Taco John's International, Inc. is an American fast food restaurant founded in 1969 by John Turner. The chain serves Mexican-inspired fast food (which it calls "West-Mex") as well as the company's signature dish, Potato Olés, which are bite-sized deep-fried potato nuggets coated with a proprietary blend of spices and seasonings. Taco John's CEO is Jim Creel, and it is headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming. As of 2022, the restaurant chain had 380 restaurants in about 22 states, primarily in the Midwest and Mountain regions.
History
Early days
Taco John's started in 1968 as a trailer called Taco House, run by John Turner.
Turner was an officer in the United States Air Force who served during the Korean War and an aspiring entrepreneur; he was stationed at FE Warren AFB, where he began digging into his entrepreneurial spirit. Initially, Turner wanted to find a physical location for a taco stand. He went to James Woodson to find a location to lease, and Woodson redirected him to Harold W. Holmes, who converted one of his campers into a 12x30 trailer in seven days. This was just in time to pop up at Cheyenne Frontier Days that year, and it was an instant hit. By the end of the year, the first official taco stand opened on the corner of Carey Ave and W 24th St (not to be confused with the first brick-and-mortar location a block away), continuing under the Taco House brand.
Name change, franchising, and explosive growth
Turner began the shift to a franchise in 1969 by selling the franchise rights to Woodson and Holmes, who changed the name to Taco John's in honor of Turner and opened a franchise store under the Taco John's banner. They also launched Woodson-Holmes Enterprises, which gave Woodson the restaurant franchise rights, and the company name became Taco John's International, Inc. The new franchise location featured Taco John's original mascot, a devil, and displayed the tagline "the hottest spot in town". More locations opened in 1969, including the Loveland, Colorado, location on Lincoln Avenue.
This led to more growth of the brand in the 1970s, with many new locations opening, including the 100th store in Scottsbluff, Nebraska, in 1975. In 1973, the first physical brick-and-mortar, in-the-ground Taco John's was built at Carey Ave and W 23rd St in Cheyenne, Wyoming, including a drive-thru. The original Taco John's building was moved to S Greeley Hwy and I-80, where it was demolished, but there is still a Taco John's at that location today.
Taco John's saw such massive growth that it upgraded its Cheyenne headquarters in 1985. The nineties also saw record-breaking success, with an Iowa-based franchise being the first to gain over $1 million in sales in 1994.
Brand partnerships with some challenges
By 2004, Taco John's began a new form of expansion normally seen in larger brands, involving partnerships with other restaurants, including local brands like Good Times Burgers & Frozen Custard and Steak Escape in 2004 and an Arby's in Lindenhurst, New York, that opened in 2015.
While some of these combo stores still exist, including the Taco John's/Steak Escape Combo at Logan St and E 58th Ave in Denver, many have either embarked on a solo journey as the Cheyenne Taco John's did after Good Times disappeared around 2010, or even completely shuttered, as in Commerce City.
Around the same time that some of these combo restaurants were closing, the original franchise owners were reaching their final days. Woodson died at age 87 in 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Holmes died in 2012 of heart complications at age 92 in a hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.
Subsequent booms and challenges
Although Taco John's targeted smaller Midwestern and Western communities in its early years, the chain also began expanding its presence in larger metropolitan areas like Denver and Kansas City, where it had a minor presence since the 1980s. Taco John's also operates several outlets serving the U.S. Armed Forces through the Army and Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES).
While some Taco John's have closed, others have opened, and new experiments have arisen. For example, in 2016, Taco John's saw its first Love's Travel Stop location open in Liberal, Kansas. This was not the first instance of a Travel Stop combo, with one of the more recent Taco John's opening in the Loves Travel Center of Berthoud in 2018.