By Caleb Struchtemeyer
Red neon lights spelling out “The Taco Stand” act as a beacon to those hungry on the corner of Milledge and Prince Avenue. These lights have shined for nearly 50 years atop of a Spanish tile roof covering a yellow exterior building.
An old flat top grill sizzles in the back. This is where Mark Opal, his red hair poking out of an old Yankees cap and wearing a Starlite Showroom t-shirt as he mans the grill, cooking chicken for the tacos, burritos and nachos that adorn the yellow menu board. He was constantly cooking chicken as it was the restaurant’s most popular choice of filling since the Braves won their first World Series in Atlanta. He also keeps an eye on the bucket of chips at the front of the counter, ready to throw more tortillas into the fryer to make sure customers have fresh chips for their salsa or queso.
He checks in on Shiloh Villalobos periodically as she prepares the orders. He jokes with her, asking if she wants to hear about what he found his son doing the day before.
The door jingles and both greet the couple who has just walked in. They note the dark gray paint on the walls and the vintage starburst clock are new additions since they last came in many years ago. Business cards, lost cat posters and advertisements for upcoming concerts checkered a bulletin board by the door telling the story of what the community had going on. Mark returns to the kitchen to fill the order.
This has been what Tuesday night looks like for Opal since he bought half ownership for the Taco Stand in 2020. He was never planning on owning this long standing fast food joint, but one phone call changed that almost two years ago.
The phone buzzed as Opal was in his kitchen at home.
Opal picked up the phone to see a text from Nancy Stangle, a member of the board of directors for Athens Land Trust. He was confused because he hadn’t talked to her in almost five or six years, not since he had done some construction work for her and sat in on a few of her board meetings.
“Hey Mark, can I call you about a project I’m thinking of?” the text read.
At first, Opal thought she wanted him to remodel her bathroom or help with a construction project.
“Sure, give me a call,” Opal replied. Soon after Nancy calls him.
“You know I own half of the Taco Stand right?” she says.
Opal had no idea that she had half ownership of the Taco Stand, a restaurant that had been in Athens since 1977 and founded by Randle Roberts and Phil Stangle, Nancy’s late husband. When he died in 2003, Nancy took over Phil’s portion of the restaurant.
Still, on the phone, Stangle began to explain to Opal that Roberts wanted to sell off the restaurant. The Dunkin’ Donuts next door had made him an offer on the land that would have made Scrooge McDuck’s mouth water.
It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and it felt like local businesses were disappearing like smoke in a breeze. Not only that, but Roberts was getting older and the wear and tear of keeping up the staff and lugging 50 pound pots of pinto beans was taking its toll. Now that there was an offer on the table, he was ready to sell.
When Stangle told her two daughters, who grew up around the restaurant, about her plans to sell her portion of the Taco Stand, they felt like it was losing a family member. So Roberts told her he would also be willing to sell her portion to a new partner.
“Would you be interested in being my new partner?” Nancy asked during the phone call.
Opal told her he would have to talk with his wife about it and hung up the phone. This was a big decision. Only six years ago, he and a business partner had opened the Starlite Showroom, an antique furniture store downtown. He hadn’t worked in a restaurant since the Clinton administration still called the shots.
Opal met his wife in the next room. She could see that he looked like a character in the Twilight Zone, just after a twist ending. He told her about Stangle’s offer.
“Do it,” she told him, “The Taco Stand is one of the few restaurants I’ve ever worked at and can still eat the food.”
He thought about this for a while. He hated the idea of driving down Milledge Avenue on his way to work every day and seeing a parking lot where the iconic restaurant once stood. He decided to get back in the kitchen.
So, Opal began to crunch the numbers. If he could match the offer that Dunkin’ Donuts had given to Roberts, he would officially become half-owner of the restaurant.
Once the deal was complete, Roberts gave Opal a tour of the Taco Stand. It became clear that there was a lot still to be done.
Roberts points to brown water stains on the ceiling. It looked like it had been leaking for years, it was clear to Opal that after 40 years of running the restaurant, Roberts had started to sleepwalk through managing the restaurant.
This was Opal’s first task. So he began work on fixing up the roof, so the brown water stains didn’t haunt the ceiling any longer. He also gave it a fresh new coat of paint and even added some pieces from the Starlite Showroom to keep its retro flair.
Opal looked up at the yellow menu board, yellow tape covered some of the prices. Inflation had run its course even to this small local business, ensuring that the prices wouldn’t stay the same as they were when Fleetwood Mac ruled the airwaves.
He knew he didn’t want to change the recipes that kept people coming back. He knew, however, that this wasn’t the only Mexican restaurant in town anymore and they needed to be able to fix some things.
Once he finished updating the 1970’s light fixtures and putting up a fresh painting, Opal ingrained himself with the staff. In his experience of working in restaurants in his twenties, he loved the family atmosphere he got from having a tight staff rooted in teamwork.
His very first night, he gathered the staff and told them this vision of a well-oiled ship. Due to the pandemic, there was no indoor dining and the staff he inherited was like a skeleton crew.
He noticed a pair of eyes laser-focused on him, taking in every word he was saying like it was the Gospel. Opal recognized him as Quintez Sims, Roberts had mentioned he was one of the best workers even though he hadn’t been working there long. Opal could already feel like he was going to be his right-hand man.
Sims had only been working at the Taco Stand for a few months, but he already could see that the restaurant had its flaws. People not coming in for shifts, the rundown state of the restaurant and a feeling that he was not being heard by the management were all on his mind as he listened to Opal introduce himself.
At first, he was skeptical, but he was a reliable worker and was going to show Opal the ends and outs of the restaurant regardless. It wasn’t until Opal mentioned giving employees a share of the profits as a bonus to give employees a feeling that they had a stake in the business that brought Sims onboard with Opal’s plans.
After that first meeting, Opal got to work figuring out what worked and what didn’t in this new challenge with the help of Sims to learn the ins and outs of the business.
Within just two years, Opal gave the Taco Stand the most profitable year that Stangle had ever seen the restaurant have and just like that Mark Opal has given the Taco Stand a second life.