6722 Broadmoor Avenue SEJ and L got home early Sunday morning from their trip to Wisconsin for figures skating camp….then I left mid-afternoon Sunday to go to work.
I don’t have a lot of weekends free so when shift coverage comes up, I try to volunteer on the days I don’t have anything planned so I don’t get forced in to working the days that I do. I didn’t have anything planned for this Sunday so I took the shift hoping that would defer from a future forced overtime scenario.
When I work weekends, I have to work out of the Grand Rapids office. I left Kalamazoo a little early because I was hungry and Grand Rapids has a chain restaurant we dont’ have in Kalamazoo. Taco John’s.
There are now three Taco John’s locations in the Grand Rapids area and none of them are near US-131. There’s one on 28th Street in Wyoming, one in Hudsonville, and one in Caledonia. I’m a little extra and wanted to write a new blog post so I picked the one in Caledonia despite it being a little out of my way.
The Taco John’s in Caledonia is on Broadmoor a couple of miles south of the interchange with US-6. The small taco joint sits on the corner of Broadmoor and 68th Street surrounded by gas stations. Like most fast food chains, Taco Johns aesthetics have modernized a lot in the last couple of decades. Gone are the yellow and red signs and in is a more clean almost antiseptic look of greys and whites with pops of red.
The thing I’ve noticed is these new restaurants are small. They’re just kind of a rectangular box set up in the parking lot. Dining in isn’t as popular as it used to be so they don’t need a lot of space. Still, there is a small dining room that looks just as sterile as the outside of the building because eating tacos in the car isn’t an easy thing to do.
I knew what I was going to order before I walked in. I stepped up to the counter and ordered six crispy tacos. The lady taking my order asked if I wanted to the potatoes too. It’s called “Six pack and a pound” and I think it was meant to feed two people. I said yes because I haven’t had the potato ole’s in a while…and I was hugry. The cost was around $17.
It only took a few minutes to get a bag handed to me with the food. I was kind of in a hurry at this point because I went so far out of my way to get lunch I was now running a little bit late. I skipped the dining room and headed back to the car.
You can’t eat tacos while driving. Trust me. I’ve tried. I used to have a 5-speed Ford Ranger and there was a Taco John’s near my high school. I’d sneak out for lunch (we had a closed campus) and try to eat before I got back to school just in case I got caught walking back in. I made a lot of messes trying to hold a taco and shift gears…but it was worth it.
The Potato Ole’s are easy to eat while driving though. These are pretty much tater tots. They’re little coins of crispy, fried potatoes with Taco John’s signature seasoning. I’m not a big tot guy. They just always taste a little bland to me. The Potato Ole’s are a little better than a typical tot but I still feel like they don’t have a ton of flavor. I ate a whole pound of them though so I don’t dislike them. I’d rather just eat more tacos than filling up on tots.
This is going to sound weird to a lot of people but it’s a hill I will die on. Taco John’s tacos are the best fast food tacos out there. I ordered six, but I could eat 60. The tacos meat has so much more flavor than it’s competitors. It’s kind of spicy but also kind of sweet. There’s some kind of sauce that makes the meat thicker and just…better. There wasn’t a lot of meat in any of the crispy tacos shells which is a bummer but there’s so much flavor in each bite, you don’t really notice you’re eating mostly shell.
Taco John’s is one of those nostalgia places for me. We don’t have any in Kalamazoo which is a bummer. Growing up in East Central Illinois, we would do Taco Tuesday quite often and always do Tacos for A’s on our report cards….at least until I stopped getting as many A’s.
I said it earlier. I will die on the hill that Taco John’s has the best fast food tacos. They’ve always been one of my guilty pleasures and I wish there were more around me. The Grand Rapids locations aren’t really convenient when I’m working out of that office but I will go out of my way if I have time.