Christian Pineda's Los Tacos No. 1 Gets Private Equity Backing

The founders of Los Tacos No. 1 explain the whole company in one sentence: “we couldn’t find good tacos that tasted like the ones we grew up with.” That line is in the September 3, 2026 announcement of a strategic investment from TSG Consumer, the private equity firm that backed Dutch Bros Coffee. The stand they opened in Chelsea Market in 2013 now has ten New York locations, and the next step is other cities.

At a glance

A stand with no seats

Pineda is from Tijuana; Sanders and Cameron grew up in Brawley, California. Pineda started the business after finding New York’s tacos lacking on a visit, per Wikipedia. The first Los Tacos No. 1 opened in Chelsea Market in May 2013 as a taco stand with no seating. Three months later Jeff Gordinier of The New York Times gave it a Critic’s Pick, praising the adobada (and calling the nopal “slimy and flavorless”).

Growth was slow by restaurant-chain standards. A second location, the first standalone restaurant, opened in Times Square in July 2017, and a Tribeca site was announced a year later. The pandemic “decimated” its customer base, Sanders said at the time, and the original stand reopened for takeout through a new window on West 15th Street. In 2023 Texas Monthly’s José R. Ralat called it “perhaps the most famous of New York’s taquerias.” By March 2026 there were nine Manhattan locations, Wikipedia records; by September, ten, per TSG.

What TSG is buying into

TSG did not say how much it invested or how much of the company it now owns. What it did say is that the existing team stays in charge: Pineda continues as co-founder and CEO and Jacobo Ackerman as Chief Operating Partner, leading day-to-day operations and strategy, with TSG adding “resources and expertise.” East Wind Advisors ran the process for Los Tacos.

The investor’s own restaurant history explains the bet. TSG lists Dutch Bros Coffee, Yard House and Pura Vida Miami among its past and current restaurant investments, all chains that grew well beyond their home markets. “Los Tacos No. 1 has built an incredibly loyal following by mastering the fundamentals,” said Colin Welch, TSG’s head of New York. The founders’ version: “This is just the beginning.”

What founders can take from it

• Prove the unit before you raise. The business started as one standing-room stand and added locations one at a time in a single city before taking growth capital.
• Slow growth can be a negotiating position. Thirteen years and ten locations in one city gave a growth investor a proven unit to expand.
• Watch the undisclosed terms. “Strategic investment” can mean a minority or a majority stake. The release does not say which, and the difference decides who controls the expansion.

Related founders

• Daniel Patiño Bought Salad and Go Back for $180,000: another restaurant founder, and a growth story that ended the other way.
• Iskra Lawrence Is Selling Control of Saltair. She Keeps a Title.: TSG Consumer’s other 2026 deal.
• Founder Exits of 2026: 23 Deals and What Founders Kept: the year’s founder ownership deals in one table.

Sourcing: the investment, its undisclosed terms, the founders’ and Ackerman’s roles, the 10 locations, Los Mariscos, the advisers, TSG’s assets, restaurant portfolio and all quotes are per TSG Consumer’s September 3, 2026 release, opened directly at tsgconsumer.com. The founders’ hometowns, the May 2013 opening, the New York Times review, the Times Square and Tribeca openings, the pandemic period, the Texas Monthly line and the March 2026 count are per Wikipedia’s Los Tacos No. 1 article and its citations. No portrait is used.