Grand Opening of Taco Kid on Oberlin Avenue – October 1970

Yes, the Taco Kid rides again on this blog. 

The building at 4300 Oberlin Ave.
that was home to Taco Kid

It seems that I keep coming up with more things to write about this forgotten Mexican fast food chain, which had outlets in Lorain on West Erie Avenue (the building that houses Chapman’s Food Mart) and Oberlin Avenue (where Exhale Hooka Lounge is located). I'm still impressed that this little-known franchise beat Taco Bell to Lorain.

And fifty years ago this month, Taco Kid was holding a Grand Opening of the store on Oberlin Avenue.

Here’s the ad that ran in the Journal on October 16, 1970.

And a day later, this ad ran in the paper.

As I mentioned on an earlier post, the chain was originally called Taco Boy when the West Erie Avenue store opened in 1969. But by early 1970, it had been renamed Taco Kid (which I discussed on this post). 

By October 1970, it seems that only the Oberlin Avenue restaurant was still part of the chain (since it was the only location being advertised). Perhaps a Grand Opening being held so many months after the store first opened was due to a change in ownership or something.

Anyway, a month later, Taco Kid held an unusual promotion – a souvenir poster that was 25 cents with any purchase. Here’s the Journal ad from November 27, 1970.

So why do I think the poster promotion was unusual? Because the poster was for a (fictional) movie called "Midnight Sancho" – a takeoff on Midnight Cowboy. The stars of Taco Kid’s movie was Putsom Meatinya and Bidda Hunkov.

Here’s a copy of the poster. I’m surprised that there are still a few of these floating around the United States.

As you can see, it is indeed a takeoff on Midnight Cowboy’s poster. The burrito on the right is wearing the same fringed cowboy jacket as Jon Voigt did on the Midnight Cowboy movie poster, and the burrito on the left has on the long coat that Dustin Hoffman was wearing. (There’s even a tiny bit of the light pole that was on the Midnight Cowboy poster.)

I wonder what advertising agency thought it was a good idea to tie in the Taco Kid name with an X-rated film about (as Wikipedia puts it) “the unlikely friendship between two hustlers: naive prostitute Joe Buck (Voigt) and ailing con man “Ratso” Rizzo (Hoffman).”

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Although the smell of the hookah smoke now wafts on Oberlin Avenue where once the aroma of tacos and burritos drifted, there’s still one tell-tale sign of the building's origin as a Mexican fast-food joint: its windows.

A realty website reveals that the original half-dome windows from Taco Boy/Taco Kid days are still visible from the inside.

National Taco Week – March 1970

Fifty years ago today, Lorain was just beginning to experience all of the excitement, unique culinary fare and colorful pageantry of National Taco Week.

National Taco Week?

I’ve never heard of it either, but in 1970 the celebration ran from March 18 to March 28 (which, curiously, is longer than a week).

Anyway, amigo, at least one local restaurant chain was part of the celebration then. Taco Kid ran the above ad in the March 20, 1970 edition of the Lorain Journal.

You might remember that I wrote about Taco Kid before. The chain was originally called Taco Boy and was started by the same gentleman who launched Olde English Fish ’n Chips. The name was later changed to Taco Kid (which I wrote about here).

I don’t think National Taco Week ever caught on. But apparently Cleveland liked the idea, and had been planning its own Cleveland Taco Week for April 6 - 12, 2020.

Hopefully the Coronavirus scare will have dissipated enough by then so Cleveland can have its celebration.

A Tale of Taco Boy and Taco Kid

The Taco Boy restaurant on West Erie Avenue in Lorain, circa June 1969
(Currently the home of Chapman's Food Mart)

Back in July 2011, I did a post on the Taco Boy restaurant that was located on West Erie Avenue across from the Castle (in the building that is currently home to Chapman's Food Mart). The Taco Boy restaurant opened in June 1969, to be followed by a second one on Oberlin Avenue that was part of the group owned by businessman Ken Cassell.

However, by the time of the February 1970 "quick service" restaurant article, the building – located next door to the Pizza Hut – had a Taco Kid sign.

Taco Kid restaurant on Oberlin Avenue circa Feb. 1970
(currently the home of Exhale Hooka Lounge)

So why did the restaurant chain change its name and mascot?

Well, I did some research and here's my theory.

Back in the mid 1960s, tacos were growing in popularity thanks to the Taco Bell chain, and quickly becoming an American favorite. Consequently, other taco chains began to pop up.

One of them was located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, with the name of – you guessed it – Taco Boy. An aggressive campaign to sign up Taco Boy franchisees was launched around May 1969. The parent company took care of site selection and building construction; all the franchisee had to do was come up with the $17,000 required investment.

