Chronic Tacos facts for kids
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| Private | |
| Industry | Fast casual Franchising |
| Founded | 2002 in Newport Beach, California, US |
| Founder | Daniel Biello and Randy Wyner |
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Number of locations
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60+ (2020) |
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Area served
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Key people
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Chronic Tacos is a popular American restaurant chain. It serves delicious tacos, burritos, and other tasty Mexican-inspired foods. The first Chronic Tacos opened in 2002 in Newport Beach, California. It was started by two friends, Daniel Biello and Randy Wyner. By 2020, Chronic Tacos had more than 60 locations. You can find them in the United States, Canada, and Japan.
Since 2011, Chronic Tacos has teamed up with Gringo Bandito hot sauce. They host a fun eating contest called the Gringo Bandito Chronic Tacos Challenge. Famous eater Takeru Kobayashi even set world records there in 2015 and 2017 for eating the most tacos!
How It Started
Daniel Biello and Randy Wyner opened the very first Chronic Tacos. This happened in Newport Beach, California, in 2002. They wanted to create a place like the local taquerias they loved. But they also wanted customers to be able to choose exactly what they wanted in their food.
In 2005, they opened their second restaurant. It was in Huntington Beach, California. The company started to grow quickly. By 2006, Chronic Tacos began letting other people open their own restaurants. This is called franchising. Their third location opened in San Clemente, California. As the company got bigger, Daniel and Randy decided to take a break.
Growing Bigger
In 2010, Chronic Tacos opened its first restaurant in Canada. Randy Wyner then started talking with Michael Mohammed in 2011. Michael was a person who helped finance franchises. They talked about buying back more control of Chronic Tacos.
In 2012, Michael Mohammed and Randy Wyner became the main owners of the company. They paused opening new franchises until 2015. This allowed them to focus on making the company even better. In 2018, Chronic Tacos opened its first restaurant in Japan. This showed how much the company had grown around the world.
New Food Options
Chronic Tacos also started offering more choices for different diets. In 2016, they added a vegetarian option. This included common fajita vegetables. Then, in 2019, they partnered with Beyond Meat. They began offering Beyond Beef Crumbles. This was a new vegan protein option for their customers.
