After 56 Years, Taco John’s Says Adios To Its Cheyenne Corporate Headquarters

The Cheyenne-born restaurant chain that brought the world Taco Tuesday and Potato Olés is quietly saying adios to Wyoming and fully relocating its corporate headquarters to the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park, Minnesota, after 56 years in business. 

Former Taco John’s Vice President of Marketing Renee Middleton said the move was kept deliberately under wraps given the strong emotional ties many maintain with the restaurant chain that started as a taco stand outside the entrance to Cheyenne Frontier Days and now includes around 380 stores. 

"I bleed Taco John's hot sauce," said Middleton, who described a gradual separation that started back in 2020 and now appears to be a near total severing of corporate ties to Cheyenne. 

Middleton said some members of the accounting department remain in the old Taco John’s headquarters, but the rest of the building at 808 W. 20^th St. is now occupied by the Wyoming Lottery. 

"It's been very hush-hush," Middleton told Cowboy State Daily on Thursday. "They haven't been talking about it because obviously there's some very strong feelings about Taco John's and Wyoming, and Cheyenne specifically."

Most corporate functions have migrated to St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, where new CEO Heather Neary has established the chain's new base of operations.

An Emotional Connection

For Middleton, her connection to Taco John's extends back to high school when she sold advertising for Cheyenne East High School's newspaper.

Founders Jim Woodson and Harold Holmes, “They were my best clients," Middleton recalled.

Years later after college, she was hired on. 

While at Taco John’s, Middleton said she recognized the challenges of maintaining the company’s headquarters in Cheyenne.

"Recruiting was definitely one of Heather's issues when she took over the chain," Middleton said. "Getting somebody to move from Kansas City, Missouri, to Cheyenne — those were a bit of a hard sell.

“Almost all of the vice presidents, outside of myself, lived in Colorado somewhere and they commuted up."

Middleton's personal memories are bound to the company’s history the same way the menu’s Taco Bravo marries hard and soft taco shells. 

Beyond its trademarked Taco Tuesday innovation, there was Soft Shell Saturday taco specials, which were a favorite time to go to Taco John's for Middleton’s mother and brother, she said. 

The company's visual identity changed over the years too, evolving from a logo featuring "a little Mexican guy riding in a cart being pulled by a donkey" to simpler designs,” Middleton said.

When the donkey disappeared from the logo, Middleton's brother joked with their mother: "Well, they got rid of the donkey. It had to go somewhere." 

The implication, delivered with a ravenous smile, was that it had been turned into taco meat.

Woodson and Holmes — who bought out the original Taco House founder John Turner — were "two men that came together at the right point in their life, and they balanced each other out and created this crazy, successful, growing fast food company before fast food — before the QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry really existed at that time,” she said.

Regional Spice

While Taco Time claimed the Northwest and Del Taco dominated the Southwest, Taco John's carved out its territory in the intermountain and upper Midwest regions. 

Former CEO Barry Sims told Cowboy State Daily the chain found its niche serving food that was "a little bit spicy, more than a little bit bolder" than competitors like Taco Bell.

Under Sims's leadership, the company made bold moves into the fast breakfast market. 

"Our style was never to force things on our franchisees. It was more to mutually agree that this was the best way to go,” said Sims, who helped pioneer this segment of the business that now includes the Scrambler Burrito and Mexican Donut Bites. 

Another former CEO, Jim Creel, made the pivotal decision that would eventually lead to Cheyenne's corporate exodus. In 2020, he opened a satellite office in Minneapolis because it was a practical and strategic move. 

"Within about six hours of Minneapolis, we had 200 stores," Creel explained. "And so we needed a bigger base in Minneapolis to help service those stores. We reduced the size of the Cheyenne operation at that time in order to beef up the operation in Minneapolis, to be closer to the stores."

Since then, it's been a gradual and steady separation from Cheyenne for the company, as more functions migrated and executive leadership established permanent residency in Minnesota.

Deep Roots

Despite corporate headquarters now calling Minnesota home, Cheyenne won't soon shake its love for Taco John's.

The connection runs too deep, including generations of teens working for the chain. It’s embedded in the community's DNA through decades of shared meals and memories. The University of Wyoming even maintains an archive of Taco John’s memorabilia 

“It was West Mex,” said Creel. “That was a way to describe that because it wasn't Tex-Mex and it wasn't really Mexican. It was West Mex. It was on our own brand of doing it."

Cowboy State Daily messages for current Taco John’s officials at the new company headquarters were not responded to by the time this story was published. 

Creel said he can relate to any separation anxiety Wyoming fans of Taco John’s might feel when they hear news about the chain moving its HQ out of Cheyenne. He now lives in Oklahoma, far from the nearest Taco John’s. 

“Every time I’m in Cheyenne, every time I'm there, I go to Taco John's, alright,” said Creel. “I gotta get my fix."

David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.