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Aug 08, 2023

San Antonio business serves breakfast tacos via vending machines

L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its

L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its 1,200 vending machines across San Antonio.

Bean and cheese. Bacon and egg. Barbacoa.

Breakfast tacos are the fuel that powers much of San Antonio's industry. Those soft, foil-wrapped packets of sustenance can be found in nearly every setting — homes, schools, offices — nearly every day in this city.

For most of us, a favorite of hundreds of taquerías across town provides that nourishment. But for many hardworking women and men — those pulling overnight shifts in hospitals, burning the midnight oil in factories, up well before the crack of dawn to stock warehouses — the demands of daily life make a quick stop at a mom-and-pop taco shop impractical, if not impossible.

Enter L.C. Vending Co. For 70 years, this South Side business has kept vending machines — 1,200 and counting at the latest tally — in San Antonio office buildings, health care facilities, factories and other workplaces well stocked with the food and beverages needed to get through a long day.

And we're not just talking about Cheetos and Coke, here.

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L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its 1,200 vending machines across San Antonio.

L.C. Vending Co. is one of the nation's last players in the vending machine game with a fully inspected commissary kitchen. From that unassuming room hidden in a blink-and-you-miss-it white building on East Mitchell Street near the Mission District, a team of cooks crank out 21 types of breakfast tacos and other fresh food items that are tightly wrapped in plastic, packed into crates and delivered to roughly 200 refrigerated vending machines across the region.

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L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its 1,200 vending machines across San Antonio.

L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its 1,200 vending machines across San Antonio.

L.C. Vending Co. sells 21 types of breakfast tacos among other items in its 1,200 vending machines across San Antonio.

Gabriel Rodriguez prepares an order at L.C. Vending Co.

Lupe Moreno prepares sandwiches at L.C. Vending Co.

Janie Rivera prepares quesadillas at L.C. Vending Co.

A vintage coffee dispensing machine is on display in the office of L.C. Vending Co.

Gabriel Rodriguez prepares an order at L.C. Vending Co.

Pat Clark loads a prepared order for delivery at L.C. Vending Co.

L.C. Vending Co. president Egan Little places cases of mustard packets into a refrigerated storage room.

Pedro Martinez packs an order at L.C. Vending Co.

L.C. Vending Co. is located at 310 E. Mitchell St. near San Antonio's Mission District.

Lupe Moreno prepares sandwiches at L.C. Vending Co.

"Vending machines and coffee machines are the lubricant that keep many an office running," Egan Little, the third-generation president of L.C. Vending, said. "We’re keeping those employees at the workplace versus getting in their car and driving to Whataburger or whatever. If they have anything shorter than an hour for lunch, they don't have time to eat anywhere else."

Little's grandfather, Lofton Little, launched L.C. Vending Co. in 1953. He was a daily presence at the business until the age of 95. A vintage coffee machine from the early days of L.C. Vending sits in the entryway to the business, inviting customers to purchase a cup of coffee for a dime — a scandalous price at the time, when diners could buy coffee for 7 cents at area restaurants.

The reins to the business passed from Lofton to his son, Ladd Little, and eventually Egan Little, who started working for the company in 1994 after leaving the military. Today, L.C. Vending Co. employs 30 people. Six of those have been with the business for more than 20 years. Little said he was able to keep his entire crew working through the worst of the pandemic, and the trust shared between business and its staff is part of L.C. Vending's success.

One thread tying all the generations of the Little family together is a love for food, which Egan Little said goes into the many meals the business prepares.

"I enjoy cooking. My father enjoyed cooking. So we would come up with things," Egan Little said. "We do unusual things you would not typically see in a vending machine. Baked potatoes. Salads. Wrap sandwiches. Meatloaf."

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Sausage rancheros (left) and barbacoa tacos are among the many freshly prepared offerings from L.C. Vending Co.

The breakfast tacos from L.C. Vending Co. range from familiar favorites including barbacoa, carne guisada and several egg-filled varieties to less common finds such as sausage rancheros made with slivered rings of smoked sausage in a zippy tomato sauce.

But don't go looking for a basic bean and cheese.

"We don't do just bean and cheese tacos," Little said. "We do bean, cheese and bacon tacos. Why? Because if you throw a piece of bacon on anything, it just tastes better."

Those bean, cheese and bacon tacos are L.C. Vending's most popular product, Little said. And in the spirit of running an efficient kitchen with minimal waste, part of the grease rendered from cooking the bacon goes into the refried beans for those tacos, providing an extra level of flavor.

There are downsides to operating a business that leans heavily on freshly prepared items in addition to the typical chips and sodas found in most machines. Little said his breakfast tacos have a shelf life of 72 hours, meaning frequent trips to restock supplies and collect any items that have reached their expiration date. Little uses the term "stales" to describe those items. Very few of L.C. Vending's fresh food items stay in the machines beyond five days.

Janie Rivera prepares quesadillas at L.C. Vending Co.L.C. Vending Co.

"At L.C. Vending, not only do we work here, we live here," Little said. "One of the cool things our company has always done, all of our stales that come back, all of that goes to the San Antonio Food Bank. It's not going to waste."

Little said L.C. Vending Co. is the only vending machine business in San Antonio that still has a commissary kitchen. It was a normal practice in the 1960s and 70s, he noted, but one that gradually faded away as corporate bean counters looked for ways to cut costs. Most modern vending machines, if they offer anything beyond candy bars and potato chips, will provide perhaps a hamburger or hot dog in tightly sealed cellophane with a nearly indefinite shelf life.

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"When you tell an accountant you can keep prepackaged stuff in a machine for 60 to 90 days, to me that's just scary," Little said. "They will give you calories. But they won't taste like much. But accountants look at it and go, 'Well, wait, right now we have a product that we can only keep in the machine for seven days. Now I can extend that out to 60 days? What's not to like?'"

While operations like L.C. Vending Co. may be a rare find in the vending machine business, Little said his family has developed countless loyal clients over the years — some who've been with the company since it opened in 1953 — and won't be closing its kitchen anytime soon.

"San Antonio is a wonderful town" Little said. "If you take care of your customers, life is good. If you have a good reputation, life is good. If you don't, you need to pack it up."

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