Five Stars  

The television market has become saturated with singing and talent competitions. Fan favorites like “The Voice” and “America’s Got Talent” have been joined by “The Masked Singer,” “Songland” and the reactivation of “American Idol.” While singing competitions have taken over cable TV, Netflix was late to include these types of shows on their streaming platform. But recently they’ve included the Netflix original show, “Rhythm + Flow” featuring recording artists T.I., Cardi B and Chance the Rapper.

The structure of the show is similar to any of the same reality shows on cable: Contestants compete to become the next superstar. However, this time it’s rappers competing to be the next hip-hop superstar. Within the first few minutes of the first episode, it is easy to see similarities to “The Voice” and other competitive singing shows. Contestants compete in front of judges and go through different challenges in order to claim a prize.

But unlike other singing competitions, “Rhythm and Flow” specifically prepares hip-hop artists for a career in the field. The challenges work to provide contestants with real experience in the hip-hop world for their portfolios. It also fills a hole where hip-hop competition shows have not had a lot of success. But since this show is on a streaming platform, it can get away with not taking on the family-friendly tone that typical singing shows exhibit; it’s hard to have a show featuring Cardi B and not rate it TV-MA. 

The show doesn’t have to be censored, therefore, it is better able to show the raw and real roots of hip-hop music. The show doesn’t dampen rap’s inherent aesthetics nor does it censor the realities of minority communities. It reflects on the rough realities and ingrained racism in America and shows how music can help raise communities up and provide opportunity for artists. For these artists, the $250,000 prize is a way for them to escape violence and poverty as well as pursue the American dream.

The show pulls artists from each of the judges’ home cities. Cardi B recruited artists from New York City, T.I. pulled from the talent in Atlanta and Chance the Rapper found talent in Chicago.

The three pulled 30 artists together to begin the show.  From there, the artists went through different challenges. They created a group of individual hip-hop artists who come together and perform battle raps, make their own music videos and work with some of the best producers and rappers in the industry. 

If you like rap music, watch “Rhythm + Flow.” The show is incredibly constructed and the superstar cast provides personality and humor that will leave you laughing. The heartfelt stories and relatability of the artists will create an instant connection not only to their work, but to the individuals themselves. This show allows artists to tell their stories as well as define the future of hip-hop. 

Episodes for the show are released on Wednesdays as a part of a new structure that Netflix is trying that includes weekly television series’ similar to cable-style TV. 

On Friday, Oct. 18, writer Luiz Hernan Castaneda gave a lecture titled “Peruvian Writer in the Green Mountains” which explored his own literary work and provided the perspective of a Peruvian writer living and writing in Vermont.

The Middlebury College Spanish professor was originally born in Lima, Peru. He began his career as a writer in 2004 when his first book, “Casa de Islandia,” was published, and went on to write two more books while in Peru.

Castaneda’s work, like many other Peruvian writers in the early 2000s, was inspired by the political turmoil and harsh dictatorship under President Alberto Fujimori from 1990 until 2000. But instead of writing in a realist form, in which fiction writers attempt to represent familiar events as they are, like most writers of this time were doing, Castaneda wanted to write fantastic fiction with parody, humor and dystopian elements.

In 2006, Castaneda moved to Boulder, Colorado to pursue a graduate degree and Ph.D. in Spanish at the University of Colorado. While in Boulder, he said that he found a “conflicted space.” He came to the U.S. as President George Bush’s war on terror was in full effect. He also arrived as the financial crisis of 2008 had begun to unfold. 

He started to see parallels between his new life in Boulder and his old life in Peru. The Rocky Mountains began to resemble the Andes, Peru began to show up in his stories’ plots and settings and Castaneda started to feel that being in Boulder was not a positive experience for him. He wanted to go back to Peru, feeling a sense of nostalgia and homesickness. 

But after getting married, he decided to stay in the U.S. and began applying for jobs. He eventually took a position at Middlebury College teaching Spanish in 2012, where he has remained ever since. 

While looking for jobs, Castaneda knew that he didn’t want to live in a completely urbanized area. 

“I didn’t want to live in a cultural center … or even a literary center,” he said. Vermont seemed to be a blend of everything that he was looking for. Similar to Maine, Vermont is not a large cultural or literary influence in America. But similar to Stephen King’s prominence in Maine and the U.S. as a whole, Vermont is influenced by the work of Robert Frost and his poetry. 

