Taco John’s restaurant opening in the Tri-State

American fast-food concatenation

Taco John’s International, Inc.

Logo of Taco John’s used since 2021
Taco John’south restaurant in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in July 2013
Trade name	Taco John’s
Type	Individual
Manufacture	Restaurants
Genre	Fast food
Founded	March fourteen, 1969; 53 years ago  (1969-03-fourteen) in Cheyenne, Wyoming, ane yr subsequently its roots as Taco House.
Founder	John Turner
Headquarters	808 W 20th Street, Cheyenne, Wyoming , U.S.
Number of locations	379 equally of December 29, 2021[update] [1]
Surface area served	Midwest Mount Due west
Central people	James Woodson (CEO) Harold W. Holmes (CFO)
Products	Tacos Mission burritos Mexican style cuisine Salads Java
Revenue	US$106.8 million (2021)
Number of employees	8,000 (2019)
Website	tacojohns.com

Taco John’s International, Inc.
is an American fast food restaurant founded in 1969 past John Turner. The chain serves Mexican-inspired fast food (which it calls “West-Mex”)^[2]
every bit well every bit the visitor’s signature dish, Murphy Olés, which are bite-sized deep-fried spud nuggets coated with a proprietary blend of spices and seasonings.^[3]
Taco John’due south CEO is James Woodson, and it is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. As of 2022, the restaurant chain had 380 restaurants in about 22 states,^[1]
primarily in the Midwest and Mountain regions.^[4]

History

[edit]

Early on days

[edit]

Taco John’due south started in 1968 as a trailer chosen Taco House, run by John Turner.

Turner was an officer in the United States Air Force who served during the Korean War and an aspiring entrepreneur; he was stationed at FE Warren AFB, where he began digging into his entrepreneurial spirit. Initially, Turner wanted to find a physical location for a taco stand. He went to James Woodson to find a location to lease, and Woodson redirected him to Harold Due west. Holmes, who converted one of his campers into a 12×30 trailer in vii days.^{[5]
[half dozen]}
This was but in time to pop upwardly at Cheyenne Frontier Days that year, and information technology was an instant hit.^[6]
Past the end of the year, the first official taco stand opened on the corner of Carey Ave and Westward 24th St (not to exist confused with the showtime brick-and-mortar location a cake away), continuing under the Taco House make.^[7]
[8]

Name alter, franchising, and explosive growth

[edit]

Turner began the shift to a franchise in 1969 past selling the franchise rights to Woodson and Holmes, who changed the name to Taco John’s in honor of Turner and opened a franchise store under the Taco John’s banner.^[9]
They too launched Woodson-Holmes Enterprises, which gave Woodson the restaurant franchise rights, and the visitor name became Taco John’s International, Inc. The new franchise location featured Taco John’due south original mascot, a devil, and displayed the tagline “the hottest spot in town”.^[7]
[10]
More locations opened in 1969, including the Loveland, Colorado, location on Lincoln Avenue.^[11]

This led to more growth of the brand in the 1970s, with many new locations opening, including the 100th store in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1975.^[12]
In 1973, the beginning physical brick-and-mortar, in-the-basis Taco John’s was congenital at Carey Ave and W 23rd St in Cheyenne, Wyoming, including a drive-thru. The original Taco John’s building was moved to S Greeley Hwy and I-80, where information technology was demolished, just at that place is still a Taco John’s at that location today.^[5]
[12]

Taco John’south saw such massive growth that it upgraded its Cheyenne headquarters in 1985. The nineties also saw record-breaking success, with an Iowa-based franchise being the kickoff to gain over $1 million in sales in 1994.^[12]

Brand partnerships with some challenges

[edit]

By 2004, Taco John’southward began a new form of expansion normally seen in larger brands, involving partnerships with other restaurants, including local brands like Expert Times Burgers & Frozen Custard and Steak Escape in 2004^{[13]
[fourteen]}
and an Arby’south in Lindenhurst, New York, that opened in 2015.^[15]

While some of these combo stores still be, including the Taco John’south/Steak Escape Combo at Logan St and E 58th Ave in Denver,^[16]
many have either embarked on a solo journey every bit the Cheyenne Taco John’s did later Good Times disappeared around 2010,^[17]
[xviii]
or even completely shuttered, as in Commerce Urban center.^[xix]
[20]

Around the same time that some of these combo restaurants were closing, the original franchise owners were reaching their final days. Woodson died at age 87 in 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.^[21]
Holmes died in 2012 of heart complications at historic period 92 in a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.^[22]

Subsequent booms and challenges

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Although Taco John’s targeted smaller Midwestern and Western communities in its early on years, the concatenation as well began expanding its presence in larger metropolitan areas like Denver and Kansas Metropolis, where it had a minor presence since the 1980s.^[23]
Taco John’southward also operates several outlets serving the U.South. Armed Forces through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).

