How the new president of Rusty Taco is taking the taco chain into a new eraHow the new president of Rusty Taco is taking the taco chain into a new era

Joanna Fantozzi

Just over 18 months after Inspire Brands sold Rusty Taco to Gala Capital Partners, the Dallas-based quick-service taco chain is looking to the future. Rusty Taco recently hired a new president Daniel Smith — previously of Hopdoddy – to take the concept into a new era, by bolstering its team and improve the menu. The 30-unit brand has an ambitious goal of opening 20 stores a year to become one of the top Mexican limited-service chains in the country.

“Rusty Taco has been around since 2010, but I still view them as a rising brand because we’re at an exciting juncture where innovation and execution are going to pave the way forward for us,” Smith said. “I came in and said, ‘We’re going to flip everything on its head.’ We’re looking at everything from our team to how we support our franchisees, and how to evolve the tone of the brand: what the food tastes like, what the stores look like. My message to current and future franchisees is to gear up to achieve something special.”

The only thing he really needs to evolve the Rusty Taco brand into something bigger than ever before, Smith said, is time. The team is starting with examining the menu to make sure that each menu item and even side dish tastes as flavor-packed as it could be. For example, Rusty Taco currently serves a street corn side dish that’s available but not officially on the menu because it’s not terribly popular.

Related:Rusty Taco names former Hopdoddy Burger Bar COO Daniel Smith president

“We taste it and we're like, ‘yeah, that’s really just average,’ so yesterday we created a chipotle aioli to put on top with rice, crushed tortilla chips, salsa, crema, and red peppers,” Smith said. “Multiple guests tried it and said that this should be an entrée if you put some protein on top of it. So, we're going through each menu item, and trying to figure out how do we blow this brand up.”

From knowing where the avocados or cheese are being sourced, to determining if the tortillas are elastic enough, no detail is too small for brand-wide menu improvements. Rusty Taco is even testing out new menu items, like burritos, which might come to the brand’s menu for the first time ever.

This is all part of Rusty Taco’s plans to return to the brand’s roots. Smith said that the concept was born out of Rusty Fenton’s trip to Mexico and coming back with a love for tacos and a need to translate that authentically to the U.S. market.

“We’ve strayed from our roots in the past,” Smith said. “[In the future you can] expect a reimagined, reinvigorated version of our brand. I'm trying to bring a new voice and tone that can capture the flavors….I think people feel they’re not getting a lot of value right now out of restaurants, and their experience is not as good as it used to be.”

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Rusty Taco is not afraid to cheekily poke fun at the brand’s competitors to amplify Rusty Taco’s emphasis on quantity and quality. For example, recently the brand made a social media post with the caption, ‘Rusty Taco: cutting lines, not portions since 2010” as a not-so-subtle nod to Chipotle Mexican Grill’s controversy over shrinking portion sizes.

“We honor the journey that Rusty Taco has been on, but we also know that being good enough is our enemy,” Smith said. “We’re in a race with ourselves to try to come up with new flavors, improve food quality and uniqueness. We’re trying to make the food so unique that you think it’s not what you were expecting and enough variety that you can come in for two weeks in a row and eat something different every single day.”

Beyond evolving the brand, menu, and marketing messaging, Rusty Taco will also be hyper-focused on improving franchisee relations by providing more corporate support. Rusty Taco will also be embarking on a growth spree, with plans for 20 restaurants a year, starting by building out the Texas market and expanding to regions like Florida, Arizona, Colorado, and more.

Contact Joanna at [email protected]