Wilmington Taco Factory and American Grill is now open for what owners are calling a soft opening.

The 42-seat restaurant, owned by Donna Prince and a silent partner and operated by general manager Van Brown, is focusing on two American favorites: tacos and burgers.

The restaurant, 1051 S. College Road, occupies the space that was previously home to Carolina Girls Grillin’ Café.

Chef Chris Pridgen, who has worked at both Bluewater Grill and Sweet n Savory Café, leads the kitchen at Wilmington Taco Factory, or WTF.

He prepares all of the taco meat and burgers daily from fresh ground beef and makes his own taco seasoning, salsa and pico de gallo. He also prepares homemade pimento cheese using Brown’s grandmother’s recipe.

Brown said lots of places in town putting out $8 burgers, and his goal is to put out a really great $5 burger. The restaurant will also feature several daily specials, at least one of which will always be under $5.

“Our goal is to serve really fresh food at a great price,” Pridgen said.

The soft opening has allowed them to evaluate the flow of business and track menu item sales. Brown and Pridgen plan to tweak the menu based on customer feedback.

“We really want to scale the menu down to what we really do best,” Brown said. “We’ll keep an open dialog with customers and work our menu around what they respond to.”

The restaurant is currently open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. It will expand its hours to 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. starting Sept. 1, with breakfast items available.

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