While working at Middlebury, Castaneda produced two books and is expected to have one more released in Peru in the next few weeks. He writes his stories on political violence, migration, climate change and the degradation of truth. But he writes on his own terms, breaking from the realist mold that is often associated with the topics that he chooses to write about.

He is also working to bring awareness to Peruvian writers living in the U.S. In an anthology produced this year, he features the work of 17 writers that was written in the U.S. but was released and consumed in Peru. Castaneda cited a quote from George Carlin to describe this work: “it’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” He explains how the 17 narratives in this anthology are more of a critique of the times that we live in and a snapshot of the world around us. 

Castaneda’s lecture was the third talk in the UMaine Unidos series, the new Rising Tide Professorship initiative on Latinos in academia.

4.5 stars out of 5

The Highwomen, a group comprised of country music stars Maren Morris, Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Hemby, provide a new, strong female voice in the male-dominated country genre.

Their self-titled album is subversive, as it establishes an up-front feminist voice in a sound typical of the genre. These women are recording music that is reflective of not only themselves and the country demographic but of women everywhere; it shows that country music doesn’t need to change outside of its long-established sound and style to be relevant and relatable.

The Highwomen is a group formed in the wake of The Highwaymen, a country supergroup formed by Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson. Between 1985 and 1995, the group performed and completed three albums. The Highwaymen created projects that are staples in classic country music and are reminiscent of drinking sweet tea on a porch in Tennessee.

The Highwomen are no different. According to Shires, her idea to create the group as a counterpart to the Highwaymen came as a response to the lack of women being represented in country music.

Their debut song, “Redesigning Women,” is a reminder of the often unfair adaptations that women have had to make throughout history. Women who are “redesigning” are able to adapt, change and face challenges that come about as a result of being a woman. It is an inspiring and motivational song that couldn’t come at a better time given the current state of affairs in the world.

Their album challenges viewpoints that are stereotypical of the country genre. They assert that women are more than objects to be possessed by men. They also include songs that are inclusive of different sexualities, ethnicities and backgrounds.

“If she ever leaves, it’s gonna be for a woman with more time / who’s not afraid to let her dreams come true/ If she ever gives her careful heart to somebody new / Well it won’t be for a cowboy like you,” The Highwomen sing in their song “If She Ever Leaves Me.” This song tells of a same-sex couple. They are including social justice issues in their songs are creating an environment in country music where sexuality can be openly discussed, where it wasn’t discussed or tolerated before.

In their self-titled song, the women sing “We are The Highwomen / Singing stories still untold / … We are the daughters of the silent generations / … But still we remain.” The Highwomen’s ability and willingness to comment on social justice issues and on wrongs against women in history gives them a different type of voice and power than the group they were modeled after. They also have the power to share untold stories and give a voice to women who have not historically had one.

All four women in the group are talented songwriters and all collaborated on pieces on the album. But one thing that was disappointing for me was that there is not one song on the album that is written by all four women together. I think that this would just add to the cohesion of an already developed group.

The Highwomen’s album is both easy to listen to and empowering. Hopefully, they will continue to inspire women in and out of the country music world and pave the way for future female artists.

While most college students spend their weekends doing homework, going to parties or hanging out with friends, Samuel Dorval spends his weekends on the Atlantic Ocean working on his oyster farm in Brunswick, Maine. 

Dorval, along with fellow second-year mechanical engineering student, Max Burtis, and second-year University of Rhode Island student, Max Friedman, started Ferda Farms in March of 2018. Dorval has spent every weekend commuting back to Brunswick from Orono to work on the oyster farm. 

As high schoolers, Burtis, Dorval and Friedman began digging clams on the Atlantic coast at low tide but wanted to find something to do during high tide in the summer. Since Burtis lived right on the ocean, he, his family and the other two boys decided to grow oysters. 

Since its creation in 2018, Ferda Farms has gone from a summer hobby to a company that sells market products at events throughout Maine. At Ferda Farms, Dorval runs social media accounts, business to business transactions and customer relations. The marketing student plans to work on the marketing-related aspects of the company.

When he is not clamming or working on his farm, Dorval is a member of the FIJI fraternity on campus. 

“Bonding in brotherhood and scholarship, I thought would help make my college experience more meaningful. And putting yourself towards something more meaningful, instead of self-sustained goals,” Dorval said. “Scholarship and friendship are two of our main values. Spending time in the library, putting my feet toward getting good grades and actually making something out of my schooling, means something to me. A lot of people just hang out and don’t really make much of their schooling and I didn’t want that.”  

