Monday, April 04, 2005

One Potato, Two Potato

Taco Time International Mexican Quick Service Restaurant

Something terrible is happening on the outer edges of Chicagoland.

Once upon a time, there was a Taco John's at Spring Hill Mall. Its presence there, while never confirmed visually, brought me comfort and the crazy hope that, as the chain expanded its territory outward from its small-town, middle America roots, we'd see more potato oles coming our way.

Yesterday, we had a hankering for those oles, and got all ready to go to the one suburban Taco John's. Lo and behold--it is now Taco Time. This restaurant, from Oregon, is apparently on a faster track to take over the Chicago suburbs, with plans to open a store at Woodfield next month. Can your local mall be far behind?

This is a sad development. While Taco Time features MexiFries, they're really just seasoned tater tots. See?


Whereas a potato ole is almost a seasoned tater tot, but shaped differently, seasoned better, and somehow just tastier.


I will get over this disappointment--but we may be stopping at a Taco John's on our way home from the wedding in Minnesota at the end of the month!

2 comments:

Richard said...

Tacos have lettuce and tomatoes on them. And I prefer the ones at John's to the stuff at Taco Bell.

And anyhow, we can't live on salad alone. That would get quite boring, and anyhow I never feel quite full. I've been able to stop myself from eating any more at night after we have salad, despite being hungry, but you should see how hungry I am in the morning.

But if you're so set on my eating salads, I should make you eat at Sweet Tomatoes with me. I've been trying to get Brad to go there for more than a year!

Anonymous said...

It's funny you say that Spring Hill Mall is the only place in the burbs you could find Taco Johns. Until our 2nd year in college, Spring Hill Mall was also the only site (that I'm aware of) in the burbs of Hardees. And one sad night in 1999, my Frisco burger craving was not fulfilled.

I got to say, Richard, that both Tater-Tot wanna be-s look pretty gross. I'd take a Carlos O'Kelly's taco any day.