A Taco Cabana restaurant in Dallas, Texas

Taco Cabana is a U.S.-based fast food restaurant chain specializing in Tex-Mex cuisine and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Carrols Restaurant Group. Taco Cabana is headquartered in Uptown San Antonio, Texas, USA. As of July 2007, it has over 150 locations throughout Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico.^[2]

Many Taco Cabana restaurants are open 24 hours a day, and for most of the chain's history all locations were painted in the company's signature pink.

History[link]

Taco Combo from an Austin Taco Cabana

Taco Cabana, which was founded by Mike and Felix Stehling in 1978, opened its first restaurant at the corner of San Pedro and Hildebrand Avenues in San Antonio, Texas . Originally the brothers purchased the vacant Dairy Queen because they needed parking space for their popular bar, the Chrystal Pistol, across the street. Recognizing the potential business opportunity, they decided to open a taco stand. The open air design of the existing structure led to the "patio cafe" concept that defined the chain's subsequent locations. Additionally, after all of the patio furniture was stolen after closing the first night, the around-the-clock service concept began.

The restaurant, which focuses on fresh foods rather than pre-packaged, pre-prepared foods and serves beer and margaritas, quickly became successful. By 1985 the Stehlings had a chain of six restaurants in the San Antonio area.

In 1984, Houston restaurant developer Marno McDermot approached the brothers about taking the Taco Cabana concept nationwide. They rejected McDermot's offer. By 1986, with Felix wanting to expand the chain and Mike wanting a smaller enterprise, the brothers split: Felix took five locations and the Taco Cabana name and Mike kept four locations renamed TaCasita.

Marno McDermot continued to develop the idea for a nationwide patio-dining concept and with an associate, Thom Dietrich, incorporated Two Pesos in 1985. Opening two restaurants in Houston later that year, the company hired a former Taco Cabana manager to run one of its stores and had 19 locations within eighteen months. By 1988 the company continued its rapid expansion and had opened locations throughout the southwest and in such far flung cities like Atlanta, Denver, Norfolk and Minneapolis.

In January 1987 Taco Cabana International filed suit against Two Pesos for allegedly duplicating Taco Cabana’s “Trade dress” and for theft of trade secrets (see Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc., 505 U.S. 763 (1992)' section below). Two Pesos lost the case and appealed the ruling all the way to the Supreme Court, who in June 1992 upheld the two lower court rulings in favor of Taco Cabana.

The company went public that same year and again filed suit against Two Pesos alleging that they had not significantly altered their restaurants as was mandated in the previous court ruling.

In January 1993 Taco Cabana announced that it was purchasing cash strapped Two Pesos' restaurant assets in exchange for 940,000 shares of Taco Cabana stock, approximately valued at $22 million.^[3] The sale included all 38 company-owned restaurants as well as all 51 franchised or licensed restaurants, operating under the Two Pesos and Shortstop Hamburgers names. Taco Cabana converted most Two Pesos locations into Taco Cabana restaurants, closed others and sold the Shortstop Hamburger chain.

In 2001 the company was delisted when it became a privately held, wholly owned subsidiary of Carrols Corporation.

[edit] Two Pesos, Inc. vs. Taco Cabana, Inc., 505 U.S. 763 (1992)

Two Pesos opened its first restaurant in 1985. By 1987 it had established a chain of restaurants with locations in Austin, Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth and El Paso. As Taco Cabana expanded into those cities it became clear that the Two Pesos chain had not only saturated these markets with several locations, but had also established itself as the first Tex-Mex Patio Cafe restaurant in those markets. Two Pesos restaurants were alleged by Taco Cabana to have copied the "look and feel" of their restaurants. Primarily citing that Two Pesos copied the 24-hour patio cafe concept and had architecturally similar buildings and features such as overhead doors to open the secondary dining room to the patio dining area, double drive thru windows, open kitchens, similar menu boards, brightly colored canopies and murals, similar floor plans and brightly colored buildings (Taco Cabana's Pink vs. Two Peso's Turquoise).