Dorval was a member of the Brunswick High School football team that won a state championship in 2016 and who were runners up in 2014 and 2015. His success in high school and love of football inspired him to work as a manager for the University of Maine football team in 2018. The football team won a CAA championship and was an FCS semi-finalist. He used that time to become familiar with the staff, learn how the program worked and decide if he wanted to try to walk on. He decided not to return this year because of the time commitment that Ferda Farms takes and he knows that he wants to invest his future in the farm. 

He began his first year as an electrical engineering student but switched to marketing at the beginning of this year. He initially thought that electrical engineering would prove valuable on the oyster farm but found that marketing was more practical. He plans to graduate a year early from UMaine and work full time on his oyster farm. 

Doval is currently working on finding a bigger lease for the farm in order to produce more oysters for market sale. They are currently working on their tumbler system to separate market sized oysters from the rest. They are also working to produce 50,000 oysters by the spring and continue production through this winter.                                               

On Thursday, Sept. 26, philosophy professor Doug Allen gave a presentation on Gandhi-Informed Philosophy, touching on topics of nonviolence, truth, morality and research. His lecture was a part of the fall 2019 Socialist and Marxist Studies Series (Controversy Series) and the 2019-20 Philosophy Department Colloquium Series.

Allen began his lecture by talking about his most recent book “Gandhi After 9/11: Creative Nonviolence and Sustainability,” which was released on June 4, 2019. Allen described how Gandhi’s teachings are still relevant to our world today. 

Allen also pointed out that there have been other 9/11-like events that have shaped and influenced our perceptions of violence in society. Events in our history like the implementation of slavery, the forced migration of Native Americans and the Holocaust have all been violent periods in regard to the physical harm inflicted and the rhetoric that followed. 

Following attacks like 9/11 in the United States and the 2008 Mumbai attacks in India, Allen pointed out that there has been a shift in our cultures toward violence. Violence does not only encompass physical harm inflicted on another, but also includes linguistic, economic, cultural, religious and environmental violence. 

Born in 1869 in India, Gandhi was a prominent philosopher, activist and the leader of India’s nonviolent independence movement against British colonialism in the country. He was assassinated in 1948. During his life, Gandhi was involved in establishing nonviolent protests in India and South Africa to protest racial segregation, discrimination and other injustices. 

In his book, Allen discusses the relevance of Gandhi’s teachings, his theories and practice, his approaches to technology and how these ideals can apply to our current world. 

Allen’s initial interest in philosophy began during his freshman year at Yale University. He began as a physics student intending to work in the physical sciences. But after taking an introduction to philosophy class, he changed his major and began his work in the humanities.  

“My first semester I took a philosophy course, with a world-famous philosopher … and I was so moved by him that I changed my major. But then I didn’t know that I would continue in philosophy. When I first went to India … I was very young and living in the holiest city in India and studied at the best philosophy department in the country and took all of these Ph.D. classes in philosophy … and we never mentioned Gandhi,” said Allen. 

He began researching Gandhi after living in the South and seeing the impact that Gandhi had on Martin Luther King Jr.’s work and how nonviolence and other theories could benefit everyday life.  Allen is now considered one of the world’s leading scholars in the phenomenology of religion and the philosophy of Gandhi. 

“Gandhi was important for me in terms of my life, my civil rights work, my antiwar work, my feminist work … I spent about ten years in the anti-Appartide movement … To understand what was happening, Gandhi was a nonviolent alternative. My first publication on Gandhi was in 1974,” Allen said. 

Allen has also conducted his own research under Fulbright and Smithsonian grants to India and the Maine Presidential Research and Creative Achievement Award.

The research was a key point in Allen’s lecture. He encouraged students, faculty and community members to pursue research that is truly impactful to society and can benefit everyone. Pursuing research in order to obtain a degree, secure funding or secure tenure will only serve individual interests and will not better society or humanity as a whole. 

Allen urged attendees to pursue creative, original research while highlighting the interconnectedness of the humanities, social sciences, physical sciences, medicine, economics and many others. Each branch relies on and is needed by the others in order to form holistic and comprehensive research and practices.

In regard to students, Allen encourages them to pursue moral, truthful ways of living, encompassing the way that they approach school, their social lives and their lives after college.

“I want to encourage students to think more about their own values, their own life and the kind of world that they want to live in. Students are so often so intelligent, so motivated, but they’re lost and are working long hours, they have jobs 30-40 hours a week and are in such student debt … If they discussed or read some of these things from Gandhi, they would live a more interesting, less alienated life,” Allen said. 

