Mmm Churros! found success fast. Now the family operation looks to expand.

Mike Jones spends his days surrounded by churro dough. He is, however, a professional and claims to limit his diet to small tastes for quality control.

But it seems that maple bacon churros can test anyone’s willpower. The flavor is Jones’ favorite from the lineup offered by Mmm Churros! in Salinas’ Northridge Mall. It has also caught on with others, becoming the shop’s best selling item.

Since Mike and Priscilla Jones moved Mmm Churros! into a fixed location in November 2023 after three successful years of pop-ups and events, they’ve been able to expand the menu beyond sugar and cinnamon. There’s a churro rolled in Fruity Pebbles, another that is a play on s’mores – but why stop there? Drizzle a churro with banana pudding, stuff it with strawberry filling or recast it as an ice cream sundae.

“There are so many options,” Priscilla observes.

Yet the couple was inspired by tradition, and that remains the foundation of their churros. Mike adjusted the ingredients by fractions for two years before settling on a recipe. The resulting fritters are delicate yet substantial, with a crispy veneer crackling over the airy pillow underneath.

The appeal is in its simplicity. Fried dough, sugar and cinnamon – the Joneses’ successful climb up the churro ladder began with this in mind. As life ground to a halt in 2020, the couple decided the timing was right to open a new churro-centric business.

Their instinct could not have been better. At the same time they began selling churros – first from a home kitchen and then at events around the area – interest in the star-shaped wands of fried dough took off. During the first 30 days of lockdown, in fact, Google searches related to churros rocketed up 350 percent.

In business terms, the growth of this family operation has been a whirlwind. They developed a following on the event circuit, sometimes selling more than 3,000 churros a day. Just a month after opening a fixed location they began fielding franchising inquiries. “It’s been a journey,” Priscilla says. “But our goal was always to be a brick-and-mortar franchise.” (In Mike’s more practical terms, “There’s no setting up and tearing down, which is really nice.”)

The Joneses hope the Mmm Churros! brand will one day be common to malls – those that remain, anyway – airports and other places where food courts dwell. They are also aware of the struggles involved, despite their achievements so far.

Oddly enough, just moving into a commercial kitchen caused temporary headaches. The recipe Mike had refined for preparation under a canopy accounted for the variables presented by outdoor events – different temperatures, wind, that sort of thing. In the stability of a controlled environment, the churros were not the same.

“They’re very finicky,” Priscilla points out. “People think they are easy, but they are not.”

“The first couple of weeks were difficult,” Mike adds of the transition to the new space. “Everything’s good now.”

The couple began work on a storefront in Hollister well before landing in Salinas. But the contractor hired in 2021 closed his business, after taking their money. Left with an unfinished building, the Joneses started again, from scratch. They hope to have the second location finished in 2024, but are justifiably unwilling to promise a date.

“It’s just a lot,” Mike points out. “The work not being done, paying twice – it set us back.”

But this is a couple that started a business at the height of the pandemic, when no-contact transactions were the norm, pooling their own funds and their stimulus money to make it happen, building the operation around day jobs. Priscilla still works as a 911 dispatcher in Santa Clara County, on the graveyard shift.

Through all the effort and creative spins, Mmm Churros! still turns out versions dusted only with cinnamon and sugar that somehow become memorable bites.

“We just wanted to share with the world what a from-scratch churro was,” Priscilla says.

MMM CHURROS! is in the Northridge Mall food court, 796 Northridge Drive, Salinas. 408-887-8755, mmmchurros.com.