According to Dylan Morris, owner of Taco Love Bros, he makes the best tacos in town. He and his brother Jordan opened a taco joint on the corner of Cathcart and Conway Streets in Lismore, near the Ballina/Wyrallah Road roundabout). Read more about them opening.

Denise Alison of Humans of Lismore chatted to Dylan about his life before and after Taco Love to bring your this week's Sunday Profile.

Dylan - “I was born in Ipswich but my family moved here when I was a baby. We always lived around this area. I have 3 older brothers and a younger sister. I’m 28 now. My family wasn’t particularly well off just like a regular Lismore family. My siblings all started getting jobs early, like trolley pushing and small jobs like that which encouraged me to look for a job.

One of my mates was working for Mr T. Meats, the butchers at East Lismore. I was always harassing him to get me a job. Obviously when your parents are struggling financially it encourages you to work. At 12 I had my first job just washing trays, etc. They closed down and I went to the Lismore Square. I was always on the hunt for that butcher job after school.

At 15 years old I decided to hit the boss up for an apprenticeship at Lismore Country Meats in Lismore Central. That was the first year of Year 10 so I told my dad I wanted to do an apprenticeship and I left school. Doing that apprenticeship, you know it brings out a lot of character, having to find your place in the work life, having to step up basically. In a butcher shop you learn a lot about personality. You can’t just be quiet in a corner.

I finished that 4 year apprenticeship when I was 19 and went travelling through Europe. I met a girl called Jessica on the first leg of that trip in London. After that I was in love. I had to come back to Australia, save and move to Canada which is where she was from.

I packed up my troubles and flew half way across the world to set up a new life. I stayed for a year and then did the back and forth to Australia. Jessica came back to Lismore too and worked in Cafe Cappello for a while. We had a great time together. It’s not the cheapest thing to move countries. You have to do it though. You don’t want to live your life wondering. I worked in a restaurant over there for 9 months of the year. That was a great experience. 

We returned to Australia and stayed for a year. Winter over there was really harsh. -40 degrees in the middle of Winter so for a little Aussie boy it was a bit chilly. We went back to Canada and things didn’t work out. Jessica stayed there with her family and I worked my way home. 

Soccer was my main sport growing up so when I returned I started playing Soccer for Nimbin which opened my world up to a whole bunch of community who are now pretty strong in my life. Nimbin can have a stigma about it and consequently I didn’t go there for ages but when I did, being part of that community is actually quite beautiful. A really good bunch of people. 

I got a job at Hayters Hill for couple of days a week at the butchery and the other days I would do the farmers markets at Byron, Bangalow and Mullumbimby so I got a taste of the Northern Rivers. Markets are way more face to face and first name basis. I loved it for 2 years but sort of got over waking at 3:50 in the morning to drive over there.

I bought a van thinking I might travel and work my way around different butchers. The van blew up so I lost my money. I ended up going to Cairns where my Mum lives to hang there for a month. There’s a FB page called Travelling Casual Butchers and they posted work in Coffs for 3months. At that stage my brother was living in Urunga. I posted on Gumtree looking for accommodation and this woman had a self contained cottage to stay in the hills behind Coffs. All I had to do was mow the lawns for free rent. I work in Coffs, reconnected with Jordan and when that work ended we came back to Lismore and moved in with my Dad. 

I did more work with the butchers under Centro which I’ve come and gone from over the years. I know it so well. I was mucking around with a cut of meat and took ingredients home to make tacos…not your average taco though. I served it to my Dad and my brother and I knew that something special was happening. It was so beautiful. From then on I’ve been sharing it. We set and sold them all over the place.

The first one was at Nimbin Soccer field making tacos for the spectators. We basically just wanted confirmation that everyone was enjoying it as much as we were. That night we went to Casino and away we went everywhere we could. We got into Byron Markets and Clunes shop and that kicked us off. 

We do home style cooking to get those flavours through our beef and pork. It’s all old school cooking served quick. It all comes back to the butchers. That really helped out this dream because I was working there 2 days a week and they trusted me. I was able to do a lot of prep and cooking of the meat there after hours.

There’s been a lot of local help and that’s just through growing up in a town like this where you connect with community. I wouldn’t be able to do this anywhere else. 

I always knew there would be a business opportunity in Lismore but didn’t know what it was but when it came I knew this was it. We were walking town looking for a home base and we came across this place. It wasn’t advertised as a food premises but it felt like home to me. We came in the back garage and it was purposely built as a butchery.

It had an inbuilt cool room not function but it had the structure. It was perfect. We could do most of the reno’s ourselves. Local town planner Will helped us out a lot. He did the DA. It was tough going, there was so many road blocks on that DA. We had no money and Council wanted us to do so many things, even kerb and guttering on the road. They wanted us to put a carbon filtration unit in which was $20,000 so we were coming up agains all these blocks.

It was a lot to manage and it took months. You can see the dream so you get up in the morning and keep pushing. Eventually it did pay off. The people with the power don’t know your vision. They don’t know how good this shop is for the community. It’s humble and home grown. It’s a special space. 

Julla did the artwork. We started here on the spot with a food van with a Pop up Taco sign. All the tradies and mates helped. I love the quote, Your passion is what saves you from the world. I have some passionate people working with me. I love the challenge and eventually I’d like to be involved with events that promote the community. We also want to have live music.

Dad’s making planter boxes for cactus and flowers and we’ve planted Marigolds out here too.”