Driving through town, one of my favorite games is spotting businesses that have clearly moved into buildings with a past life. Often, you can tell right away- maybe it’s the distinctive windows of an old Pizza Hut, the roofline of a Walgreens, or the sprawling layout of an old Kmart. One such building, a liquor store, on the south side of Muncie, tells a similar tale: it was once a Taco Tico! 

Muncie’s Taco Tico franchise was owned by Indiana Restaurants, Incorporated, of nearby Anderson¹. Stores at 1400 West McGalliard, 418 South Tillotson, and the one on Madison joined the company’s restaurants in Anderson and Terre Haute. Here, the first location on McGalliard Road was built on the site of H. Salt Fish and Chips around 1973. The Madison location soon followed.

Unfortunately, Taco Tico didn’t last long in Muncie. In 1983, the Madison and Tillotson stores changed their names to Taco Casita after Indiana Restaurants decided not to renew its franchise contract. I’ve eaten at the Taco Casita in Terre Haute, and it was pretty good! My mom is of a more refined palate, though, and probably prefers to never go back. 

The old Taco Tico on Madison Street in Muncie still looks much like it did during its heyday, but it, too, has seen changes. The Gold Nugget restaurant opened in the space in 1985, serving items like the Mule Team (a New York Strip), Campfire Toast (a grilled cheese sandwich), and the Grubb Steak Platter, a ribeye. After a brief time as Country Cuzins², Save-On Liquor opened in the storefront in the late 1980s. It’s still there today, but nods to the building’s past like its stucco walls and arches preserve the building’s provenance as one of Muncie’s long-lost Taco Ticos. 

Sources Cited
1 Two Taco Restaurants Of Anderson Serve Genuine Mexican Foods (1978, March 5). The Anderson Herald. p. 29.
2 Country Cuzins (1986, July 19). The Muncie Evening Press. P. 18.