Good Neighbor: Alexandra Santiago

GOOD NEIGHBOR

ALEXANDRA SANTIAGO

INTERVIEWED BY LESLIE CRISS | PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOE WORTHEM

was in school (at Ole Miss), I saw how many Texan students there were. With breakfast tacos being such an integral part of our day to day, I knew that they were likely missing them as much as I was. I started playing with the idea of opening a breakfast taco truck in 2009-2010, but I put it on the back burner.

Q: When and how did you learn to cook? A: I’ve been cooking since I was a toddler. My grandmother was amazing in the kitchen, and I would sit on the counter helping her. When my grandma passed away, I kept cooking for my family and have been mostly self-taught. I’ve read a lot of cookbooks, and, as a child, I was always watching cooking shows, Alton Brown or Emeril on the Food Network. In the past five years, I have had the chance to work with David Crews and Stewart Robinson with Delta Supper Club in the Delta. They have taught me a lot about the business side of the food service industry and how to have fun while doing something I love.

Alexandra Santiago, or Ale (Allie), is originally from San Antonio, Texas. When she graduated from high school, she was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, on scholarship. However, Santiago opted instead for a “true college experience” at the University of Mississippi. The now-30-yearold arrived in Oxford in 2009 and studied early childhood education. After three years, Santiago realized her heart was not in her studies. So she bartended for a few years and ultimately found her way back to her passion: food. She worked in a few local kitchens, where she did everything from catering to fine dining to fast casual. She eagerly awaits the roll out of her latest food adventure: the Sleepy Cactus food truck. Q: When did you first start Sleepy Cactus? A: I started Sleepy Cactus in January 2020 and have been selling my breakfast tacos out of Uptown and Heartbreak Coffee. When I started Sleepy Cactus, COVID wasn’t affecting us yet; I thought it was just going to be a normal year. But as 2020 played out, I was thankful for the business I built because it provided me with a sense of security while everything else felt so unknown. I bought my food truck in November 2020 and am working on getting it up and running.

Q: How long have you wanted to do something like this? A: I have been working in the food service industry since I was 16, starting as a server at a restaurant back in San Antonio. When I Q: What is the Sleepy Cactus’ specialty? A: Sleepy Cactus is actually Tex-Mex food, specializing in breakfast tacos. Tex-Mex food is difficult to define. It has roots in Mexican cuisine, but ultimately, like Texas, has been influenced by many other cultures. It is uniquely its own. Characterized by flour tortillas, yellow cheese and breakfast tacos, Tex-Mex is rooted in the state’s Tejano culture. Tex-Mex is my comfort food, and I hope to share that with Oxford.

Q: Where can people find the Sleepy Cactus? A: Currently, you can find traditional breakfast tacos at Uptown and vegetarian/ vegan breakfast tacos at Heartbreak Coffee, but soon the Sleepy Cactus truck will be parked at Chicory Market.