The Mexican franchise La Cabra will open its seventh restaurant on Thursday; the Ballarat site is its first regional location.

Founders Joshua Smith, Sherinder Kohli and Derrick Chandra started the Melbourne-based business in 2019.

Sherinder Kohli told Franchise Executives the sit-down restaurant serves Mexican-influenced food with a bit of an American twist.

“We pride ourselves on the quality of our food but we didn’t want to replicate traditional
Mexican food.”

La Cabra’s tacos, burritos and hot wings are popular signature dishes.

It has a ‘G.O.A.T. motto and focuses on quality and a sense of community and fun.

La Cabra dine-in restaurants

Each restaurant conveys a colourful, casual vibe; all share the brand colours and location-specific graffiti art. At Ballarat, La Cabra’s interior features a life-size mural of renowned Australian jockey, Michelle Payne who grew up on a local farm. The venue also features an open courtyard and cocktail bar seating up to 25.

La Cabra’s turnkey franchise cost is between $400,000 and $500,000.

Kohli said the model works in a strip shopping environment, ideally in a restaurant area.

“When we started we never thought of doing multiple stores,” admits Kohli. “The first store worked really well and we opened our second store the following year and that did really well in Hampton. We realised we’ve got a formula, so we looked at franchising the model.”

Derrick Chandra said the Ballarat venue “gives us an opportunity to establish and grow our brand outside of Melbourne’s metropolitan area, along with creating and harnessing a positive local economic impact through job creation, franchise training and operational assistance”.

Now La Cabra is branching out into regional areas with its fifth franchise, Kohli said the founders plan to further develop the Victorian market before turning to interstate opportunities.

This story was originally published on Franchise Executives.