Abel Vasquez doesn’t run around bragging about how good the food is at his Mexican restaurant, Three Brothers Grill.
The reviews his customers leave online speak for themselves.
Perhaps even more telling is Three Brothers Grill’s rapid growth. With the grand opening of its new restaurant on the 1600 block of Centre Avenue in Reading on Monday, the chain is now up to five locations since it started in Pottstown just five years ago.
“This is my dream,” said Vasquez, owner of Three Brothers Grill. “We want to expand. We trust in the food. We believe in the food. We believe in the love we put in the food.
“In five years, we’ve opened a restaurant every year.”
Boasting of “authentic Mexican food,” it’s not difficult to see why Three Brothers Grill has been getting so much attention based on the size of its menu alone.
Tacos, burritos, nachos, chimichangas and all the staples are here, along with popular but lesser-known dishes like the quesabirrias — crispy rolled tortillas filled with beef, onions, cilantro and cheese and served with a salsa for dipping.
And Vasquez and his family are making it all look easy, though that wasn’t always the case.
Started from the bottom
The restaurant is named for Vasquez and his brothers, Eneas and Bryan, all of whom originally hail from Guatemala.
Vasquez immigrated to the U.S. a little more than a decade ago, first arriving in California, where he went to work with his older sibling, Eneas, in the kitchen at a Mexican restaurant. The trio eventually worked on the line together, with Vasquez usually manning the grill.
“My food is different,” Vasquez said. “It’s more authentic.
“California is one of the best places for good food, and my former boss is Mexican, so we learned well.”
But when the family moved to Pennsylvania and had the dream of opening a restaurant of their own, they ran into issues. They didn’t have piles of up-front money to rent or buy a space, much less build it out, and with English as a second language, even basic tasks such as applying for a loan or filing for permits were challenging.
They were able to borrow the money to open their first restaurant in Pottstown from friends and neighbors while doing all the work on the building themselves.
“We didn’t have money to pay people, so we did all the jobs,” Vasquez said. “We finally opened the first day, and it was crazy. We thought maybe it wouldn’t be busy, so I was working a construction job, and maybe two days in they said, ‘We need you here. It’s busy. Busy, busy, busy.’”
Eneas is currently back home in Guatemala, while the youngest, Bryan, continues to help out in the restaurant.
Expanding in all directions
After the successful launch in Pottstown, Three Brothers Grills have been popping up wherever people want to see them, Vasquez said.
Three Brothers Grill went to Collegeville when customers east of Pottstown lamented the restaurant was too far. Next came Phoenixville, Harleysville and, for a short time, a location in the Coventry Mall — though that has since closed.
Next on the list was Reading, all because Vasquez heard the clamoring from fans of the restaurants.
“Our ambition is not because of money, but because we love it,” he said. “People ask, so we open in new locations.
“A lot of people work in Pottstown but live here. They say, ‘Oh, you should come to Reading!’”
Vasquez is also aware that Berks County is already home to a lot of Mexican and Latin restaurants, and he’s looking forward to trying them himself.
He’s also confident that the people here will embrace Three Brothers Grill, just as they have everywhere else.
“I never say, ‘My food is so good,’” Vasquez said. “No. The people say it. And when they like it, they come back.”