Russell Ybarra is the Founder and CEO of Gringo’s Mexican Kitchen & Jimmy Changas restaurants. Russell started his restaurant career in the kitchen washing dishes and learning first-hand all facets of the foodservice industry. He caught the entrepreneurial spirit early and started El Matador Foods in 1986, a tortilla factory in Baytown, Texas. Gringo’s Tex-Mex came to life in 1993 when Russell had the opportunity to branch out on his own, taking over a building in Pearland that had been home to four other failed restaurant concepts. Russell applied his philosophy of serving the highest quality Tex-Mex at the lowest price possible to the new venture. The community responded and has allowed Russell, along with his 2,600 team members, to expand the company to 23 locations, including four other concepts – Jimmy Changas, Bullritos®, The Lunch Box and Burger Libre with two more Gringo’s locations currently in development, Tomball and Kyle, Texas.
Thirty-one years later, with annual revenues expected to exceed 160 million dollars in 2024, Russell’s passion for the well-being of his team members and community is paramount. Take care of what is important and the rest will fall into place. Russell considers himself extremely fortunate to serve Tex-Mex for a living and believes that in order for a business to realize its true purpose, their primary mission must go beyond focusing only on profits.