Chalk it up to twin sixth sense, or a lifetime of experiences in the kitchen. But when twin sisters Chelsea and Kelsea Caldwell appear around metro Atlanta with their Twin Tacos pop-up, the pair are so in sync, they barely have to talk to know what the other is doing.
“Sometimes Chelsea will start on the grill and I’ll switch in, or she’ll be on one side and I’ll be on the other, putting toppings on,” Kelsea said. “It’s like an assembly line.”
The Lithonia natives have come a long way since their first event in 2022 in front of their cousin’s smoke shop on Moreland Avenue in Atlanta’s Edgewood neighborhood. The sisters opened a ghost kitchen late last year on Pleasantdale Road that operates Tuesdays-Fridays, and pop up on the weekends with Twin Tacos (instagram.com/twintacos_atl) at venues and events around town, including Pullman Yards in Kirkwood.
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
Cooking is second nature to the Caldwells, who have been in the kitchen since they were kids along with their parents, who own and operate a local catering company.
“From about 8 years old, we were helping with prep, cutting up vegetables and things like that,” Kelsea said.
Chelsea remembers coming home from school “and being so excited to cook. We’d make fried chicken or pork chops, and our parents would come home and have no idea.”
The pair diversified their skill sets while majoring in marketing at Statesboro’s Georgia Southern University, but also continued to cook.
“That was our time to experiment,” Kelsea said. “If we had a long week, we’d pop a movie in and cook all of our favorite foods — wings, tacos, buffalo dip. And on Sundays, we’d have dinners with friends where we’d be in charge of the meat and everyone else would bring sides.”
After graduation, Kelsea worked as a social media manager, while Chelsea created custom items including shoes and tables. In 2022, Chelsea convinced her sister to help her turn their mutual love of food and cooking into a business.
They decided to tackle tacos because of fond memories of eating their Peruvian aunt’s food while growing up. “She cooked all these dishes, and that’s how we learned to make tacos,” Chelsea said. “We started experimenting with our own recipes, and it became something we really enjoyed doing.”
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
The sisters put their marketing skills to work, drawing crowds who lined up for their $2 birria tacos filled with beef, chicken, shrimp or vegetables, toasted on a hot griddle and topped with cilantro and onions.
They also filled their Instagram and TikTok accounts with engaging videos and posts, amassing more than 70,000 followers across both platforms.
“We’re posting stuff that we know people will want to engage with,” Kelsea said. “And people have started recording us while we’re on the grill and posting it, too.”
Though the pair started with tacos, Chelsea soon proposed adding items like birria ramen, wings and vegetarian options, as well as garlic butter quesadillas and sides such as Mexican street corn. They also feature limited items like garlic butter lobster tacos and Cajun salmon tacos.
Though the tacos have been bumped up to $3, Twin Tacos still offers the $2 tacos that put the pop-up on the map on Tuesdays. Kelsea estimates that they sell about 700 tacos on average at each event.
While birria is typically made with guajillo chiles, the twins use a chipotle pepper for their consommé, “which gives it a rich, smoky flavor,” Chelsea said. “And the way we cook ours on the grill make them extra crispy. They’re hot and made to order. You might have to wait a little bit, but it’ll be worth it.”
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
Credit: Courtesy of Twin Tacos
As it’s been all their lives, their family is a big part of the pop-up. Though their parents still run their own catering company, they help their daughters out with shopping and food preparation, and even their grandmother pops in to lend a hand. Other family members and friends are often enlisted as taste testers for new menu items.
While Kelsea and Chelsea build up their ghost kitchen and pop-up, they’re also working toward buying a food truck, and hope to eventually open a brick-and-mortar location.
In the meantime, the pair who live together and share the same friend group, continue to navigate the ups and downs of working with a close family member.
“The dynamic can be rough, but I wouldn’t want to do it with anybody else,” Chelsea said.
Added Kelsea, “We can argue all day, but at the end of the day, she gets me.”
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