Closure News

Taco Cabana closes 19 restaurants including one location in Austin

Less Taco Cabana for everyone.

Photo courtesy of Taco Cabana

The parent company of Taco Cabana has closed 19 locations, all in Texas.

According to a release, Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc., Taco Cabana's parent company, closed 19 Taco Cabana restaurants in Texas, effective immediately. Nearly all employees impacted by the closures will be offered positions at other Taco Cabana locations.

The store in Austin that closed was located at 8620 Burnet Rd.

Store also closed in:

New Braunfels, at 1675 W SH 46
Waco, at 825 S. 6th St.
San Antonio, at 11701 Blanco Rd.

Five locations closed in Houston and one in College Station.

Seven stores closed in the Dallas-Fort Worth area including the location on Dallas' Greenville Avenue that has been a staple in the neighborhood for many years, and was home to the famed Tango Frogs, a colorful sculpture from larger-than-life artist Bob "Daddy-O" Wade, who recently passed away.

Rachel Wade, daughter of the artist, says that as far as she knows, the frogs still belong to Taco Cabana. A TC spokesperson said he was looking into their status.

"The frogs have been hopping from roof to roof from the beginning, I'm sure they will land on their feet again," Wade says.

Fiesta President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Stockinger said in a statement that the closures were part of a plan to improve the bottom line, and that the stores they closed were "underperforming."

"These closures eliminate all stores with significant losses, which we expect will result in a highly viable portfolio of restaurants," Stockinger said.

Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc. is also the parent company of Pollo Tropical.

"We continue to make progress on sales building initiatives across both Pollo Tropical and Taco Cabana in off premise sales, including catering, online and delivery," he said. "In addition, as our new senior management team enters their first full year together, we are optimistic about improving comparable restaurant sales at both brands in 2020."

closings

NYT loves AUS

Homey Austin bakery Comadre makes New York Times Best Bakeries list

Comadre Panadería/Instagram

Comadre Panadería is known for nostalgic Mexican bakes with feminine flair.

The New York Times has once again shined its spotlight on Austin’s culinary scene. It included Comadre Panadería, an Austin bakery focusing on Mexican treats, on its new list of the 22 of the Best Bakeries Across the U.S. Right Now.

Interim food critic Priya Krishna praises pastry chef Mariela Camacho’s pastries that include conchas and her signature pink cake. “Despite their saccharine appearances, not one of the desserts is overly cloying, and even the coffee drinks (Texas pecan horchata! Cranberry vanilla agua fresca!) strike the playful tone of the pastries,” she writes.

Comadre Panadería has been widely recognized, including by this publication; she won Pastry Chef of the Year in the 2023 CultureMap Austin Tastemaker Awards. She also earned a 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef or Baker.

Camacho and Comadre as a whole are both invested in using baked goods to make a more equitable world, from the bakery's early days as a fundraiser for disaster relief, to a current insistence on charging enough to support ethical and organic foods, and paying staff enough to keep up with rising costs in Austin.

Mariela Camacho of Comadre Panaderia in Austin Mariela Camacho, Comadre Panaderia. Courtesy photo

The Times also recognized Houston's Koffeteria. Krishna hails the bakery for pastry chef-owner Vanarin Kuch’s creative fare that includes dishes such as beef pho kolaches, Chinese sausage breakfast tacos, and butter mochi.

“Some of Mr. Kuch’s offerings are rooted in his Cambodian American identity — he makes cornbread with the coconutty, scallion-forward flavors of Cambodian street corn — while others are odes to Houston’s multicultural makeup. But most of the fun of Koffeteria is having no idea what Mr. Kuch will do next, and eagerly awaiting his next innovation,” Krishna writes.

Open since 2019, Koffeteria has been riding high this year. It earned a James Beard Award semifinalist nomination for Outstanding Bakery and a CultureMap Houston Tastemaker Award for Pastry Chef of the Year.

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Koffeteria (@koffeteria)

Comadre Panadería and Koffeteria are the only Texas establishments to make the Times’ list. Only California and New York City, which each have three representatives, earn more recognition.

lists media desserts koffeteria new york times