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tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption
CHAIN -- Del
Taco Mid-afternoon at Del Taco in St Louis. Customer count: Four...sort of. There's me, there's two bikers, and there's a Del Taco employee. The Del Taco employee is on his lunch break, in his Del Taco uniform, eating Popeye's chicken from the nearby franchise right in the middle of the Del Taco dining room. For some reason, I found that to be really funny. The bikers were experiencing Del Taco for the first time, and they had ordered two "Macho" burritos each. They clearly didn't know what they had coming to them. They were extremely impressed and one said aloud "This totally blows Taco Bell out of the water." Ed Hackbarth was sent to Barstow in 1961 by Glen Bell to run the local outlet of one of his pre-Taco Bell chains, Taco Tia. Hackbarth decided to strike out on his own and opened "casa del Taco" in nearby Yermo in 1964. Hackbarth purchased the Barstow Taco Tia from Bell and rebranded it Del Taco. (The Barstow location was rebuilt in the 1970's and is still in operation, one of several units operated by a partnership that includes Ed and his brother Tony. The building that housed the Yermo location still stands, now housing "The Del Burger Den".) Hackbarth and partners sold their interests in the chain in 1975. There were 50 restaurants in 1977, 100 in 1979. In 1988, the 225-unit Naugles chain, founded by former Del Taco employee Bill Naugles, was merged in. But all was not well. Del Taco was almost Del Gone-o in 1990 when Kevin Moriarity took over at the behest of the finance group that was stuck with the languishing chain. Moriarity's guidance brought Del Taco back and beyond before selling to the guys who own Captain D's in 2006. While Del Taco is largely based in California and the Southwest, the chain has (or had) franchise agreements in place to develop a significant amount of territory eastward. Some of this has actually happened but little of it has stuck. Single locations have opened and closed in several areas. St Louis, a longtime island of a territory with three old company locations, signed two franchisees to develop the metro a few years back. One opened a couple of new stores on the north side. Those have since closed. Stores have come and gone in Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Tennessee (where Captain D's tried co-branding). The only real signs of Del Taco anchoring a successful foothold in new markets with multiple stores in the last decade seem to be Denver and maybe...of all places...Detroit. Del Taco has a longstanding reputation for cheap food, and that's true. There's a lot of menu items under a dollar. But there's so much more to it than that. Nobody tops Del Taco's chicken soft tacos. They have a proprietary white sauce (which I'm told was originally Naugles taco salad dressing) that, between the sauce and the chicken, makes for a great flavor. You can also get basically the same thing plus tomato in burrito form (much bigger, mind you.) While the basic Taco is a small flavorless dud (and naturally their best seller), the Macho Taco is one of the heaviest tacos out there. It tragically replaced one of my favorites...the Ultimate Taco...which really was well-named. It was the perfect size and balance of meat, cheese, lettuce, salsa, and sour cream (and tomatoes if you're into them). The Macho Taco just doesn't have the balance, no matter how big and impressive it looks. Del Taco features a line of 1-pound-plus "Macho" burritos (also ported from Naugles). These are awesome. The basic beef and bean burritos are good too. The "Del Beef" burrito is my favorite basic beef burrito anywhere. Del Taco also does some of the better fast food hamburgers, fries and shakes, and most locations have a 24-hour drive-thru. Del Taco also scores major points for offering everything on the menu at breakfast. Del Taco is trying to market itself out of the "cheap" mentality and into a reputation of having better quality ingredients and fresher food made to order with no use of microwaves. Most of the menu certainly tastes that way, and busier Del Tacos are alive with the sounds of sizzling on the grill. But consistency across the chain is still an issue. The Ogden, UT Del Taco seemed to forget there's a special sauce that goes on the Chicken Soft Tacos during a stretch of the summer of 2001. And recently at another St. Louis Del Taco, I placed my order and was told "We're out of lettuce." HOW do you run out of LETTUCE? You can't have somebody run to the nearby grocery store when you see this coming? That was completely inexcusable. Don't get me wrong...I love Del Taco. The sooner I have one near me the better. But they've got some bugs to fix before they can become the national presence they want to be.
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