Here's what the Taco Boy logo looked like (below).

Meanwhile in Ohio, businessman Hank Cartwright had been enjoying success in the restaurant franchising field. In 1964, he and his brother had purchased a Pizza Hut franchise in Lincoln, Nebraska. The brothers later added more units: six in Las Vegas, Nevada and two in Phoenix, Arizona. According to an article in the March 2, 1969 Toledo Blade, “they did so well in the franchise restaurant business that the Pizza Hut company bought back all the franchises for $250,000 and gave them the Toledo-Cleveland franchise area to develop.”

Cartwright opened his first Pizza Hut in Toledo in 1967 and another in 1968. A third Toledo unit was under construction, with two more planned for – not surprisingly – Lorain.

With all this franchise experience and success, it’s not surprising that Cartwright decided to start his own franchised restaurant system, called – what else? – Taco Boy! Cartwright’s Taco Boy mascot even looked vaguely similar to the Oklahoma-based company with the same name.

Anyway, by March 1969, Cartwright had three successful Taco Boy restaurants open in Toledo, with outlets under construction at Bowling Green, Ann Arbor and 44 franchises signed up. His stores must have looked very appealing to Pizza Hut, because by July 1969, Pizza Hut bought Taco Boy and all of Cartwright’s Pizza Huts for $1.2 million.

So Lorain's Taco Boy on West Erie was part of this first wave of franchising.

I’m guessing that once Pizza Hut bought the chain, the company determined that there were too many other restaurants around the country with the name Taco Boy. Pizza Hut probably also noticed that Taco Bell was using its own 'Taco Boy' mascot.

So Pizza Hut came up with the name Taco Kid – and that’s what the one on Oberlin Avenue was called, even though it was still listed in the Lorain city directory as Taco Boy.

Courtesy www.locallimetaco.com
(Click here for the link to this image)

I'm not sure how long Taco Kid lasted as a chain owned by Pizza Hut. (The Taco Kid trademark expired in 1992 according to one of those trademark websites.)

And what did Cartwright do shortly after he sold his Pizza Huts and Taco Boys? He started another restaurant chain: Olde English Fish ’n Chips!

So that’s why it makes sense that Lorain had a Taco Kid, a Pizza Hut and an Olde English Fish ’n Chips – all in a row on Oberlin Avenue.

Unfortunately, both of Lorain’s original taco restaurants disappeared from the city directories by the time of the 1971 edition. I guess they were just a little ahead of their time.

Lorain's Oberlin Avenue Quick Service Restaurants Today

That 1970 article about Lorain’s “quick service food” outlets (which I posted back here) revealed that the collection of franchised restaurants on Oberlin Avenue south of Tower Boulevard were all originally owned by Ken Cassell, who wisely grouped them together.

It was certainly a nice variety of culinary tastes all in one place for Lorain’s West Siders.

There was Pizza Hut, Taco Kid (which introduced Lorain to tacos years before Taco Bell), Fish and Chips and Lum’s. I definitely remember going to that Pizza Hut, and my family also went to Lum’s (which I wrote about back here) and was further south on Oberlin Avenue.

So what does that Oberlin Avenue “quick service food” restaurant strip look like today? Here’s my shot from last weekend.

The Pizza Hut (which closed in the mid-1990s) was most recently an internet cafe and today sits vacant.

The building that housed the taco restaurant) is now Exhale Hooka Lounge (below). 

What’s a hooka lounge? Click here if you’d like an explanation.

Of the four franchised restaurants, only the former Fish and Chips location is still serving up food as Diso’s Bistro (below).

Tomorrow, I’ll address the Great Taco Boy/Taco Kid Controversy. I’ll bet you didn’t even know there was one!

Before Taco Bell, There Was... Taco Boy!

Seeing the 'Taco Boy' listing in the small City Directory section that I posted yesterday reminded me that I had this clipping from newspaper microfilm. It's from a June 1969 Lorain Journal, announcing the opening of the two Taco Boy restaurants in Lorain.

I don't remember this fast food chain at all. As I've mentioned before, that stretch of West Erie from Leavitt Road west to the 21st Street undercut was kind of a mystery to me in the 1960's. My family rarely went that way, because we tended to go west on 21st from Leavitt to hook up with US 6. Plus, my first acquaintance with Mexican fast food was at the Amherst Taco Bell in the 1970's. (It used to be a much-anticipated treat when I was a kid.)

Nevertheless, as Lisa noted in her comments on yesterday's posting, today the former Taco Boy building at 2625 West Erie is home to Chapman's Food Mart. According to their Facebook page, they've been there since 1981.

The building doesn't appear to have changed very much, unlike the home next door!