photo by: Taco John's

A photo from the Taco John's corporate website shows the general design of a new look for Taco John's restaurants.

People thought their crispy taco was cracking right before their eyes. They feared that Tuesday was just going to be another dang day that ends in ‘y.’ But fear not, the Taco John’s on Sixth Street is not permanently closing.

But, it is temporarily closed for a major remodeling. And it shut its doors on Tuesday, of all days, which is better known as Taco Tuesday in any town that has a Taco John’s. (More on that in a moment.)

“We threw a wrench in that yesterday, I’m sure,” Leigh Ann Laster, owner of the local Taco John’s restaurants, said of people’s Taco Tuesday plans.

Indeed, readers did reach out to the Journal-World inquiring what was happening at the restaurant.

Laster hopes the closure doesn’t last long. She’s working to have a portion of the restaurant — either the drive-thru or the lobby — open again in two or three weeks. But she acknowledged that timeline is uncertain currently.

The restaurant at the corner of Sixth and Maine streets will be under renovation for at least 12 weeks, she said. Construction crews are going to make major changes to the appearance of both the interior and exterior of the store.

Look for a much brighter exterior, a more modern logo, and a new color scheme and furniture in the restaurant’s dining room.

“It is going to be a fresher look,” Laster said of the store, which was last remodeled around 2007.

photo by: Taco John’s

A promotional photo from the Taco John’s website shows an example of an interior of a redesigned Taco John’s restaurant.

According to multiple reports in various restaurant trade journals, the chain’s rebranding efforts include larger dining room windows, tile floors, acoustical ceilings, digital menu boards, and at some locations even digital ordering kiosks in the the dining room.

The restaurant’s other Lawrence location — near the intersection of 23rd and Haskell — is open during the remodel. Laster said the investment in the Sixth Street location is the latest sign that Taco John’s is in Lawrence for the long haul. Laster’s father brought the chain to Lawrence in 1974.

The chain got its start in 1969 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, but then started expanding to small towns primarily in the Midwest. It now has moved much of its corporate headquarters to Minneapolis, Minnesota, as it launches a new round of expansion.

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As I mentioned, Taco John’s and Taco Tuesday have been a pairing for decades, as the company widely has used the phrase to promote cheap Tuesday tacos. In fact, Taco John’s has held a trademark in 49 states on the phrase “Taco Tuesday” for about 40 years, according to various media reports. That means restaurants in those states technically were barred from using the phrase to promote their own taco deals.

But that has now changed. Earlier this summer, Taco John’s gave up the fight to keep the Taco Tuesday trademark. A little company by the name of Taco Bell had filed a lawsuit arguing that the phrase had become too commonly used to be protected by a trademark.

In one of its filings, an attorney for Taco Bell said prohibiting people from using the phrase “Taco Tuesday” would be like depriving them “of sunshine itself,” The Associated Press reported in July.

Taco John’s in July dropped its trademark claim, the AP reported, because the company no longer thought it was a wise use of money to spend “millions of dollars” in attorneys’ fees defending the trademark.

“As we’ve said before, we are lovers, not fighters, at Taco John’s,” company CEO Jim Creel said in July.

So, we could see a plethora of Taco Tuesday promotions in Lawrence in the future. But, maybe not in New Jersey. As of July, a bar and grill in Jersey Shore, New Jersey, was continuing to fight Taco Bell over the use of the Taco Tuesday trademark, which the bar said it trademarked more than 50 years ago.

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photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Dairy Queen on south Iowa Street, pictured Oct. 4, 2023, is under renovation.

A couple of other Lawrence fast-food restaurants are also in various stages of remodeling. The Dairy Queen on south Iowa Street may look closed, but it remains open, owner/operator Lubna Khan told me.

Construction crews are currently doing lots of work on the exterior of the building, but both the drive-thru and lobby of the restaurant, 2545 Iowa St., remain open. Khan estimated the project would take another six to eight weeks to complete.

Once done, the restaurant will include technology upgrades such as digital menu boards, plus new furnishings and color schemes. Khan plans to undertake a renovation of Dairy Queen’s other Lawrence store on south Massachusetts Street, but wants to first get the south Iowa project completed.

Runza, 2700 Iowa St., also is under major renovation. I reported on that project in January, when plans were filed at City Hall. Those plans called for the building to remain but for major changes on the interior and exterior to take place. Currently, the lobby of the restaurant is closed, but the drive-thru is open. I tried to get an update this week on when the project may be completed, but an employee at the Lawrence location said there was no new information he could share at this point.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence’s Runza restaurant, pictured on Oct. 4, 2023, is under renovation.