A longtime Greenwood taco joint was supposed to close for good, but its loyal customers rallied to make sure that didn’t happen.
Roscoe’s Tacos had been a staple in Greenwood since 1996, when owners Roscoe and Rita Townsend decided they wanted to open their own small restaurant in town.
Both Roscoe and Rita had worked in restaurant management. When they bounced around ideas about what food they would serve at their new joint, Roscoe said he would only go back into food service if he could serve food he loved — tacos.
“He came home and I asked him, ‘What about opening a taco place?’ He said ‘Nope. Not going to do it,'” Rita said. “Then, the next day, he came home and he was like, ‘What do you think of Roscoe’s Tacos?”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThe tiny taco shack they opened in Greenwood took off, and they opened two more locations over the years in Franklin and Southport.
Fans loved the homemade food from Roscoe’s family-recipe ground beef chili mix used for taco meat, to the restaurant’s six signature sauces, which Rita and Roscoe came up with the night before they opened in 1996.
“We just opened up a little restaurant and it got really busy really fast,” Roscoe said.
They also named all the menu items after classic tall tales, such as the Paul Bunyan Taco, the Pecos Bill Burrito and the Davey Crockett Tostada. These ideas came from Roscoe’s interest in tall tales, and also giving the menu items names that made it easy to differentiate them.
“It insinuates that this is not a Mexican restaurant that you went to already,” Roscoe said.
In March, the stress and financial strain of running three restaurants caught up with Rita and Roscoe when the coronavirus pandemic hit, they said. It was already difficult for them to manage all three locations, but when the pandemic affected their business, they worried about the safety of their employees and the financial hits they were taking.
“We would have lost more money … we were just digging ourselves a bigger hole,” Rita said. “But the main reason was because we didn’t want people to get sick.”
After trying carryout for a couple weeks, Rita announced on March 21 on Facebook that Roscoe’s Tacos would close permanently.
“It was really just a matter of it had just taken our livelihood, and that’s it,” Roscoe said. “There are restaurants out there surviving, but there are a lot out there just faking it trying to get through this.”
Facebook posts poured in from longtime fans of the taco joint, saddened by the news of the restaurant closing, Rita said. Several reached out to her, sharing their favorite memories of visiting the restaurant as teenagers, and then taking their kids to eat there years later, she said.
“Teenagers kind of built this business because they came here to hang out because it was cool,” Rita said. “Now, they’re bringing their kids in to have them support the business as well.”
The community rallied, setting up a fundraiser not long after the joint closed. A longtime fan of the restaurant made Roscoe’s Tacos shirts on Etsy, and sold them on Facebook to raise money to give to Roscoe and Rita.
After closing up, they still had several bottles of sauces left. Roscoe and Rita decided to sell the rest to the community. Rita posted about it on Facebook, and her phone blew up instantly with messages from people placing sauce orders.
The first day she came to the store to make the pickup orders, she arrived at 10 a.m. and left at 2 a.m., she said.
“I mean my phone was like ‘ding, ding, ding,'” Rita said. “We didn’t realize how important we were to the community.”
They sold at least 1,000 bottles of sauce between April and June, Rita said.
The sauce sales alone didn’t bring a huge profit, but it was enough to pay the bills. What pushed Rita and Roscoe to reopen the restaurant was the overwhelming community support.
“This is crazy; this is absolutely crazy,” Rita said.
“They really missed their tacos,” Roscoe added.
And they both missed running the business that’s been a huge part of their lives for more than two decades.
“For the past 25 years, the alarm would go off, and I’d wake up thinking, ‘What day is it, and what do I have to do?'” Rita said. “Then, to wake up and think, ‘I don’t know what to do today.’ It was very, very odd.”
So, Roscoe’s Tacos received a federal Paycheck Protection Program loan, and they were ready to open back up again. Rita announced on Facebook that the longtime taco joint would return to Greenwood sometime between July 6 and July 14, and posts from elated fans of the joint flooded the Roscoe’s Tacos Facebook group.
Now, a lot of work needs to be done before the July opening. The Greenwood restaurant needs to be cleaned, and tons of food needs to be cooked. Rita and Roscoe are expecting a huge crowd on opening day, so they are going to prepare as much food as they can.
“I have 2,000 pounds of chili in the freezer right now. That’s not enough,” Roscoe said.
As for the future of Roscoe’s Tacos, they both hope to stay open another 25 years. They do not plan to reopen the Franklin or Southport locations, as they want to focus on the Greenwood shop, they said.
And hopefully, the future will also include a new drive-thru at the taco shack, something Roscoe is working on getting construction permits for, he said.
“We thank the community for their participation and enthusiasm and love and support,” Roscoe said. “We’re going to try and do another 25 years.”
