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Marley McKenna, owner of Taco del Sol It’s been a good year for Marley McKenna. After being forced to move her popular burrito shop to a new location on Main Street, business — with the help of a new beer and wine license — has picked up markedly. The success of the first location has prompted McKenna to plan a second, this time in Four Corners, where she said demand for restaurants is high. Born and raised in Bozeman, the 32-year-old entrepreneur always saw the need for cheap eats around town. While in school at the University of Montana, she worked for the thenincipient taco restaurant. After school McKenna spent three years as an adjunct professor, teaching literature and cultural theory, but eventually returned to the restaurant business, specifically
that Missoula-based taco shop. The restaurant founders, who formed the company in 1997, were eager to help McKenna set up her own shop in Bozeman.
“It’s a very community-driven company and they were willing to help me get it set up,” she said. “That first year I was calling them every day; they were mentors.”
When her location took off, McKenna was forced to learn on the fly, acting as bookkeeper while also managing day to day operations. She credits much of the restaurant’s success to her team of managers, to whom she recently offered a profitshare in the business. But, she added, “We’re also a burrito shop, so we don’t have to take it too seriously.” As her work has stabilized, McKenna has become a prominent figure in the local business community, operating promotional apparel company The Other Guys with Foundry owner Tatum Johnson and serving on the board of the Downtown Bozeman Association. But to McKenna, this is just part of the deal. “There’s some natural mentoring going on,” she said, “but that’s just being a supportive member of the community.”
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