Taco Cabana is an American fast casual restaurant chain specializing in Mexican cuisine. A wholly owned subsidiary of Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc, it is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. As of September 2014, Taco Cabana had 166 locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. As of July 2017, there were 176 Taco Cabana restaurants. Most Taco Cabana restaurants have a drive-thru and many are open 24 hours a day. Taco Cabana is known for its pink stores and semi-enclosed patio dining areas. Most menu items are handmade daily on site in open display cooking areas.
History
The History of Taco Cabana - Taco Cabana's Chief Operating Officer, Todd Coerver recently had the pleasure of spending some time with one of the original founders, Lynn Moody. Lynn's father, Felix Stehling started it all...
Formation of the restaurant chain
Taco Cabana was founded by Felix Stehling in September 1978 with its first restaurant at the corner of San Pedro and Hildebrand Avenue in Midtown San Antonio. Stehling purchased a vacant Dairy Queen because the family needed additional parking space for their popular bar across the street, the Crystal Pistol. Stehling decided to open a taco stand. The open-air design of the existing structure led to the "patio cafe" concept that defined the chain's subsequent locations. Felix Stehling's wife, Billie Jo Stehling, created the décor and interior theme for the restaurant chain. After finding all of the patio furniture stolen following the first night of business, Stehling decided to keep the place open 24 hours and the around-the-clock service concept began.
The restaurant focused on fresh foods, rather than pre-packaged or pre-prepared foods. The restaurant served beer and margaritas, staying open 24-7 and allowing takeout orders. As the business grew, Stehling asked his two brothers to help expand the chain throughout San Antonio. It soon grew to nine restaurants. In 1986 the brothers left the company, after differences in opinion on how to manage the business.
In 1990, Taco Cabana began expansion into neighboring states and continued its growth throughout Texas. Richard Cervera became president of the company in 1990, implementing a plan to franchise the brand.
IPO and imitators
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the success of Taco Cabana encouraged imitators such as Two Pesos. In January 1987 Taco Cabana filed a suit against Two Pesos for allegedly duplicating Taco Cabana’s branding style. Two Pesos lost the case and appealed, and in 1992 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Taco Cabana and awarded the company $3.7 million in damages.
In 1992 Taco Cabana went public with its first stock offering, and ended the year with 17 restaurants. In January 1993 Taco Cabana announced that it was purchasing cash-strapped Two Pesos' restaurant assets in exchange for 940,000 shares of Taco Cabana stock, valued at approximately $22 million. For $30 million, the sale The sale included all 30 San Antonio restaurants of Two Pesos. Taco Cabana converted most Two Pesos locations into Taco Cabana restaurants, closed others and sold the associated Shortstop Hamburger chain.
Taco Cabana sales hit a high in 1994 at $127 million. That year, Stehling decided to resign as chairman and was succeeded by Cervera. Despite the rise in revenues the company saw while Cervera was in charge, stock prices for Taco Cabana drastically dropped, and Cervera resigned in 1995 and was replaced by Stephen Clark.
Business model change and purchase
In 1995 Cervera resigned as president for a position with the House of Blues, remaining chairman and CEO.
Stephen Clark was appointed both COO and president. Clark began evaluating of Taco Cabana's operations with his own management team. He closed several of the company-owned restaurants, restructured some of the franchisee debt, sold assets not related to restaurants, and slowed the expansion. In 1996, Taco Cabana introduced a new type of restaurant to the Dallas-Fort Worth area, reminiscent of an old Mexican cafe. It featured a rounded front, clay tile roofing, aged wood paneling and stainless steel counter tops. Customer visits and profits increased, with plans to extend the designs to new restaurants.
Acquisition by Carrols
Taco Cabana had spent around $30 million on brand image by 2000, and while profits had grown, stock price remained low. Clark began looking at sale options. In 2001 the company became privately held as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrols Restaurant Group. After the acquisition, Clark left the company and was succeeded by Mike Biviano.
In 2001 it introduced its Mexican grill concept, including made-to-order grilled beef, chicken, pork and shrimp. Throughout 2002, the franchise closed seven stores in the Phoenix, Arizona area, but Taco Cabana proved profitable. In 2003 Taco Cabana began creating a new restaurant prototype with an eight-foot char-grill. That year Taco Cabana opened nine new restaurants. In 2004, it marketed the concept of fresh food and San Antonio heritage. From 2004 through 2005 Taco Cabana added five more restaurants.
The franchise operated 120 restaurants in 2005.