While some Taco John’s take airtight, others have opened, and new experiments take arisen. For example, in 2016, Taco John’s saw its kickoff Love’s Travel Cease location open in Liberal, Kansas.^[24]
This was non the outset instance of a Travel Cease philharmonic, with i of the more recent Taco John’southward opening in the Loves Travel Center of Berthoud in 2018.^[25]

In April 2016, the company announced a bargain to open 40 new stores in New York and Tennessee. The deal includes 20 stores in the New York Metropolis area and the Northeast with an option for 15 more.^[26]
As of Oct 2016, the company had 390 restaurants spread throughout Wyoming and 24 other states.^[27]
As of August 2021, there is just one New York location, in JFK airport.^{[28]
[
clarification needed
]}

In 2017, Taco John’s opened 10 new locations and expanded to Tennessee and Indiana. In 2019, it planned to open new locations in key Kentucky, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.^[29]

Equally of Baronial 2021, there are 380 locations,^[one]
with more planned.^[xxx]

In 2022, Taco John’s filed suit against a small Minnesota restaurant concatenation, Taco Chon, which information technology defendant of stealing its image and likeness.^[31]

Building prototypes

[edit]

Taco John’s has had many different styles over the years. Their most recent one is all-time reflected past the Cheyenne restaurant,^[32]
the get-go location to use this specific style, rebuilt in 2019.

Trademarks

[edit]

Taco John’s has adopted and trademarked the term “West-Mex” to describe their food and service attitude.^[2]
The company defines “West-Mex” food as having fresh, bold flavors, including their signature “Potato Olés”, sauces, spices, and salsas.^[3]
[33]

In 1989, the company trademarked the phrase “Taco Tuesday” in every state just New Jersey, where another eating house already had trademarked the phrase.

Ad, mascots, slogans, and logos

[edit]

Mascots

[edit]

Taco John’s early mascot, depicted on their street signage higher up the words “The Hottest Spot In Town,” was a devil graphic symbol. Later mascots were versions of a cartoonish Mexican character named Juan with a giant sombrero and a donkey named Pépé.^[34]
That figure was replaced in the mid-1990s by a more modern, artistic image.

Taco John’s recent advertising icons have included Whiplash the Cowboy Monkey, a popular rodeo attraction and PRCA Entertainer of the Year, who rides on his canis familiaris Ben to the rescue of hungry taco lovers.^[35]

Punk band In Defence performed their song “Phone call More than Dudes” in a Taco John’s as part of a tribute to the franchise.^[36]

In the 1990s, Taco John’s slogan was “A Whole Lotta Mexican,” which accompanied a jingle that stated “Once nosotros getcha, then we gotcha…. gotcha coming dorsum for more! Taco John’s.”^[37]

2006
Eastward. coli
outbreak

[edit]

In December 2006, a reported 50 people became sick and eighteen people were hospitalized later eating at a Taco John’s restaurant in Iowa. Shortly later on that, Minnesota health officials reported that an additional 27 people became ill afterwards eating at Taco John’southward restaurants in Rio Grande Metropolis, Texas and One thousand Forks, N Dakota.^[38]
On December xiv, Black Hawk Canton, Iowa wellness officials stated that lettuce tainted with
E. coli
had been discovered in the supply concatenation. That same 24-hour interval, a Cedar Falls couple filed a lawsuit against Taco John’southward after their 9-year-onetime daughter was hospitalized for symptoms of
Eastward. coli.^[39]
Taco John’s dropped its produce supplier, Bix Produce of Grand Forks, Northward Dakota, as a result of the outbreaks. Later on a thorough investigation past the Minnesota Department of Wellness and the FDA, Bix Produce was cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter. The source of the outbreak was traced back to the growing fields in California. This incident came about at the same time equally an unrelated
Due east. coli
outbreak at Taco Bong restaurants in the midwestern Us.^[forty]

Gallery

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• 

  A TJ’southward with a solarium, Marshalltown, IA

• 

  Abased Retro Taco John’s, Signage taken down (Pocatello, ID)

• 

  TJ’due south featuring 70s/80s style slanted roof with shingles and 2000s-style facade/signage (Elizabethton, TN)

• 

  TJ’southward featuring a slightly updated slant-roof facade, Located in Morristown, TN

• 

  TJ’s featuring old schoolhouse signage on an old school building in Miles City, MT (Since been updated in Facade and Signage)

• 

  A very Oblong TJ’s in Miles City, MT

• 

  Taco John’s with a tree-garden in front;, Monona, WI

• 

  Abandoned retro Taco John’s in Shawano, WI

Run into too

[edit]

• List of Mexican restaurants

References

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External links

[edit]

• 
  Official website
  
• Taco John’south International, Inc., Records at the University of Wyoming – American Heritage Middle