I’m interested in this story for two reasons.
Taco Cabana is expanding its signature pink restaurants into nearby states, with redesigned stores and blue agave tequila in every margarita, but San Antonio will remain home to its headquarters and its test kitchen.
The iconic 46-year-old chain was born in San Antonio and will stay here, said Ulyses Camacho, the company’s president and chief operating officer.
“We’re part of the culture,” he said. This will come as little surprise to many, but the San Antonio market, which includes about 38 locations, also holds the distinction of buying the most margaritas.
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In the earliest days of the pandemic, Gov. Gregg Abbott signed a waiver allowing the bar and restaurant industry to sell alcoholic drinks to go. The change was so welcome by businesses and customers that the state legislature made the change permanent in May 2021.
Being able to buy alcohol in the drive-thru “changed things completely,” Camacho said.
Many other pandemic-era customer habits have also become permanent, he said, leading to design changes for Taco Cabana’s future restaurants. Today, customers are still ordering more online — 30% of sales come through apps, he said — and spending less time inside dining rooms.
San Antonio is home to the first example of the new design, unveiled in the fall of 2022 at 2403 Babcock Road. Because that store was previously another restaurant and not built from the ground up, it doesn’t have all the features of the new design, but it does boast a bold, updated color scheme, new exterior design elements and a return of the “beloved” salsa bar.
The first completely redesigned store opened in Spring earlier this year. Along with the new exterior, it has two drive-thrus and a smaller dining room. The patio remains — “we’re known for our patios,” Camacho said, so it was redesigned instead of being cut. “We may close the dining room at 10 p.m., but we’ll keep the drive-thru open until midnight, for the delivery drivers.”
Sales at the newly designed location “has been exceeding by far what we expected,” he said.
Taco Cabana continues to lean heavily into its margaritas, which Camacho believes will be a differentiator among the many other Tex-Mex and Mexican inspired fast casual restaurants that are also attempting to grow nationally.
In July 2020 the company launched its first “MargaritaPalooza” — 12 flavors, $2 a piece, “all day every day.” In 2022, it announced that its Texas locations would become “margarita headquarters,” with 12 permanent flavors and a rotating seasonal 13th flavor.
My first reason for liking this story is that as a Trinity alum, Taco Cabana holds a place in my heart. The original location, a few blocks from the campus, is basically holy ground. I always stop by for some breakfast tacos while I’m in town. Sure, there are plenty of options for this fare, but none has the emotional appeal.
I’m also interested in how Taco Cabana adjusted its business model during the pandemic, as did so many other restaurants. Booze to go was an idea that worked (*) and I’m glad it has helped them. I personally am not much of a to-go person – I’d much rather dine in, I think the food loses something on the journey home. My wife and kids are fine with it, but it’s never my first choice. I do eat outside much more often now – as long as the outside dining area has shade, I can handle summer temperatures. I’m not surprised that a place like TC’s is slimming down its footprint to accommodate a more to-go-oriented clientele – the original location, where I visit, is a tiny space that was always geared more towards takeout. I don’t know how these trends will continue, but it’s good to see when a longtime favorite is successfully navigating them. I wish Taco Cabana continued good health.
(*) As a child of the 80s who remembers well the war on drunk driving, it’s a little strange to see this particular relaxing of laws that were meant to combat DUI. I get it, I supported it then because of pandemic considerations and I think it’s fine to maintain, but there was a reason why we didn’t allow booze to go. I think we should remember what that was, even if we’ve decided to change our minds about it.