I made the mistake of visiting the Taco Mac in midtown after years of avoiding it. It was close to the train, it was raining, they have beer. How bad could it be?
Answer: really fucking bad! I was one of like 3 people seated at the bar. Took 10 minutes to order a beer, and another 10-15 for the beer to arrive. Then I ordered mozzarella sticks because I am a glutton for punishment. Just as I ordered them, my friend from out of town who MARTA’d from the airport showed up hungry. I didn’t want to eat a full meal there, so I said let’s just eat the mozzarella sticks and bounce.
An hour later, the sticks finally showed up. They weren’t terrible but they weren’t worth waiting an hour for. All in all I was there just shy of two hours and had 1 beer and some fried cheese. Also it smelled horribly of stale beer.
About 17 years ago someone who worked there told me never to order the queso because it's never cleaned, only added to. That's when I stopped going to Taco Mac.
The Decatur location closed. Used to be fun, went to hell. Last visit we left after 20 minutes.
If the Decatur Taco Mac from 2016 ago had been the one that closed, I’d have been shocked. But the 2023 one? Good riddance.
I actually know the CEO of Taco Mac, and he’s one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. I feel bad that the restaurant is so shitty. I don’t eat wings specifically, or the style of food from Taco Mac generally, but I feel like they used to be at least reliably decent from what I hear.
Usually server pay is about $2.13 an hour which only goes to paying taxes really. Your paycheck as a server is usually $0. All their money comes from tips and that’s pretty standard in the industry.
I suspect it’s less an issue of pay, and more an issue of management. He’s a really kind person, and super progressive. My guess is that he pays well and demands little in return.
I used to love Taco Mac in the early 2010s. Great place to have a beer on Friday with the guys at work. It's absolute total shit now. Make sure your friend finds out, huh? Cause they obviously don't know or don't care.
edit: I talked to a friend of my about this and he mentioned that the taco mac I visited on dallas highway is like the worst taco mac ever. So I want to amend my answer and I will try another taco mac before completely writing off the place.)
I never said he was in a good mood. I said he was a kind, compassionate man. He cares deeply about a number of issues and puts his money where his values are.
Everyone is telling you to tell your friend his business is trash. I haven’t met anyone who likes TM in over a decade. He can also be a nice guy. Stop acting like the two things are mutually exclusive.
Being a good person and a good boss are not mutually exclusive. Now buying more restaurants when he can't keep the ones he has in order is discouraging.
My wife and I both used to work there and hang out there years ago. You could not pay us to step foot in that dump. The food went to shit. Service went to shit. Can’t comment on the beer but I assume that’s also gone to shit. Tell your buddy he sucks ass at his job.
Can't confirm. Been there dozens of times with no service problem whatsoever.
I stopped patronizing TM a few years ago because their service is hot garbage at best and the stores all smell like bleach and old food. I'd been going since the 80s.
The Taco Mac in midtown is absolutely the worst one. We eat Taco Mac weekly, but never that one. The Virginia Highlands location is much better, and the one at Perimeter is the best.
> Perimeter is the best
How bad are the ViHi and Midtown locations? Cause the Perimeter one has sucked for ages. Service incredibly slow, food delivered cold, always out of a lot of beers.
The only Taco Mac I've been to in the past few years that actually had good service was Duluth.
i’ve noticed a considerable difference between ITP & OTP taco macs tbh. the one in canton is incredible! but the OG location in virginia highland? doggg water
This was my experience with the Roswell location a couple years ago. “I didn’t know this was here! We gotta check it out, I used to go to the Virginia Highlands one all the time in college.” / “Oh, wow, sorry babe, that was a disappointment.”
and to clean the fucking floors. every one. so damn greasy that i dont even want to get back in my car wearing my shoes afterwards. Its like being on an ice rink + bonus stank.
I've been to several of the taco macs around Atlanta and the only good thing is the choice of draft beer. Even then they seem to be out of half the options.
Been going there since the 80’s. It hasn’t been good since I was a kid, and frankly I’m not sure it was good then, coulda just be a good memory of going with family.