In 1987 Taco Cabana sued Two Pesos for infringement of trade dress under the Lanham Act and for theft of trade secrets under Texas Common Law in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. The trial court held that Two Pesos had intentionally and deliberately infringed Taco Cabana's trade dress. Damages awarded to Taco Cabana were approximately $2 million and U.S. District Judge John V. Singleton ordered Two Pesos to "change the appearance of its existing Texas restaurants and the design of all future units to avoid confusion with Taco Cabana outlets" and that Two Pesos must post in all existing units a sign stating the outcome of the trial. The "white sign with 1-inch black letters must read: "Notice: Taco Cabana originated a restaurant concept which Two Pesos was found to have unfairly copied. A court order requires us to display this sign to inform our customers of this fact to eliminate the likelihood of confusion between our restaurant and those of Taco Cabana."^[4]

Two Pesos appealed, but the ruling was upheld by the Appellate Court. Two Pesos continued its appeals to higher courts until it reached the US Supreme Court in 1992.^[5]

The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the two lower court rulings and decided in favor of Taco Cabana. Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. is a landmark case that is often cited in trade dress litigation.

Corporate affairs[link]

The company headquarters is in 17,700 square feet (1,640 m²) of office space in Suite 200 of the 8918 Tesoro Drive building in San Antonio, Texas.^[6]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Texas portal
	Companies portal
	Food portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Taco Cabana

• Official Taco Cabana website

Anjelah Nicole Johnson (born May 14, 1982) is an American actress, comedienne, and former NFL cheerleader. Johnson is most notable for her membership in the recurring cast of comedians on sketch comedy series MADtv during its 13th Season. Her characters include a rude fast food employee named Bon Qui Qui and a Vietnamese nail salon employee.

Career[link]

After three years of college, Johnson moved to Los Angeles to pursue an entertainment career. She decided to become a comedian in 2005 and began doing stand-up comedy after a friend suggested that she join a joke writing class.^[2] Prior to that she had been working as an actress in Los Angeles and was taking improv classes in church.^[2][3] She quickly began to headline her own shows after being a featured comedian in just three shows.^[2] As a featured comedian, the comedy clubs that hired her gave her preferential treatment over even the headliners after noticing that her routines were popular with the audiences.^[2] Her stand-up routine comprising her impression of a Vietnamese nail salon employee received much attention on YouTube, and a year after beginning her stand-up career,^[2] in 2007, Johnson joined the cast of sketch comedy show MADtv, as a featured performer. Because of the impending writers strike, Johnson was often given only a few lines in the scripts during her tenure on the show, as the writers had to produce more scripts at a faster pace and thus opted to write more for the already established performers.^[2] However, her character Bon Qui Qui, a fast food employee who treats customers rudely, which she wrote herself was received well.^[2] The clip made its way to YouTube where it gained a large following, quickly outstripping her already popular nail salon routine in views.^[2] In 2008, Johnson was nominated for an ALMA Award for Outstanding Female Performance in a Comedy Television Series for her work on MADtv.^[4]

Johnson was given her own 1 hour Comedy Central special, "Anjelah Johnson: That's How We Do It" in 2009.^[1] She filmed a role in Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel in 2009. She also appeared as America Ferrera's sister in the comedy, Our Family Wedding alongside Forest Whitaker and Carlos Mencia in 2010.^[4] She provided her voice for the live-action adaptation of Marmaduke, which starred Owen Wilson and Emma Stone.^[4] She was also featured on the late night talk show Lopez Tonight, hosted by one of her comedic influences, George Lopez, performing her stand-up routine to the audience. Johnson became the "TC Girl", a spokesperson for Mexican restaurant Taco Cabana in 2011 and appeared in television advertisements for the chain.^[5]

Personal life[link]

Johnson was born and raised in San Jose, California in a devout Christian family.^[3] She is of Mexican-American and Native American descent.^[6] She was a Pop Warner cheerleader from the age of 8 and was active in sports including soccer, softball and track.^[7] She also practiced various dancing style, such as hip hop to break dancing.^[7] She began acting as a senior in high school and was especially interested in affecting different accents.^[7] She later studied speech communications in college.^[7] She subsequently became a cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders after being inducted in 2002.^[7] As a member of the Oakland Raiderettes she was named Rookie of the year and performed in Super Bowl XXXVII.

Johnson married Group 1 Crew member Manwell Reyes in 2011.

Filmography[link]

Movie appearances[link]

Television appearances[link]

Awards and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Anjelah Johnson at IMDb
• Anjelah Johnson on Myspace
• Anjelah Johnson on Twitter

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