tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Taco Tico
Owner -- Taco Tico, Inc
Primary Operating Region -- Kansas and Oklahoma, with scattered locations in Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Tennessee
Number of Locations --  55 (December 2007)

I was introduced to Tico by co-workers.  There was a part-time high school kid I'd hired to run the board (radio station) during game broadcasts who would bring two friends of his to work with him...and several bags of Tico, which they raved about.  Ex-girlfriend-from-hell #2 was the one who actually took me there.  That's the one positive thing I have to say about our entire relationship.  I stopped at Tico frequently for a bag of tacos to take to the drive-in.

Years later on a road trip (long after moving out of the town with a Tico), I hit the drive-thru and got my tacos and a beef burrito for a friend traveling with me.  He was in a bad mood and wanted nothing to do with it.  I was relentless in my insistance.  Finally, he tried it.  And he loved it.  Oh BOY did he love it.  

Since then, he has been known to make a complete fool of himself at the very thought of Taco Tico.  He's suggested making runs just for Tico (the closest one is two hours from here).  He purchased an employee's hat off his head once.  He stopped a guy in Wal-Mart who had a Tico shirt on and talked his ear off.  He was nuts.

Tico started out in Wichita, KS in 1962.  Like many smaller regional chains of the era, Tico's first location was a huge success, spawning franchises.  The first franchise opened in 1967.  Tico spiked at 140 locations in the 80's.  Today they maintain a declining number of locations in Midwest and Southern states while dreaming of growth (an early 2000's newsletter hyped the idea of "100 locations by 2005".  That kinda didn't happen.)  An alarming decrease in the number of locations happened in 2007, with fully 20 percent of the stores closing.  At the same time, you do see the occasional new store opening.

The menu is your garden variety Mexican QSR fare, including tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and some combo dinner platters.  There's a salsa bar with Tico's various sauces (mild, green, hot, and volcano) and olives and what not.  I LOVE Tico's taco meat.  Tico has my second-favorite crispy tacos of any fast food chain, generally cheaper than the other chains.  Order them with extra meat if the location offers it.   I totally pig out with like four tacos and a couple enchiladas, mostly because I don't get to one more than a few times a year.  Many of the locations are older and have something of a retro feel to the decor.  This just makes them all the more awesome.

Tico is co-branding some locations with Simple Simon's Pizza.  I've tried the basic Pepperoni and it was okay.  The crust is sort of breadstick-like with its thickness and Italian seasoning.

Competition is heating up with Taco Bueno making strong moves into Tico's core markets, and Taco Mayo threatening to.  Tico is working on a new prototype and a menu makeover...hopefully not radically enough to alienate the faithful.  If the Tico I frequent never changed a thing ever again from what they are today, I wouldn't complain. 

Tico's patrons are VERY faithful.  There's a good reason for that.

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