Fiesta Restaurant Group
In 2011, Carrols Restaurant Corp. announced its intentions of separating its Hispanic brands and Burger King restaurant business into two separate public companies. The Hispanic brands were placed under Fiesta Restaurant Group, the new subsidiary of Carrols Restaurant Corp. Fiesta Restaurant Group companies had a combined revenue of $439.1 million in 2010. In August 2011, Carrols Restaurant Corp named Tim Taft the CEO of Fiesta Restaurant Group, succeeding Fiesta chairman Alan Vituli. By the time the separation of the brands was complete in 2011, Fiesta Restaurant Group saw an 8.2 percent revenue increase for the year and finished at $475.0 million in 2011. In April 2012, Carrols Restaurant Corp agreed to allow Fiesta Restaurant Group to spin-off with Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical. The spin-off was completed on May 8, 2012.
Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc went public on NASDAQ under the symbol FRGI on May 8, 2012.
Renovations
In 2012, Taco Cabana began renovating their restaurants in San Antonio and Houston. The new design featured decorative metal "estrella" (star) lights hanging from the ceiling, papel picado accents throughout and large street-life photos from Mexico decorating the walls. As of October 1, 2012, it operated 160 restaurants and was a subsidiary of Fiesta Restaurant Group. Later that year, the founder, Felix Stehling, died at the age of 87. In December 2012, Fiesta announced that would be moving the location of their headquarters to Addison, Texas, with plans to grow substantially over the next 2 years.
As of 2014, Fiesta Restaurant Group continued to own Taco Cabana. As of January 3, 2016, Fiesta had 162 company-owned Taco Cabana Restaurants, and six franchised ones. In January 2016, Fiesta had 162 company-owned and six franchised Taco Cabana restaurants. In February 2016, Fiesta announced that it would split its two brands, Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical, into two separate companies. Over the next year or two, it was announced that all of Taco Cabana's stock would be distributed to Fiesta shareholders, and that Fiesta would be renamed Pollo Tropical. The plan to separate Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana was dropped in September 2016. At the time, there were plans to open up to 10 new Taco Cabana restaurants in Texas, adding to the 164 company-owned stores and 7 franchised ones. In 2017, the store saw some some declines in sales in the second quarter, which Fiesta attributed to less marketing. As of July 2017, it had 176 Taco Cabana stores.
Menu and ordering
Most Taco Cabana restaurants have a drive-thru and many are open 24 hours a day. For most of the chain's history all locations were painted in the company's signature pink. Taco Cabana is known for its interior, semi-enclosed and patio dining areas. Most menu items are handmade daily on site in open display cooking areas, including fajitas on an open-flame grill and tortillas made in-house.
In 2002, it temporarily introduced flautas to the menu. They were made permanent after they proved popular. In 2003, Taco Cabana introduced the "premium bowl," a precursor for salads and bowls on the menu. In April 2004, Taco Cabana introduced the Dozen Breakfast Tacos Box, a promotion that proved popular enough to become permanent. During 2006 through 2010, new products were tested, including the Shrimp Tampico and grilled Pupusa. Taco Cabana has made a number of temporary items permanent since then, with steak street tacos added in December 2010, brisket tacos added in April 2011, sopapillas and flan in June 2011, and shrimp in February 2013.
In 2012, the company's chefs were experimenting with street food. In 2015, Taco Cabana began utilizing an online mobile ordering app. In January 2018, the chain began offering certain breakfast foods all day. The chain continues to have alcohol, with happy hour specials for margaritas for Margarita Day in February 2018. In March 2018, the chain brought back Texas smokehouse brisket. It continues to have taco boxes with a dozen tacos of various sorts, with breakfast tacos available in mornings. It sells some of its hot sauces as of 2017.
Corporate affairs
The company headquarters is in 17,700 square feet (1,640Â m2) of office space in Suite 200 of the 8918 Tesoro Drive building in Uptown San Antonio, Texas.
Programs
In 2008, Taco Cabana rolled out the “Cabana Cares†program to elicit guest feedback, followed by the “Welcome to the Great State of Cabana†passport loyalty program that summer.
Charity work
In San Antonio, Taco Cabana is involved with several local military organizations, offering discounts for those in the military. For a number of years has supported the Warrior and Family Support Center (WFSC) at the Brooke Army Medical Center. Since 2010 Taco Cabana has hosted Taco Treat fundraisers for the WFSC.
See also
- Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc.
- Two Pesos
- List of Texas companies (T)
- List of Mexican restaurants
References
External links
- tacocabana.com
- "Tempest in a Taco" Texas Monthly, October 1988 by Bill Crawford (link requires registration)
