It’s the greatest couplet in the restaurant industry: Taco Tuesday. Alliterative, similarly syllabic, tacos. Promises a day devoted to the world’s perfect meal at a discount, even. Taco Tuesday specials exist all across the United States, from Los Angeles to small town Tennessee, food trucks in the barrios to high-end restaurants in hipster haunts. And if people aren't eating out, they are frequently making tacos at home.
So where did this idea come from? Why is it Taco Tuesdays and not Taco Thursdays or Taco Sundays?
Since 1989, Taco Tuesday® has been a registered trademark of Taco John’s, one of the largest Mexican restaurant chains in the United States. Never heard of it? That's not too surprising. While it has 400-plus locations, the chain mostly operates in the Midwest, and it’s based in Wyoming. Their biggest claim to culinary fame is Potato Olés flat-tasting tater tots that you can dip into guacamole, queso, or salsa. The restaurant is far more infamous for their campaign to keep Taco Tuesday® all to themselves. While many other restaurants use the phrase, they legally cannot.
Every couple of years, Taco John's sends cease-and-desist letters to small restaurants who use the phrase Taco Tuesday® and force them to stop under threat of further legal action. Taco John’s makes no apologies for its heavy-handedness. “Ever hear of Taco Tuesday®?” reads their website. “We started it! We even trademarked it. That’s how seriously we take tacos.”
The move always prompts angry articles by media watchers befuddled that anyone would ever copyright a phrase as ubiquitous as Taco Tuesday. Taco Tuesdays are now part of our DNA. It's an American institution.
Trying to pin down who “invented” Mexican food dishes and customs is a parlor game riddled with charlatans and tall-tale tellers. There are at least a dozen origin stories for the margarita, more than a few for Korean tacos, and too many theories about the origins of burritos to even pay attention.
But on the subject of Taco Tuesday, the evidence is clear: Taco John’s doesn’t know what it’s talking about. And the phrase was in existence long before the chain got around to filing for its trademark.
The Priceonomics story quotes the Taco John’s spokesperson as saying Taco Tuesday came from one David Olsen, a franchisee who coined the term for his Minnesota location in the “early 1980s” as “Taco Twosday.”
But that ran contrary to Taco John’s own website in 2011, that stated Taco Tuesday® started in Rapid City, South Dakota, in 1982. Which contradicted their 2010 press release that said the company started Taco Tuesday® in 1983. And ran aground of a Taco John’s spokesperson who told The Oklahoman in 2010 that the special began in February 1982.
Taco John’s own trademark application on file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office shows the company claims it first used Taco Tuesday® in 1979. But by then, the phrase had been in use for nearly a decade across the United States -- and the tradition of a taco special on Tuesday went back even longer.
Taco John's wasn't even the first Mexican chain to launch a Taco Tuesday campaign. That honor went to Baker's Drive-Thru, which operates in California's Inland Empire to this day and advertised a taco special on Tuesday as early as 1967. Their first Taco Tuesday campaign seems to date to 1976. “Why are Tuesdays special?” read an ad in the November 2, 1976, edition of the Progress Bulletin in Pomona. "Taco Tuesday at Baker's is tradition."
To me, Taco Tuesday demonstrates the ubiquity of Mexican food to be part of mainstream U.S. cuisine. It is one of the final stages of when Mexican food conquers the USA. Ultimately I'm bemused at the Taco Tuesday® battles, mostly because the idea that one day of the week could be reserved for tacos is ridiculous. We don't need to call it ‘Taco Tuesday’; we just call it ‘Tuesday.' With all this being said, I am seriously considering trademarking 'Thaco Thursday.' Why? Because it's all Mexican to me!
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Barbeque Tacos
INGREDIENTS
For the Pork
- 2 1/2 pounds pork loin, cut into large 4-inch chunks
- 1/4 cup broth (chicken or beef)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
- 1 1/2 cups homemade barbeque sauce (below) or your favorite store-bought
For the Barbeque Sauce
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 4 cups thinly sliced onions (about 2 large onions)
- 1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cup water (or more if you want a thinner sauce)
- 1 6-ounce can of tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (more if you want it spicier or less if you don't want it too spicy)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the cooking fat and the onions and saute for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onions become translucent.
- Add the rosemary, garlic, and salt and mix together. Lower the heat to low and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the onions don't burn. The onions should be a brownish/yellow color at the end of the cooking process and reduced 3/4 in volume.
- Add the caramelized onions to a blender along with water, tomato paste, vinegar, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, ground ginger, and ground cinnamon.
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Place the pork, broth, barbeque sauce, olive oil, paprika, cumin, and sea salt into a slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 7-8 hours, until the meat, is very tender.
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When tender, pull the meat apart with a fork until completely shredded.