The next Socialist and Marxist Studies Series takes place on Oct. 10. It features Stephen Coghlan, associate professor of freshwater fisheries ecology and is titled “Economics As If the Future Matters: Energy, Climate, Money Planetary Bankruptcy.”

The beginning of the semester can be a very stressful time for students trying to get acclimated to their course schedules, homework and extracurricular activities or jobs. The Raymond H. Folger Library is making an effort to help reduce these stresses that college students face.

On Sept. 12, 18 and 19, Fogler Library welcomed a group of licensed therapy dogs and their handlers to interact with University of Maine students and staff. Whether you are a stressed college student or just a lover of dogs, therapy dogs can brighten your day and increase happiness. According to pawsforpeople.org, pet therapy can lower blood pressure, improve cardiovascular health, release endorphins that have a calming effect and produce a relaxation response, reducing stress and anxiety. Meeting therapy dogs in the library also allows students the opportunity to socialize and meet others in a low-pressure environment. 

“It seems like everyone who spends time with the therapy dogs is less stressed than they were before the visits and you can absolutely tell how quickly someone’s expression changes the moment they walk through the library and see the dogs here. Even if someone only spends a few minutes with the therapy dogs, it’s clear that they’re in a better mood because of it. On the other hand, plenty of people stop by just because they love dogs,” Brad Beauregard, the public relations manager at Fogler Library, said.  

Therapy dogs have also been shown to lessen depression, decrease feelings of isolation and provide a sense of comfort and community. Recent studies by American Humane have shown that therapy dogs can even benefit children undergoing treatment for cancer. 

“The visits provide several benefits for the campus community. The visits make people happier. They reduce stress and anxiety, and they’re a great way for students to interact with each other outside of class,” Beauregard said. “The therapy dog handlers also do an incredible job of engaging with students and making them feel at home, which is exactly how we want people to feel when they visit the library.” 

Fogler Library brings in handlers through different organizations and networks to schedule visits. Dogs are cared for by different owners and are contacted through the network. Each handler undergoes training with their dog in order to be certified as a therapy dog and provide aid to those who need it. 

“All of our handlers have gone through a certification test with an organization that licenses therapy dogs, but the specific organization varies from handler to handler. Therapy Dogs International and Pet Partners are two of the more common organizations our handlers have been certified by … many of them have been visiting Fogler with their dogs for years,” Beauregard said. 

Fogler Library brings in the dogs nine times per year. They will be back for three days during fall and spring finals. Once the visits are scheduled, they will be posted on the library website, social media accounts and on signs throughout the library. 

Five out of five stars 

The Lumineers have stepped out of the typical folk mold and created an album that is an entire cinematic experience. “III” follows the life of the Sparks family (Gloria, her son Jimmy and Gloria’s grandson Junior), their battle with addiction and the destructiveness that follows. The band also released a music video to accompany each song, creating a cinematic experience to accompany their music. 

This album follows the typical majesty and grace that The Lumineers have been known for. While it is hard to live up to the success of songs like “Ho Hey” and “Ophelia,” this album and its selected singles offer a different sound and more thought-provoking lyrics. There are three chapters in the album, each pertaining to a different member of the Sparks family. 

The first song, “Donna,” introduces Gloria Sparks. It is told from the second-person point of view and describes what Gloria has said and done in her life. “Donna” flows effortlessly into the second song on the album, “Life in the City.” The Lumineers take well-known lines from their song, “Sleep On The Floor” and use them as the bridge. The lines “And if the sun don’t shine on me today / And if the subways flood and bridges break / Will you just lay down and dig your grave? / Or will you rise against your dying day?” speak to events in Gloria’s life, asking if she will crumble or stand up to the negative events in her life. This chapter closes out with the song “Gloria.” 

The next chapter is about Junior Sparks, Gloria’s grandson. “It Wasn’t Easy to Be Happy for You” details Junior’s first heartbreak. He tries to be happy for his partner as she decides to move on. The next song, “Leader of the Landslide” discusses Junior’s relationship with his abusive father and his father’s addiction. Junior grows up and sees that his dad’s addiction and violent nature is hurting his family and decides that he doesn’t want to follow in his footsteps. To close the chapter, Junior moves away from his father’s house in “Left for Denver.” 

