Taco Mayo Restaurant is an American fast food chain which specializes in Mexican-style food. The company was founded in

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area, b ...

, and is currently headquartered in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

. Taco Mayo has franchise locations throughout Oklahoma, northern

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

, southern

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

, and western

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...

History

The chain originated in

in May 1978, and by 1980, Taco Mayo had expanded into franchising by establishing three stores in the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. Over the years, Taco Mayo has expanded from a single store in Norman into a regional operation with 53 Taco Mayo locations throughout Oklahoma and its surrounding areas. The restaurant wanted to expand to 200 locations by the year 2000. While it did not reach that goal, it had reached its 100th location by 1997. After the “expansion program” failed, the company began realizing its marketing mistake: never force quantity over quality. Many of the restaurants were built and opened in such a rush that the company did not care about finding the right individuals to run the restaurant or finding the right locations to place the restaurants. Not wanting to be the fast-food chain that everyone stereotyped as poorly crafted or run-down, Taco Mayo's corporate offices closed down many of the locations that were functioning poorly. White, Tim. Interview with Taco Mayo Franchise Owner. Durant, Oklahoma. Interview by Carley Schuessler, Student. 28 February 2017.

Fresh Mex

Also contributing to saving the franchise's name was the idea to upgrade to a “Fresh Mex” style on the restaurant's 25th anniversary. This upgrade included simplifying the menu and showing the customer the freshness of their food by using an open layout bar that displayed the ingredients in plain sight.

References

External links

Official website
{{Oklahoma City companies Companies based in Oklahoma City Restaurants in Oklahoma Economy of the Southwestern United States Regional restaurant chains in the United States Fast-food chains of the United States Restaurants established in 1978 Fast-food Mexican restaurants