Why do I love Taco Time?

"Although comfort food will never break your heart, it might destroy your diet."

— Shira Gabriel, Department of Psychology, University of Buffalo

An unusual comfort food

We just got off a great Thanksgiving holiday. While many cherish having turkey, stuffing, and all the fixings once a year, I don’t really have an emotional reaction to it. Sure, turkey is often dry, but this year, Marsha’s cousin prepared it so well. It was moist, with excellent stuffing, excellent gravy, and homemade cranberry sauce. We had a great pumpkin pie. But it wasn’t what I was looking forward to this holiday season!

For us, a return to Bellevue to see family is also a return to the home of Taco Time Northwest. Still in a food hangover after Thanksgiving, I made a return trip to Taco Time, both to pick up a Black Friday special 2-for-1 of “Take-and Bake crisp burritos” and to have an impromptu meal at 10:15am! I documented this in a video below.

Why did I do this?

The Research

While many researchers have explored the macronutrient content of food and the roles of sugar, starch, and fat in making people feel good, the social connection of food fascinates me. I particularly appreciated the concept of “residential mobility” (i.e., moving!) and its impact on familiarity.

Consider the following passage from the paper “The socio-ecological psychology of residential mobility” (Oishi & Tsang, 2022):

Moving itself is a stressful life event (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), and it is accompanied by a host of other stressful events such as a change in living conditions, schools, neighbors, friends, and affiliations. When people are under stress, they like to cling to familiar objects. The most famous psychological example is Mary Ainsworth's (1979) Strange Situation procedure. In the presence of a mother, an infant explores the world, playing with new toys and searching new territory. Once the mother leaves the scene, however, the infant freezes, cries, and clings to a familiar object (e.g., a teddy bear). In a similar way, an adult under threat is soothed by holding their partner's hand (Coan et al., 2006).

As such, the suggestion here is that the more people move around, the more they may simply seek familiarity.

This concept extends further to people with more residential mobility seeking national restaurant chains.

Extending this logic, Oishi, Miao, et al. (2012) hypothesized that residential mobility would increase familiarity-seeking. They found that U.S. states with a higher rate of residential mobility (e.g., Nevada) have more national chain stores such as Target and California Pizza Kitchen than states with a lower rate of residential mobility (e.g., Pennsylvania). This association held, even after controlling for the total population and median income.

Of course, the issue here, which we’ll also explore later, is that Taco Time Northwest doesn’t have a national chain.

Taco Time memories

As a young person, I only moved once. I was born in Burien and lived there until the first grade when our family moved to Bellevue where I stayed through high school. At that point in my life, I didn’t have much residential mobility, but I did have good, uninterrupted access to Pacific Northwest cuisine. Taco Time isn’t Mexican food, per se, but it represents a uniquely Northwest style of cuisine that was popular among teenagers in the 1980s.

After having lived in California for the majority of my adult life and after numerous trips to Mexico, I’ve grown to really appreciate proper Mexican food. Still, there is still an inexplicable familiarity with Taco Time as a totally different phenomenon. And I probably sought this familiarity with subsequent residential mobility.

Since high school, the longest run I’ve had in one home has been in our current condo in Portland, where we’ve lived since 2018! I went away to college in Boston, and my parents had moved to San Francisco and later Houston after I left home. After grad school in 1990, I went to Silicon Valley. Since Marsha and I have been together (1992), we have moved 8 times.

Whenever I return to the Seattle-area, even to visit, I like to get Taco Time Northwest. We even lived in the Seattle-area twice as adults (2001-2006 and 2016-2018), and, during both stints, I would frequent Taco Time Northwest just as I did in my youth. Objectively, I know that Taco Time isn’t gourmet cuisine, yet I have this strange attraction to it. Here are some pictures of me getting Taco Time whenever I can.

This was my last trip to Bellevue over Thanksgiving.

On a previous trip back from Bellevue to Portland, I stopped at Taco Time Northwest in Longview, WA.

