flavor in our food. Great food brings family and friends together, and we just want to help create those happy moments with our customers. I want the readers to know that we are a  small business with big dreams and ambition. We hope to franchise Taco Bout Crab and have the business in many different states.

What makes you happy?
What makes me happy, first and foremost, is God allowing me to see another day. Second is my husband and children. Third would be my thriving businesses and watching those blossom into great things.

Pricing:

• Chicken Birria $13.00
• Beef Birria $13.00
• steak Birria $14.50
• Shrimp Birria $14.50
• Crab Birria $14.50

Contact Info:

• Instagram: tacoboutcrab
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TacoBoutCrab/