The final chapter is about Jimmy Sparks, Gloria’s son and Junior’s father. The first track, “My Cell,” eerily tells of a man who feels so utterly alone, like he is trapped in a jail cell. “Jimmy Sparks” tells his life story, detailing his alcohol and gambling addiction. The song takes a turn when Junior encounters his dad after leaving home. The final song “Salt and the Sea” describes Junior and Jimmy’s relationship from Jimmy’s point of view. 

This is the third album that the Denver, Colorado-based group has released. Each song is well written and is within their familiar folk/rock style. This album tells a story seamlessly throughout and provides perspective on families that battle abuse and addiction. They also have songs that are more relatable to the majority of their audience. They sing about heartbreak, loss and feelings of hopelessness and love. This album is well worth a listen and a watch.  

Every year, the Lord Hall gallery at the University of Maine features six exhibitions from faculty, students and invited artists. “Touch my human,” by Giles Timms, an assistant professor of art at UMaine, and “The Painter and her skeleton,” by Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, an artist based in Seal Cove, are on display in the gallery until Sept. 20. 

Though the two exhibitions are very different, they both speak to the importance of transformation and the human condition. Timms’ work incorporates mixed-media work and animation and includes “surreal and local narratives, that explores the vagaries of our human condition,” said Timms. 

Timms’ work features “homunculi creeps,” as he describes them, that provide commentary on all parts of life. 

“My narratives are inspired by being a parent to two young daughters, the uncertainty and wonder of my childhood, and living abroad in Bulgaria. I sift through the forgotten: memories, dreams, narratives, and imagery,” Timms said. “I galvanize the abandoned into grotesque and beautiful homunculi creeps. Creeps of tension and harmony. These creeps, my work, are small, narrative threads of the terrific and terrifying absurdity of modern life.” 

“Touch my human” is an installation that emphasizes these creeps and creates a story. Each piece has multiple elements that draw a viewer’s eye. The backdrop in each piece features different patterns, words and images that contrast to the creeps that are at the focus. Each piece is like a collage that provides different elements for interpretation. 

In addition to being an assistant professor of art at UMaine, Timms also does creative work including animation and illustrations. He is continuing work on his creep series as well as a related animated film to submit to festivals. He is also in negotiations for an animated book trailer for a fiction book. 

Hardwicke Oliveri’s exhibition is a collection of some of her newest pieces and some of her oldest. “The Painter and her skeleton” is a piece that she has been thinking about doing for a while. 

“How amazing it would be if we could leap forward in time and our dead self could come talk to our living self! Our skeleton might ask questions about how we are living our life, are we doing what we really want to do? Are we loving those who need love the most? Are we making the best use of our days? … I often think about how mortality concentrates the mind and can spark us to a richer more meaningful existence,” Hardwicke Oliveri said. 

 Her work is paradoxically rooted in life and death. Her pieces speak to nature and often depict trees, plants, flowers and fruit. But in those paintings as well, she has elements of death and impermanence. She also uses pieces of bones from owl pellets and paints on old wood. 

“I like using bones that I find in owl pellets. Owls cannot digest fur, teeth and bones so when they catch a mouse or other rodent, they swallow it whole and then later cough up a pellet before catching their next meal. I dissect them, clean the bones and sort them to make things from them. I like that from a distance the finished piece may appear to be an alluring woman but when you get up close you see she is made of tiny mouse bones. Lately, I’ve started making pieces from things I find along the shore at low tide. I like creating pieces out of things I find as if I was on a deserted island and that is all I have. I love using wild materials,” Hardwicke Oliveri said. 

Both “touch my human” and “The Painter and her skeleton” will be on display in the Lord Hall Gallery and they are open and free to the public from 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Timms and Hardwicke Oliveri will be speaking at a reception and gallery talk from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 20. They will speak about individual pieces and their creative processes on the closing day of the exhibit. 

Five Stars 

In her fifth album, “Norman F-cking Rockwell!,” Lana Del Rey elegantly sings of hurt, hope and healing. Her songs achieve levity, ease and display shocking self-awareness. She sings of a girl who burns to the ground and rises from the ashes only to be hurt again. Del Rey not only solidifies herself as a jaw-dropping vocalist, but establishes herself as a top songwriter, too. 

 “Ultraviolence,” released in 2014, was Del Rey’s best work up until this point. Her other albums had stand-out songs but seemed incohesive and slightly forced. In contrast, her newest project flows from beginning to end. 

