RPS to replace Taco John’s

When IU students return to campus in the fall, they will no longer be able to purchase their beloved potato olés. Taco John’s is leaving Gresham Food Court at the end of this semester.

Director of Residential Dining Services Sandra Fowler said they’ve known for about two or three years that the franchise, which has been at IU since 1997, would be leaving.

“They were discontinuing that part of their franchise,” Fowler said. “They are no longer going to support Taco John’s express restaurants.”

She said the contract officially ended in February, but the restaurant agreed to stay for the remainder of the school year.

“It takes time, and we haven’t found a replacement at this point,” she said. “It wasn’t our decision. The main thing we hear is ‘Oh my goodness, where am I going to get my potato olés?’”

Dining Services Business Consultant Errol Huffman said the express restaurants are usually in places such as airports. Residential Programs and Services has tried to negotiate exceptions with Taco John’s, he added.

“If we don’t follow through with a suitable replacement, there will be some customer dissatisfaction with that,” Huffman said.

Huffman said Taco John’s considered staying if RPS opened a full-sized restaurant, but Huffman said that is not feasible.

“We knew students were not going to be willing to give up eight or nine venues to put in a full store,” Huffman said. “It’s just a parting of business plans and ways.”

Fowler said RPS performs surveys each fall about menu items. She said a menu comprised of Mexican food or chicken were the most popular choices to replace Taco John’s. RPS is planning a Mexican-style menu in place of it and is currently testing new recipes. She compared the new addition to El Bistro in Read.

She said it will be a larger menu and that chefs are taste-testing every week. She said these tests are done with student groups such as the Meal Plan Committee, a combination of student leaders and dining administrators.

“We discuss a lot of issues about meal plans and meal service in general,” Fowler said.

She said they worked with this same group to organize the menu for El Bistro.

“I think we’ll have some fun, new things,” Huffman said.

He said that next year they will try to get input about what kind of new franchises students might want, but he also said it might be possible that students won’t want the new Mexican-American menu to leave.

He said it is normal for schools to want to obtain new franchises and refresh their menu and that students might have new items to choose from such as fish tacos.

RPS worker and graduate student Bhumi Patel orders from Taco John’s every time she goes to Gresham. She said she gets potato olés and loves them.

“The round thing is very attractive to me,” she said. “They taste nice.”

Sophomore Michael Demesey said he gets nachos from Taco John’s regularly and will also miss the olés.

“I’m going to be upset that I will no longer be able to have potato olés,” he said.
Fowler said she will miss the franchise.

“Taco John’s has been a really good partner over the years,” she said. “They’re easy to
work with. We’ve been fortunate to work with them, so we’re sorry to see them go.”