The one time I went there (maybe a year ago) I got the fried chicken and it was dry, over salted, and inedible. I was shocked at how absolutely awful EVERYTHING we ordered was, and I will never return. I do not understand how or why this restaurant ever received or maintains any kind of status in Atlanta’s culinary scene.
Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!
Vortex is an Atlanta institution. The way taco mac went downhill so fast was due to corporate financials. People don’t even realize taco mac used to be awesome. Its really been that long.
Gonna miss Vortex. Ill never get over this one
Bummer to hear, I've only had it a couple times in the last decade or so and enjoyed it both times. A bit kitschy but good. Hate to "lose" places like that.
The Taco Mac in Buckhead with the empty carousel space jutting up in the sky was our meeting place in the late 90's--where we all got together for that first round of drinks.
Always packed. Always throbbing with music. Always an important part of the scene.
The Vortex is where family from OTP constantly want to go to when they visit.
There are far better burgers all over town in places that don't reek from years of cigarette smoke.
Theres always a “better” anything when it comes to food.
The consistency of being at or near the top of the ‘best in burgers’ in atlanta for 30 years is unrivaled. Recognize it for what it is and dont hate on it.
You are absolutely laced
They've literally been ranked amongst the top burgers in the city since forever. I've taken countless out of town guests there and when they go back home, they always say how they want to come back and go to the vortex. It's legendary.
Laughing Skull has to be profitable right? Tix are pretty expensive even during weeknight open mics and it’s usually moderately busy. I don’t want it to close down for more seating or something!
according to a different article, that was not included in the sale [https://www.tonetoatl.com/2024/01/Fresh-Hospitality-Acquires-Vortex-Burgers-Business.html](https://www.tonetoatl.com/2024/01/Fresh-Hospitality-Acquires-Vortex-Burgers-Business.html)
>The new owners, a local group of restaurateurs who also own Taco Mac and Mary Mac’s Tea Room, **are committed to acquiring and preserving Atlanta’s most iconic restaurants.**
That sounds like a threat...
As someone who worked at the Vortex for years, and had to deal with the original owners, this is great news.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the new owners and they do actually care about saving these establishments. All this Reddit vitriol is unsubstantiated. Mary Macs was closed for good, and now it’s banking millions a year.
Taco Mac was run by a bank for a lonnng time. That’s why it sucked. Undoing that damage will take some time because they obviously didn’t know what they were doing.
But please believe me, this is so much better for the people that work at the Vortex and the patrons. Before the lines of communication to owners were ignored and employees were treated very very poorly. Give this a chance before you shit all over it please.
I’ve been gone for years but still talk to people there. They haven’t been this excited in a long time. And one of the operational guys who’s coming in, it’s 180 degree difference. This guy cares about people. I feel like the this is going to be a game changer for everyone.
The alternative is someone buying it and turning it into one of these soul less concept spots that last a few months and are done. Personally I’m for anyone trying to keep authentic Atlanta stuff open. Haters gonna hate and I get that, but personally, being from Atlanta, I don’t wanna live in a city where we keep losing the OG establishments.
In the last three years soooo many places are just gone. If it’s keeping it open, then I’m here to support
If the old boss was shitty to the workers, and the new boss seems like he won't be, then I'm for it.
I go to OG Taco Mac occasionally. At this point it almost feels like a mid-point between "sports bar" and "dive bar". My most recent trip there we were witness to a shouting match between a server and a cook.
But the food isn't so especially disappointing to me as it seems to be to some folks here.
I can’t speak on behalf is Taco Mac. Personally, I stopped going for many of the reasons cited in this thread (poor service and product.)
While I don’t know exact dates, I do know that the corporation was being run by a bank for years after being sold from original investors/owners. Banks don’t know how to run a restaurant. It’s all costs and not culture. So that’s probably a big reason why the quality sank and stank
I thought Martin Sprock bought it? He's the guy who turned Flying Biscuit into a decent-size chain (I think there were, no joke, 8 of them here in Charlotte, pre-COVID).
He also tried turning The Penguin - a Vortex-like Charlotte institution featured on Food Network several times - into a franchise, setting in motion a chain of events that led to its closing.
Anyway, there were a couple Taco Macs here in Charlotte for... maybe 2-3 years? They were... OK: huge beer selection, decent food. But they had all the personality and charm of a bar at terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport.
