Comeback for a 80's Mexican Fast Food Legend--Naugles

     There have been several fast food chains that were a part of the 70's and 80's that are no longer with us and includes two of my all-time favorites. One of them was Burger Chef which was bought out by Hardee's in the 80's. The second was Naugles which was gone by the mid-90's but has resurfaced complete with a David vs. Goliath story that will leave you smiling and perhaps hoping that it will make a comeback in St. Louis soon.

     There were four locations in the St. Louis area. The location in Fenton opened sometime in the late 70's/early 80's. It was my first real exposure to Mexican fast food. It's items, such as the taco burger, cheese burrito and an unmistakable red and green sauce made it a favorite of mine until I left the area in the early 80's.

     Naugles was formed in 1970 by former Del Taco partner Dick Naugle. He was bought out by Harold Butler (who founded Denny's in the late 50's)  in 1979 and grew the franchise from three to 225. In 1986, Butler sold the company to Collins Foods International who began to transform most of them into Del Taco's. The four Naugles in the St. Louis area transferred in 1994 and were the last that were taken in by Del Taco. The next year, the remaining four restaurants, all in Nevada, were closed.

   Fast forward about 10 years to California.  Christian Ziebarth was a web designer who was the author of a very popular blog, "Orange County Mexican Restaurants". In 2006 he put up a remembrance page where he lamented the closing of the franchise, and suggested that Del Taco revive a few of them. The overall popularity of the blog led the marketing folks at Del Taco in 2008 to reach out to him and suggest how they might be able to help one another. This led Ziebarth to point to his page a couple of years before and request that they reinstate some of the Naugles items that were so popular.

     Over the next two years, an exchange ensued between the blogger and the company where he would ask about any movement towards his earlier request. The letters in response were a mix of passing the buck and downright obfuscation. At this point Ziebarth realized that the chain had no intention of even entertaining his suggestion, so he began down his own path.

   With nothing much to go on, in 2009 he launched the Naugles twitter handle and the Nauglestacos.com website which promised a comeback of the chain. During that same year, he was told about a restaurant that had family ties to original owner Dick Naugle about 200 miles away. Called "Buns & Torts" in Visalia, he found many Naugle's classic menu items. Over the next couple of years through his own research, he was able to recreate many of the original recipes.

    He came to believe that although Del Taco had the trademark, they had no intention of doing anything with it. Ziebarth filed for the trademark in 2010 and thus began a four year dispute with the company. During this time he would hold, "pop up" events, mostly with enthusiasts of the Naugles brand and friends to perfect his recipes. 
 
     On March of 2015, Ziebarth won a judgement from the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board allowing them to open a test kitchen in Fountain Valley, CA. After a reboot that was SO successful that they had to close temporally as they totally underestimated its popularity and had to retool. They reopened soon after where they remain, along with a site in Huntington Beach, selling a menu that is very loyal to the original. Ziebarth is hoping to grow the brand in the areas where it did well in the past including Las Vegas and of course, St. Louis.