This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tim Allen, whose family opened Holy Tacos in Rayville, Louisiana, in April 2025. Construction for Meta’s largest-ever AI data center is underway in Holly Ridge, an unincorporated community about 10 miles from Rayville.
Rayville has been a small community my whole life, and it’s been in decline over the last several years.
We have a lot of people whose children are moving out, and they usually don’t come back. Growing up, downtown Rayville had multiple businesses, hardware stores, and clothing stores. One by one, they shut down until only a couple of stores were left.
Since Meta’s announcement, we’ve seen old businesses revitalize and new ones open, including ours. We opened Holy Tacos because Meta was coming to town.
My dad owned a construction company, so I spent 20 years running the family construction business. Toward the end of those 20 years, we purchased an old Burger King that turned into a Huddle House. We turned it into a pizza place, but when I went into ministry, I just didn’t have time.
I sold my shares to my sister. She and my dad still own that restaurant downtown. I swore I’d never get back into the food business, but we saw an opportunity to help fill a need. We opened in April of 2025.
I’m very sensitive to both sides of the AI data center debate. The economic growth and development here is undeniable, and so is the tension. There’s tension among people whose lives are being changed because they are beside it and they didn’t want it. Holly Ridge is the name of the settlement where the data center is being built. It’s a tiny little rural farming community.
Now, you’ve got all this economy out there that’s growing, which is why some of them are upset because their quiet way of life is now over. There’s dust from construction, and there’s noise all night long.
But some of the roads that were out there, which were substandard, are now blacktop roads. That’s a big deal. We didn’t have red lights out there. Now we do.
Holy Tacos
When we first had the idea for Holy Tacos, we thought we were going to open the food truck and be out on Meta’s site. It was so early on in the process that they were like, “No, you can’t come out here. We don’t have anywhere for you to set up out here. It’s dangerous.” We were like, “Uh-oh, now what do we do?”
There was a vacant building nearby. We were cooking Holy Tacos for the first time publicly for our church. The guy who owns the building was helping, and he ate some of the food. I got to talking to him, and he just held his hand out like, “It’s yours.”
The food truck has five roll-up doors, so we put it inside the building and basically bolted it to the wall. That helped us become a full-fledged restaurant that can also provide catering.
Catering
We had two catering orders recently in two different directions. One was in Monroe, which is about 20 minutes from here, and then next week we’re going out on Meta’s site. We’ve been out to the man camps, which are the temporary housing for construction workers, took our mobile setup, and cooked for them. They have a company that picks up the food, so they will order from us, and they do it anywhere from once a month up to four times a month. Catering costs anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000, depending on the size.
We have a good local following, but when you add the catering, probably 40% of our monthly business is directly related to Meta.
Our slow days now are as big as our busy days were before. We’ve definitely grown. You’ll come in and see a mixture of both Meta workers and locals. You’ll have lawyers and attorneys in there eating, and then you’ll have people in their high vests for Meta. It’s all walks of life.
Life after Meta
Businesses that were struggling to make ends meet are now prospering or opened up multiple locations. New businesses have come in, and a lot of them are owned by local people.
The money is definitely flowing into our parish, too. Obviously, the catering will slow down when construction’s done, but now we’re beginning to cater for people other than the major contractors out there. I think things like that will grow, and the local businesses built during this time will sustain us.
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