This as-told essay is based on a conversation with Tim Allen, whose family opened Holy Tacos in Rayville, Louisiana in April 2025. Construction of 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 all my life, and in recent years it has fallen into disrepair.
We have a lot of people whose children move away and usually don’t come back. When he was growing up, downtown Rayville had several businesses, hardware stores and clothing stores. One by one they closed until there were only a few stores left.
Since Meta’s announcement, we’ve seen old businesses revived and new ones open, including our own. We opened Holy Tacos because Meta came to town.
My father had a construction company, so I ran the family construction company for twenty years. Towards the end of those twenty years we bought an old Burger King that was converted into a Huddle House. We turned it into a pizzeria, but… When I went into ministry, I just didn’t have the time.
I sold my shares to my sister. She and my father still own that restaurant in town. I swore I would never return to the food industry, but we saw an opportunity to fill a need. We opened in April 2025.
I am very sensitive to both sides of the AI data center debate. The economic growth and development here is undeniable, and so is the excitement. There is tension in the midst of people whose lives are changed because they were next to it and didn’t want it. Holly Ridge is the name of the settlement where the data center is being built. It’s a small, small farming community in the countryside.
Now you have a whole economy that’s growing, and so some of them are upset because their quiet way of life is now over. There is dust from construction work and noise all night.
But some of the roads that were there that were substandard are now asphalt roads. That’s a big problem. We didn’t have a red light there. Now we do that.
Holy tacos
Holy Tacos opened in April 2025 in Rayville, Louisiana. Tim Allen
When we first had the idea for sacred tacos, we thought we were going to open the food truck and go to Meta’s place. It was so early in the process that they said, “No, you can’t come here. We don’t have a place here for you to settle. It’s dangerous.” We were like, “Oh, what do we do now?”
There was an empty building nearby. We were cooking sacred tacos in public for our church for the first time. The man from the building helped and ate some of the food. I started talking to him and he just held out his hand and said, “It’s yours.”
The food truck has five roller doors, so we placed it in the building and screwed it to the wall. As a result, we have grown into a fully-fledged restaurant that can also provide catering.
Hospitality
We recently had two catering orders in two different directions. One was in Monroe, about 20 minutes from here, and next week we’re going to Meta’s site. We went to the men’s camps, 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 order from us, and that varies from once a month to four times a month. Catering costs anywhere from $4,000 to $7,000 depending on size.
We have a good local following, but when you add in catering, probably 40% of our monthly turnover is directly related to Meta.
Our slow days are now as big as our busy days before. We have definitely grown. You enter and see a mix of both metaworkers and locals. You have lawyers there and barristers eating, and then you have people in their high waistcoats for Meta. It’s all walks of life.
Life after Meta
Companies that were struggling to make ends meet are now flourishing or have opened multiple locations. New companies have emerged, and many of them are proprietary local people.
The money certainly also flows into our parish. It is clear that catering will slow down once construction is completed. but now we’re starting to serve people other than the big contractors. I think things like this will grow, and the local businesses built over this period will support us.
