Monday, December 22, 2014

Not Home (for the Holidays)

Place: Taco Time NW
Lunch: Crisp taco (no tomato), crispy chicken burrito, Fanta Lime

You're thinking to yourself "uh, what's the NW for?"  It's for "Northwest", and it's what differentiates your garden variety Taco Time International location from the Taco Time Northwest stores of western Washington.  This is a former Taco Time franchisee (possibly the original franchisee) who broke off from the chain years ago but got to keep the name for themselves in a settlement.  They run completely independent of Taco Time International.  They have their own logo (looks a lot more like the old main chain logo), their own marketing, their own restaurant designs.  They have the same core traditional menu items like crispy burritos and Mexi Fries, but they've added their own new offerings along the way.  They have about 70 stores total and are a strong performer in their territory.   I don't have a specific preference between the two, but suspect the two could learn from each other.

Came home this weekend for my niece's wedding.  Spent the majority of time with family, who I rarely see around the Christmas holiday.  Basically 48 hours on the ground, so apologies to those I didn't reach out to hook up with.  Anyway, I was home for near the holidays, but not quite the holidays.

Either way, I got my fill of Christmas cookies.