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EL PASO,TEXAS - Tapping into the expanding Hispanic market in the United States while also appealing to a growing consumer taste for authenticity, El Taco Tote Real Mexican Grill here is forming franchises ties in U.S. cities with large Latino populations.
With four units in the United States and six in Mexico, the third-generation restaurant company recently signed development agreements for Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Chicago, South Texas and Tucson, Ariz. The first franchised units are slated to open in Dallas and San Antonio before the end of the year.
"This is real; this is about as close as you can get to bringing a home in Mexico to the US," said Craig Slavin, president and chief executive of El Taco Tote Franchise Systems Ltd. and chairman of Franchise Architects, a consulting firm. "When I first saw Taco Tote, I found a concept that was born in Mexico and continues to serve food that's authentically Mexican. There are seven brothers and one nephew involved in the company and, of course, the mother."
Jose Pacifico Heras, founder of El Taco Tote and father of the clan, said, "We want to provide the real taste from Mexico. It's not Tex-Mex; it's not Americanized." Many of the recipes came from the cache of his mother, Dora Heras.
The family currently has three units in...