tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Taco Johns
Owner -- Privately held
Primary Operating Region -- Midwest
Number of Locations -- 410 (2004)

No restaurant chain has ever come up with so many ways to utilize what effectively are tater tots on a single menu.  Their Mexi-Fries (REALLY seasoned variation on tater tots) are legendary.  You can get them plain, with Nacho Cheese, as "Potato Ole's Bravo" (a variation on nachos with cheese, beef, beans, onions, sour cream, and tomato), as "Super Ole's" (a bigger version of the "Bravo") and even in some of their burritos.

To believe the website, Taco John's came to be because of the man they call "Juan", or sometimes "John" who ("legend has it") cooked for the hungry cowboys on the open ranges.  Somebody convinced Juan to open a restaurant, so he did.  Romantic, and a complete bunch-o-hooey.

The original Taco John's was actually called "Taco House".  John Turner, a McDonald's manager, opened the first location in Cheyenne, WY.  He sold the franchising rights to Local businessmen Harold Holmes and Jim Woodson in 1969.  They rechristened the brand as "Taco John's" in honor of Turner.  Smartly, they targeted small towns largely ignored by everybody else for growth.  The original buildings were pre-fab trailers constructed in Cheyenne and trucked to the sites, opening literally overnight.  That era has long since passed, although some of those original trailers are still operating in more modern guise.  Turner actually continued to own the trademark, recipes, and distribution rights until 1985.

In recent years, Taco Johns has worked towards consistency.  Franchisees, who make up 98 percent of the restaurant ownership mix, were largely doing their own thing.  This has changed, and the chain has benefited tremendously.

Taco Johns' meat is slow-cooked into a tender almost soupy mix that is addicting.  The shells are lacking in salt and taste kind of plain, but the rest of the taco makes up for it.  Taco Tuesday is as much a signature of Taco John's as the Taco John's name itself.  There's the usual burritos, nachos, and some specialties like the Sierra Chicken Sandwich and Meat & Potato Burritos.  Nothing is skimpy and everything tastes great.

Our area Taco John's toyed around a bit with co-branding, bringing in and abruptly pulling out Noble Roman's Pizza.  Then they toyed with breakfast, offering a very limited menu that basically involved a soft taco and a burrito, each with nacho cheese, egg, Potato Ole's, and your choice of bacon or sausage.  Taco meat was an option for awhile and frankly was the better choice.  They were missing the real opportunity with this...Sausage gravy.  Imagine a dish of Potato Ole's smothered in sausage gravy.  Or a Country Burrito with eggs, Ole's and sausage gravy.  So I e-mailed the gravy idea to Taco John's Corporate.  Corporate forwarded it to the local franchisee, who replied "We're limited to what Corporate allows us to offer."

The local franchisee has since abandoned breakfast.

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