Taco Cabana closes all dining rooms, sees sales increase

SAN ANTONIOEditor’s note: This story was published through a partnership between the San Antonio Business Journal and KSAT.

Taco Cabana’s parent company has closed all of its dining rooms as Covid-19 cases spike across most of its markets, but said sales began to recover this month as it launched new methods of service.

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Dallas-based Fiesta Restaurant Group Inc. (Nasdaq: FRGI), which owns both Taco Cabana — headquartered in San Antonio — and Miami-based Pollo Tropical, revealed some details on its restaurant sales and performance in the second quarter in a news release, filed Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the filing, Fiesta President and CEO Richard Stockinger said the company closed all of its dining rooms July 12 until further notice as Covid-19 cases skyrocket in Texas and Florida.

“We have been taking ongoing steps to ensure a safe operating environment throughout this crisis,” Stockinger said. “We will continue to operate our restaurants for drive-thru, delivery and pickup, and we are accelerating efforts to better enable our customers to enjoy our brands safely and conveniently across all channels — wherever and whenever they choose.”

One new service the company launched this month was curbside pickup and delivery of alcoholic beverages from all of Taco Cabana’s Houston and San Antonio locations.

Taco Cabana’s sales plunged 26.2% in April from the same month last year. Sales improved in May with only a 14.5% drop but fell 18% in June. Throughout the second quarter, which ended June 28, sales fell 19.2% from last year.

Read more on this story at the San Antonio Business Journal.