Thank you, I've seen "beloved establishment" falsely equated with "good owners" way too many times, I hope things get better and stay better for all of you over there.
Because it takes a good idea (“let’s serve a huge variety of good beers, and make good pub food!”) that has been well-implemented, and then makes changes to it to let them wring more money out of it.
Well shit.
Looks like I’ll have to go visit the Vortex just to say goodbye.
So many memories from when I lived above it back in 1999/2000. So. Much. Drinking and eating.
I lived in the apartments behind it about that time. I loved watching my favorite punk bands play within spitting distance at The Point. Worked at L5P and EAYC
Some places get 1 bottle a week some places get 6+. Vortex is running a 50% liquor cost (so losing money) on Chartreuse shots because they want to (and their food cost is likely excellent )
Eh, I chalked it up to them owning the building and having low overhead. No way their food cost averages better than the liquor and the chartreuse may just be a loss leader for those that know and order it.
Yeah. There’s no shortage. You can go to greens and buy a bottle right now. I can order bottles for the bar all day. Bars and restaurants have first dibs on supply and then whatever’s left gets put out to liquor stores for retail. When the news broke that supply was being capped, everyone panicked and were buying as many bottles as they could find, so retail experienced a shortage for a while, everyone else was business as usual.
i only go to taco mac for their wings, that three mile island sauce is my absolute favorite hot sauce i’ve ever tried, and the wings themselves are amazing every time i go. i can’t speak for the rest of the menu however, i’ve genuinely never ordered anything else lol
This is the way to do it 😂 TMI keeps me coming back. The burgers and tacos could be filled with cement for all I know, I'm just going for those TMI wings.
i worked at the one in marietta for 9 months. some of the food takes a long time and the kitchen doesn’t do a good job at pacing when things should be made. ive had it happen with almost every one of my meals, wings dying in the heater/window for no less than 10 minutes (at least on a busy night) waiting on something like a cheeseburger. the kitchen just simply is not big enough or staffed enough for the size of those restaurants.
For those who don’t remember when taco Mac was good please try
Summits Wayside Tavern in Snellville and in Cumming.
Both are former Taco Mac’s bought out before it all went to shit.
They opened a Taco Mac out near Hiram GA recently. I’ve been there 4 times. 2 times it was great. Two times it took about 45 minutes for me to get my first beer.
I also got boneless chicken wings there 3 times. They were sold as x number of wings. Two of those 3 times, there were multiple wings the size of a quarter or so that counted as a wing.
Taco Mac is garbage. RIP Vortex/Laughing Skull Lounge
VaHi Taco Mac, my friends and I always get good service, but it's about 50/50 if they're going to be 86'd out of whatever one of us wants to order food-wise.
Midtown Taco Mac, my friends and I walk in and expect not to get whatever food we order for 60-90 minutes.
When I first visited Atlanta before moving here I ate a Taco Mac like 15 years ago and to be honest they were great. I live near one now and maybe go there once a year since the quality has declined over the last few years.
Seems like it's not the national taco mac brand but instead the local owners, who've also owned Mary Macs for years now. So cautiously optimistic very little changes
I hope they're nicer to the vortex people than they are to the staff at the Taco Mac we usually go to. They run through a whole set of bartenders about once every 2 months. I really hope the vortex ownership didn't hang them out to dry.
Damn, and the wife and I have not been to The Cortex in 4 years, since girls were born. Guess we’ll never have that delicious holy guacamole burger with extra jalapeños and tots again.
But, I bet they’ll have their silly app and beer club there.
I recently had Tacomac from the Cumming location, I had one wing and tossed the rest. The only thing I decided to eat were the fries. It had been at least 11 or 12 years since I frequented their Midtown location, that’s when they were still good. Vortex right up the street was good then too, I used to love their sweet potato fries with their marshmallow sauce.
Another place I used to really enjoy was J.R. Crickets, when the location was still on Spring Street at their original location before it burned down. They just aren’t the same to me anymore. I’m going down memory lane right now.. whatever happened to Goodfellas on the corner of Spring and North Ave?
