Mr. Taco Jr. #2 opened its doors to the public in Tyler on Aug. 28. Owner Emiliano Magallanez comes from a long line of cooking authentic Mexican food and opened this first Mr. Taco Jr. in Whitehouse in 2018.

Mr. Taco Jr. #2 owner Emiliano Magallanez comes from a long line of serving up fresh, authentic Mexican food.

His father Bonifacio Magallanez and mother Rosa Magallanez took a chance almost five decades ago and opened the very first Mr. Taco in Lockhart.

“My father worked on the railroad and my mother in a sewing factory. My father convinced my mother to quit her job after seeing how my brother’s friends from school enjoyed eating my mother’s food,” said Magallanez. “They took a chance and established three restaurants in Lockhart, Luling, and Gonzales here in Texas and have been in business for over 45 years.”

“Our family is hoping to expand here and share the same food and traditions with Mr. Taco Jr. that were established by my family with Mr. Taco,” he added.

Magallanez, along with his wife Norma Rios Renteria, held the grand opening for the Mr. Taco Jr. Tyler location on Aug. 28.

“The grand opening went very well and we are doing even better today,” Magallanez said. “We want the Tyler community to know that we take pride in what we do. It’s not just about the food but the service as well. It feels great to see how much the community enjoys the food we are accustomed to eating and selling most of our lives.”

Mr. Taco Jr. #2 offers authentic central Texas, Tex-Mex tacos served on homemade flour tortillas with a variety of breakfast and lunch tacos.

“Our fajita tacos, mini tacos, chips and queso, plus all the breakfast tacos are the most popular,” Magallanez said.

Magallanez explained they chose the location, in part, due to its unique design — a building with a cowboy hat on top.

“We decided to open at this location in part because of the uniqueness of the building,” he said. “The property stands out and driving from Bullard to South Tyler there aren’t many options for quick, homemade breakfast and lunch tacos.”

However, Magallanez said the look of the building isn’t the only thing that makes the restaurant stand out.

“I think the fact that everything we make is fresh not frozen, we don’t have any freezers in our restaurants, and that we can serve our customers almost as fast as McDonald’s and not miss out on quality or service makes us very different, plus we emphasize on homemade flour tortillas rather than corn,” he said.

Magallanez said last week the Luling location burned down; it was the second of his family’s locations opened in 1979.

“The fire in Luling was a huge loss. From what we are gathering from the information passed on to us, the fire may have been caused by a company soldering copper lines in the attic for a new walk-in cooler that was being installed,” he said. “It was more than a monetary loss for the family; we have been a staple in the community, creating jobs and beautiful memories for a long time.”

After moving to East Texas to start a new generation of restaurants with Mr. Taco Jr., Magallanez and his wife opened their first location in Whitehouse in 2018.

“We did not want to open a physical brick and mortar but a food truck. The rules for food trucks were very different here than in central Texas. We realized it would be easier to open a physical restaurant and when we started looking, the location in Whitehouse kept showing up in our search,” he said. “We reached out in 2017 and it turned out there were some issues so we put things off. We received a call from the Realtor in 2018 asking if we were still interested so we decided it was a sign and just dove right in.”

Magallanez expressed gratitude for the communities that welcomed him and his wife and said he was excited to now share his passion with the Tyler community.

“We do as a family want to thank everyone in our community especially Whitehouse, Troup, Flint and Gresham for accepting us into their community,” he said. “Being strangers to the area everyone has helped us get us to where we are and we are thankful for them allowing us to share our passion for cooking and serving the best food we can.”

“And, now we are so excited to be bringing that passion to Tyler,” he added.

Mr. Taco Jr. #2 is located at 16551 FM 2493 in Tyler and can be reached at 903-202-7080. Hours of operation are currently Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Hours will be adjusted after hiring more staff.

Mr. Taco Jr. #1 is located at 303 Highway 110 North in Whitehouse and can be reached at the same number. Hours of operation are Monday through Friday 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information, visit the Mr. Taco Jr. Facebook page.