8/4/2023 0 Comments Taco tico southland drive![]() ![]() That's right, this bank used to be a Taco Tico. Not long after the Popeye's closed, its former slot did duty as a makeshift Daewoo showroom for the dealership next door during the brief window of time in which you could buy a new Daewoo car in the US.ģ750 Palomar Centre Dr. I therefore felt obliged to include it here given the connection to nearby Taco Tico locations. This Shell station never housed a Taco Tico, but it's two restaurant slots that are now a liquor store and a barbecue joint were once a Popeye's and a Tacos Too. The two story margarita next door seems fitting and probably doesn't hurt business. Its neighbor is another nicely preserved pueblo style Taco Tico, now serving as an authentic Mexican restaurant. ![]() I had no idea there was a former Taco Tico here until I saw it in the background of a picture in an Atlas Obscura article about the piece of mimetic architecture next door, which was originally built as a mortar and pestle shaped pharmacy. Edit: I've been informed that this building served as a Qdoba until last year when a former manager robbed the place and set it on fire. I had to take this picture through my windshield while sitting at a red light, as the parking lot is completely fenced off, perhaps to deter trespassers. As you can probably guess, it was eventually turned into an ill-fated Popeye's. This was the first Taco Tico I remember seeing with a Tacos Too sign out front. Like most Taco Ticos in the area, this one closed in the mid 90s, and sat empty for a few years, before turning into a Popeye's. I used to beg my parents for quarters so I could play the tabletop Pac Man game here. ![]() It was an outparcel in a shopping center that contained the nearest Walmart to where my family lived, so we'd often have dinner here before a mid-week Walmart run. Now nearly unrecognizable, this building was originally a Taco Tico. It was spared the indignity of being converted to a Popeye's.ġ72 Imperial Way, Nicholasville, Kentucky This location is one that turned into Tacos Too and survived well into this century. Wing Hut is a local business and has another location in Lexington in the building that served as the first ever Fazoli's, among other things.Īn impressively intact pueblo-style Taco Tico building, much like the one still in operation now houses an authentic Mexican restaurant serving cuisine far removed from Taco Tico's menu, which was conceived in the sixties by gringos in Kansas. The other buildings were much more conventional by comparison. I'd guess fewer than half of Taco Tico buildings were the distinctive trapezoidal pueblos. It's had some new paint and awnings, and some decorative flourishes have been removed from the roofline, but the basic shape of the building is the same as it was. ![]() My best guess is that it closed sometime around 2006. My friends and I would frequent this one as well as the Boardwalk location. This was the penultimate Taco Tico location in Lexington. Some of the Tacos Too locations were later converted to Popeye's, presumably when the franchisee wanted to try something new, or perhaps when they received a cease and desist letter from Taco Tico corporate. A few soldiered on for a few years under the name Tacos Too, which I suspect was one franchisee’s strategy for avoiding paying franchise fees while still operating a very Taco Tico like business. (I was a weird kid.) In the mid nineties, most of the Taco Ticos in Lexington closed. As a kid, who knew little of what was outside of Central Kentucky I thought of them as equals in terms of market share. I grew up in a time when there were just as many Taco Tico locations nearby as there were Taco Bells. Ritzy's status as my favorite, it's probably Taco Tico. Thanks in part to its dominance in Central Kentucky during my childhood there, Taco Tico remains my favorite fast food taco chain. If there's one broken chain that comes close to usurping G.D. This very taco wrapper is now framed and hanging in my living room. ![]()
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