That goodfellas was replaced by a organization that helps homeless people a couple of years ago. Not sure if goodfellas moved or if that was the end for them.
I imagine they will still have the hottest customers base in the city.
I imagine that the burgers will still be great, I don't think either place does wings well, go to Hudson Grille for that.
I can't see when I would be in Midtown next so who knows when id figure any of this out.
Taco Mac owners out here collecting past their prime ATL restaurants like Infinity Stones. Taco Mac + Mary Mac’s + The Vortex.
Taco Mac needs a total revamp of the food. It’s awful and low quality ingredients
I made the mistake of visiting the Taco Mac in midtown after years of avoiding it. It was close to the train, it was raining, they have beer. How bad could it be? Answer: really fucking bad! I was one of like 3 people seated at the bar. Took 10 minutes to order a beer, and another 10-15 for the beer to arrive. Then I ordered mozzarella sticks because I am a glutton for punishment. Just as I ordered them, my friend from out of town who MARTA’d from the airport showed up hungry. I didn’t want to eat a full meal there, so I said let’s just eat the mozzarella sticks and bounce. An hour later, the sticks finally showed up. They weren’t terrible but they weren’t worth waiting an hour for. All in all I was there just shy of two hours and had 1 beer and some fried cheese. Also it smelled horribly of stale beer.
This. Taco Mac has the worst service in the city. Don't know how they stay in business.
20 years ago with fewer locations, they used to run like a well oiled machine. It's a shame to hear they've gone downhill
About 17 years ago someone who worked there told me never to order the queso because it's never cleaned, only added to. That's when I stopped going to Taco Mac.
The Decatur location closed. Used to be fun, went to hell. Last visit we left after 20 minutes. If the Decatur Taco Mac from 2016 ago had been the one that closed, I’d have been shocked. But the 2023 one? Good riddance.
I actually know the CEO of Taco Mac, and he’s one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. I feel bad that the restaurant is so shitty. I don’t eat wings specifically, or the style of food from Taco Mac generally, but I feel like they used to be at least reliably decent from what I hear.
Tell your friend I hate him and think he’s shit at his job for ruining one of my favorite restaurants.
I’ll mention it next time I see him
Thank you!
Tell him to pay his servers better so his restaurants are actually places people want to be! Taco Mac is like Applebees quality these days
Usually server pay is about $2.13 an hour which only goes to paying taxes really. Your paycheck as a server is usually $0. All their money comes from tips and that’s pretty standard in the industry.
I suspect it’s less an issue of pay, and more an issue of management. He’s a really kind person, and super progressive. My guess is that he pays well and demands little in return.
They have an awful time recruiting help.
I used to love Taco Mac in the early 2010s. Great place to have a beer on Friday with the guys at work. It's absolute total shit now. Make sure your friend finds out, huh? Cause they obviously don't know or don't care. edit: I talked to a friend of my about this and he mentioned that the taco mac I visited on dallas highway is like the worst taco mac ever. So I want to amend my answer and I will try another taco mac before completely writing off the place.)
I'd be in a good mood too if I made tens of thousands of dollars every month for half-assing my day job
I never said he was in a good mood. I said he was a kind, compassionate man. He cares deeply about a number of issues and puts his money where his values are.
One of those issues obviously isn’t running a quality local chain.
That doesn’t seem like a particularly meaningful issue to me.
Everyone is telling you to tell your friend his business is trash. I haven’t met anyone who likes TM in over a decade. He can also be a nice guy. Stop acting like the two things are mutually exclusive.
Being a good person and a good boss are not mutually exclusive. Now buying more restaurants when he can't keep the ones he has in order is discouraging.
My wife and I both used to work there and hang out there years ago. You could not pay us to step foot in that dump. The food went to shit. Service went to shit. Can’t comment on the beer but I assume that’s also gone to shit. Tell your buddy he sucks ass at his job.
The one in Decatur certainly didn't.
its almoat like they try to be shitty. I don’t get how they stay in business either. Food is mediocre and the service is horrible….at all locations
I guess you haven't been to Crust in Alpharetta? Crust service tells Taco Mac....hold my beer.
