Meet  Troy Luke! Troy is the owner of Don Carne Tacos; which you may have had the pleasure of trying locally at breweries and other events.
“I have been a chef about for 12 years or so. I started off at Chick-fil-A, like all great love stories. From there I worked two jobs, every one being a culinary job. Just doing everything I possibly could to learn how to cook better because I’m the third generation chef, my great grand, my grandfather and three of my uncles were chefs. Cooking is a part of just what we do,” he said.

We want to thank Troy for spending time with us recently and letting us know about his life and love of Hall County.

Question: Please tell us a little bit about your business.

Answer: “That is my absolute baby, that my absolute passion. I’ve been cooking for so long that is really always been a dream of mine to own my own food platform, my own food business. As a kid, I always wanted to change the world and I realized at some point you can’t completely change the world, but you can change the world of the people around you. If that simply means that I can put together a plate the tacos for someone to have a good day, then for me that makes it all the difference in the world.
“For me, the biggest thing is having a platform and freedom to go wherever I need to. With tacos, you can do anything because they’re a blank canvas, you can do anything you want with them. I try to pay respect to those that taught me by standing out and doing the best I can from the culinary stand while staying with the basics. I really love tacos, just like my slogan says: I’m stressed, I’m blessed, I’m taco obsessed.”

Q: What are a couple of your favorite restaurants in our community?

A: “El Carreton. The owner Angel Retana was one of my biggest inspirations about moving forward and getting my business started.”

Q: What is something on your bucket list?

A: “I guess some more traveling probably. Also, I would love to be in a really big cooking competition.”

Q: What’s the first movie you saw in the theater? 

A: “I’m not really sure because I’m a cinephile, I absolutely love movies. My favorite movie of all time is a ‘Bronx Tale.’ My favorite actor is Leonardo DiCaprio and Denzel is a strong second.”

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years?

A: “In  five years, my business is to a point where I can go beyond, go be in London and still be able to run it, I would be so happy. I truly see myself just making a difference and an impact in the people and community around me. I truly see it coming through the fruition in five years. One of the things my grandmother always told me is that ‘the graveyard is the richest place in the world because it’s filled with so many dead dreams.’ There’s so many people that didn’t go after it and didn’t accomplish it because they thought that it wasn’t good enough, someone told them that they couldn’t do it. There was always something holding them back until they just died.”

Q: Who is the most interesting person you’ve met here in our community?

A: “Two people usually come to mind. Angel (Retana) is one of them. Kaia Clark is definitely one of them and my biggest thing is she’s is willing to help, yet she never asks for anything in return.” 

Q: What’s your favorite type of music or band or singer? 

A: “I honestly, truly just love music in general. I love my punk rock, I love my country music, I love my mashups, I love my old school rock music, I love the new school rock music, I love my Spanish music.”

Q: What advice would you give to people?

A: “I would just say keep going, whatever it is  just keep going. You’ve got to choose yourself enough to forgive those that do you wrong no matter how hard it is. It’s so hard to forgive those people…you’re forgiving yourself for letting that situation happen because regardless of whatever happens, sometimes people are malicious and they hurt you. But you gotta keep going!”