Moving away from her well known ‘trap-hop’ pop style, evident in songs like “Summertime Sadness” and “Young and Beautiful,” Lana features baroque piano ballads and folk-inspired instrumentals. She combines her intelligent and witty songwriting abilities and unique voice into an album resembling a 1970s California dream.  

Over the course of her five albums, we have seen Del Rey’s style change. She has gone from an all-American girl, singing her song “National Anthem” in front of an American flag, to a now lyrical, defiant performer with a more techno-based sound. Her new style can be defined by a line from her song “The Next Best American Record,” as she sings, “‘70s in spirit, ‘90s in [her] frame of mind.” Her songs show an act of resistance and change but are coupled with the love and happiness associated with the ‘70s.  

Heartbreak is an obvious theme throughout the album. Her piano ballad, “Happiness is a butterfly” pulls on your heartstrings. Lines like “If he’s a serial killer, then what’s the worst / That can happen to a girl who’s already hurt,” and “Don’t be a jerk / don’t call me a taxi / I’m sitting in your sweatshirt / crying in the backseat,” make you question why we’re born with a heart at all if it is only going to be ripped out. 

Despite prevalent heartbreak, “Love Song,” the album’s sixth track, offers an optimistic take on a relationship. She sings, “Oh, be my once in a lifetime / lying on your chest in my party dress…/ Baby, it’s the best, passed the test and yes / now I’m here with you.” She sings of hope and optimism as well as compassion and love. 

In addition to heartbreak and love, Del Rey also captures the essence of her album’s namesake, Norman Rockwell. Rockwell was an American artist who illustrated everyday American life and history. Her album is sprinkled with references to American pop culture staples like Laurel Canyon, Venice Beach, Hollywood and Vine, Vogue, Rolling Stone and the Eagles. 

 In “Norman F-cking Rockwell,” Del Rey not only separates herself from other artists in the pop and alternative genres, she also separates herself from the rest of the work that she’s released. This album is authentically Lana and is her best work yet. Her witty and intelligently written lyrics offer a look inside of her life and allows us to feel her feelings. Her musicality has always been incredible but her instrumentals and songwriting ability only elevate her abilities in this album. 

With the closing of Verve, an over-the-counter style burrito restaurant in downtown Orono, Harvest Moon Deli owners Zack Richardson and Keith Manaker felt that there was an opportunity for the community. Almost eight months after Verve closed, Richardson and Manaker opened a similar style Mexican restaurant, named Tacorita, selling street-inspired Mexican food. 

 “Verve had been here and I could feel a void in Orono with the Verve shutting. I didn’t necessarily want to go just into the burrito business but something that was in the similar QSR, or quick-service restaurant with many more choices. It is sort of the same style [as Verve]. You pick your protein, pick your condiments, but there are a variety of entrees as well,” Richardson said. 

The over-the-counter, street-food-inspired Mexican restaurant offers tacos, burritos and nachos. They also offer Mexican beer and margaritas, which Richards says “couldn’t be better if you were in Cozumel.” The orange painted walls and Spanish-inspired decor bring the feel of a traditional Mexican restaurant and creates a great environment for friends and families to gather.

The owners pride themselves on the quality of their ingredients and the value of their meals. By using whole, fresh ingredients and fairly large portion sizes, Tacorita hopes to provide customers with a great tasting meal for a fair price. Similar to the Harvest Moon Deli, Tacorita does not offer meal deals as Richards and Manaker say their food is already at the fairest price. 

“I think the value is amazing. You’re getting not only a fairly large portion of food for a reasonable price, you’ll also be impressed with the quality … I think we are walking the line really well of good value, great quality and a strong portion for the price that you’re paying,” Richardson said. 

In addition to traditional protein options like shrimp, fish, chicken and steak, Tacorita also offers a vegan option in addition to other gluten-free and vegetarian options. Customers can also customize their condiment and salsa options; Tacorita touts 14 different salsas and hot sauces that can be added to any meal.

In addition to quality food at a reasonable price, Richardson and Manaker wanted to build on the quick service model. They wanted to cater to individuals with busier schedules who do not necessarily have time to sit down and eat at a restaurant. This model builds off the functionality of Harvest Moon Deli in order to create an environment that caters to everyone.  

“The future of the business is more geared toward quick service. There is a place for sitting down … but I think people are eating out more and more and I think getting faster and busier all the time. I think … the younger generation especially, prefers this type of environment over a sit-down restaurant,” Richardson said. 

During store hours, 10:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., customers can order online through their website, at a kiosk in the store or at the front counter. They also offer delivery services between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. They are open seven days a week.