Tom Johnson had never been in the restaurant business when he opened his first Mariachi's restaurant in Sumter more than 18 years ago.
But the venture was successful, leading to his second opening in Manning in 2001.
"I had owned a safety company in Columbia for 20 years," said Johnson, a Florence native who visits the local Mariachi's three days each week to check on things. "When I retired, the Sumter location was already running. I'd started looking at other locations in the late 1990s, and this one (on A.M. Nash Road in Manning) was the old lodge building."
Three doctors from Chicago owned the building and eventually sold the building to Johnson.
"I think if I had to do it over, to go into the restaurant business, I would've never done it," Johnson said. "It's one of the most difficult things a business owner can do. We've done well, but it's been hard."
Johnson said he got the idea to enter the Mexican restaurant business through frequent visits to a restaurant "in the mountains."
"My wife and I have 90 acres and a home up in the mountains near Saluda," he said. "The pipes burst one winter, and flooded the home. My wife lived in the house with the repair workers, their wives and kids for about nine months."
Johnson lived by himself at the couple's Florence home during that time.
"Of course, I would go up there a lot, and we'd visit San Jose, a Mexican restaurant there," Johnson said. "We had the best waiter, and I asked him why he wasn't running his own place. He told me he didn't have the money. Well, I did have the money."
Nearly two decades later, Johnson said the most challenging part of the restaurant business is "finding good people."
"Service is hard to get right," Johnson said. "We've got it now, but it didn't happen overnight."
He said that, other than a recession in the late 2000s and a fire that destroyed the original building in Manning, his Clarendon County location has been extremely successful.
"Before the fire, that building was 4,300 square feet," Johnson said. "This one is 8,400 square feet. We spent about $1 million on the new building."
He said the business is challenging, but allows him to meet new people and make new friends.
"Being in this business has given me a lot of good friends," he said. "I've gotten close to a lot of folks in Clarendon County, and I enjoy talking to them when I come in here."
And, of course, he enjoys sampling from his restaurant's menu. He said his favorite dish is a cheese and beef enchilada with rice.
"We just came out with a new cheeseburger that's just amazing," he said. "It's the HIME Burger, and it's a half-pound of pure beef, chipotle sauce, a kaiser-seed bun, pasoda cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapeno peppers and comes with fries or another side."
At 67, Johnson said he is thinking of retirement.
"I see myself running it three or four more years," Johnson said. "I don't see why I wouldn't. After that, I would either turn it over to a manager to run for me or sell. But that's a few years off."