I’ve stopped at Taco Time Northwest in Tumwater, WA while driving up to Bellevue.

I recall visits to Taco Time Northwest to do takeout orders during the pandemic.

And, back when I used to play Pokémon Go, I remember how Taco Time was frequently a place where Pokémon would appear!

Not available elsewhere

The Oishi, Miao, et al. (2012) study would suggest that I would simply seek the national brand of TacoTime that has locations in Oregon! Don’t be fooled by the TacoTime of a similar name owned by Kahala Brands. You’ll notice that the branding on the outside is different from that of Taco Time Northwest.

Worse yet, the food is different. Here’s a snapshot of what I get at Taco Time Northwest. This photo was from 2017 when I was living in Seattle. Notice the fresh hot sauces served in the little plastic cups.

Taco Time NW also has a newer habanero salsa, which I just got here on my last trip to Bellevue!

Now, compare that to the stuff at TacoTime in Oregon. Look at the gross manufactured sauce packets.

I had to squeeze them out onto a napkin to dip the (less good) burritos, and the sauce is just not even close to the same thing!

The Taco Time NW website explains the difference.

And in case you were wondering…

Taco Time Northwest is wholly independent from Kahala Corporation, which owns the rights to Taco Time outside of Western Washington. Except for the Taco Time restaurants located in Wenatchee, we have no affiliation!

Kahala Corporation owns lots of other food brands, too, including Cold Stone Creamery, Baja Fresh, and Blimpie.

“It’s frustrating. You go to a TacoTime in Oregon—it’s totally not related to us, and it’s awful. It’s very different from what we’re doing.”

— Robby Tonkin, President, Taco Time Northwest, quoted in the Seattle Met

TacoTime from Kahala Corporation is just not the same and did not maintain the quality after Taco Time Northwest split off in 1979. This is why I enjoy visiting Taco Time Northwest whenever I return to Bellevue!

A mini cult following

It turns out I am not alone in having some Taco Time Northwest nostalgia.

Taco Time Northwest has sort of a cult following for people from the Seattle area before 1990 (when Windows 3.0 came out and also when I moved to Silicon Valley after grad school.) The Seattle Met article about Taco Time Northwest had an accurate subtitle — “Loving Taco Time Northwest might be the truest badge of being a Seattle native.”

The article mentioned the Dear Elite Reviewer podcast episode 6 which started a trend of the Dear Elite Reviewer hosts asking every podcast guest what they think of Taco Time. There’s also a podcast dedicated to Taco Time Northwest called Talkin’ Taco Time. Taco Time Northwest even surprisingly won the Best Taco in 2022's Best of Western Washington viewer's poll, much to the chagrin of newer Seattle area residents.

The local NBC affiliate (King5) aired a video piece titled “A First Timer’s Taco Time Experience” to try to introduce Seattle newcomers to the brand. Still, I’ve grown to recognize that modern Seattleites are not likely candidates to appreciate this Northwest style of food.

The Seattle Met summed up the local nostalgia to Seattle old-timers well.

The trope of old Seattle versus new Seattle is reductive and dumb. But newcomers who have arrived in record numbers undeniably experience the city on a different frequency than the people who grew up watching hydroplane races at Seafair, staying up late to watch Almost Live, and hearing Taco Time jingles on TV commercials.

…“Seattle was a much smaller place… Trips through the Taco Time drive-thru formed a common thread so ubiquitous and obvious, nobody really thought about it.”

… “To me it’s [Taco Time’s] all part of this weird fabric. This place has so many quirky unique things, and we’re in on the joke.”

Seattle is no longer the same place, and Taco Time Northwest offers some familiarity with the era before the tech industry took over the place.

Discussion

I know people from California love their Inn-N-Out Burger. People from Hawaii love their Zippy’s. In New England, I know they loved their D’Angelos. For me, in the Northwest, I love Taco Time. (I also like Dick’s, too!) I just think there’s something about these familiar food chains, and the way they make people feel.

Do you have a favorite?

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