u/Goddess-theprestige

Lydia Holmes and John Clarke met while working together at a restaurant. Neither of them had formal culinary training or any real business experience, but they both liked recreating meals they had tried at different restaurants.

In 2021, they found a tiny stand for sale in the parking lot of a Home Depot and decided to take the risk.

Their original menu had a bit of everything: burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and breakfast food. Business was pretty slow at first, but they eventually noticed that the same customers kept coming back for one specific item: their breakfast burrito.

1)- They stopped trying to sell everything:

Instead of keeping a huge menu, they focused almost entirely on what people were already buying.

Their main burrito was pretty simple: eggs, meat, cheese and around 25 extra-crispy tater tots. It originally sold for less than $9.

That single product slowly became the identity of the entire business.

I think this is one of the most useful lessons from the story. A lot of people starting a side hustle try to offer ten different services or products because they don’t want to miss any customers.

Sometimes it makes more sense to wait, see what people actually want and then go all in on that.

2)- One customer completely changed the business:

In 2022, a freelance food writer tried the burrito and later featured it in Eater Los Angeles.

The morning after the article came out, there was already a line outside the shed.

They hit their first $1,000 sales day almost immediately, and at one point people were apparently waiting two or three hours just to get a burrito.

They didn’t create some huge marketing campaign. They just made one product good enough that someone wanted to talk about it.

3)- The tiny shed eventually crossed $1M:

They continued operating from the same little Home Depot parking lot location, gradually building a local following.

In 2025, that original 200-square-foot shed reportedly generated just over $1 million in gross sales.

The craziest part is that the stand isn’t even open all day. It mainly serves breakfast and lunch and closes in the afternoon.

It’s a good example of how a small location and a short menu don’t necessarily limit how much a business can make when the demand is there.

-4) They eventually had to stop doing everything themselves:

For the first two years, the business was mostly run by the couple and their family. Lydia’s younger brothers were some of their first employees.

Eventually, one of their sons developed health problems and required regular hospital visits, so the couple hired an experienced general manager.

According to the company, sales increased around 30% during her first year.

That part stood out to me because a lot of side hustles never become real businesses because the owners are scared to give up control. They keep doing every shift, answering every message and handling every problem themselves.

Hiring someone experienced gave them the space to grow.

-5) They opened a second location:

In 2025, the couple bought a larger storefront in Orange, California, and turned it into a full restaurant with indoor seating and a coffee bar.

The new location reportedly generated close to $1.3 million after opening during the year.

Combined with the original shed, the business brought in around $2.3 million in gross sales in 2025 and now employs 29 people.

They’re also already planning another location to reduce the wait times at the original stand.

Obviously, $2.3 million in revenue isn’t the same as $2.3 million in profit. Restaurants have huge food, labor, rent and equipment costs.

Still, going from a tiny shed in a hardware store parking lot to two locations doing millions in annual sales is pretty insane.

The main takeaway for me is that they didn’t start with a revolutionary idea. They found one product people really liked, simplified the business around it and kept improving the operation when demand increased.

Probably one of the best examples I’ve seen of a small side hustle turning into an actual company.