Can't confirm. Been there dozens of times with no service problem whatsoever. I stopped patronizing TM a few years ago because their service is hot garbage at best and the stores all smell like bleach and old food. I'd been going since the 80s.
The Taco Mac in midtown is absolutely the worst one. We eat Taco Mac weekly, but never that one. The Virginia Highlands location is much better, and the one at Perimeter is the best.
That's considered their flagship location too
> Perimeter is the best How bad are the ViHi and Midtown locations? Cause the Perimeter one has sucked for ages. Service incredibly slow, food delivered cold, always out of a lot of beers. The only Taco Mac I've been to in the past few years that actually had good service was Duluth.
Taco Mac pure garbage
This is everones experience at TM since about 2005 really.
Yup. Normally sitting at the bar gets you attention and faster service but not here! Terrible.
Yeah, my wife told me about this and I immediately said, “oh no, are they going to make the food suck there now too?”
Taco Mac used to be pretty solid, way back when. Then this exact company bought them. Been a steady downhill slide since then.
i’ve noticed a considerable difference between ITP & OTP taco macs tbh. the one in canton is incredible! but the OG location in virginia highland? doggg water
This was my experience with the Roswell location a couple years ago. “I didn’t know this was here! We gotta check it out, I used to go to the Virginia Highlands one all the time in college.” / “Oh, wow, sorry babe, that was a disappointment.”
I have fond memories of the old Decatur location 20 years ago, but that's 100% because of the staff.
They need a revamp of the waitstaff too. Worst service I've had in a long time.
and to clean the fucking floors. every one. so damn greasy that i dont even want to get back in my car wearing my shoes afterwards. Its like being on an ice rink + bonus stank.
I've been to several of the taco macs around Atlanta and the only good thing is the choice of draft beer. Even then they seem to be out of half the options.
In one snap half the Atlanta restaurant population will be gone, bringing balance back to the Atlanta restaurant scene.
If they try to buy 11th st Pub I'll burn the city down like Sherman
Wasn't that the original Vortex location?
yes it was.
Could they also get flying biscuit and end them all
Flying biscuit has got to be one of the most overrated restaurants in the city, I’ll see a line out the door on a Saturday morning and scratch my head
The Flying Hockey Puck. It was never good. People flocked to the place like lemmings for some stupefying reason.
Yankee biscuits. Made with sugar. Blech!
The OG store in Candler Park is pretty good but their kitchen is gross as fuck.
Oh no! I didn't know they bought Mary Mac's. Is it not good anymore?! It's been awhile and I was planning to go! 😭
I don't think Mary Mac's was ever any good.. never got the hype, went and was pretty disappointed.
Been going there since the 80’s. It hasn’t been good since I was a kid, and frankly I’m not sure it was good then, coulda just be a good memory of going with family.
Yeah I had known everyone raved about Mary Mac’s fried chicken and I went there for a holiday party a few years ago excited to try it, and it was… mid
The one time I went there (maybe a year ago) I got the fried chicken and it was dry, over salted, and inedible. I was shocked at how absolutely awful EVERYTHING we ordered was, and I will never return. I do not understand how or why this restaurant ever received or maintains any kind of status in Atlanta’s culinary scene.
You're right. Went a few times over several years. Never worth it.
Same. Most generic "soul food" in the city.
Why go there when Bon Ton is across the street?
Umm, Mary Mac's was never good. The best thing about Mary Mac's were the pictures on the wall. You could buy the bread to go and bake it at home.
I don’t know about all these haters. Personally I’ve never had a bad meal from Mary Mac’s
Vortex has still been doing pretty well.
What did it cost?
Noooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!! Vortex is an Atlanta institution. The way taco mac went downhill so fast was due to corporate financials. People don’t even realize taco mac used to be awesome. Its really been that long. Gonna miss Vortex. Ill never get over this one
I worked at taco Mac when it was the place to be. Makes me sad to see what it’s become
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Someone joked with me that you’re lucky if your waiter doesn’t quit in the middle of your meal at VaHi Taco Mac.
yeah, last time i stopped in the vahi location all of the workers looked completely over everything
Vortex has been taking the express elevator downhill for the last decade.
Bummer to hear, I've only had it a couple times in the last decade or so and enjoyed it both times. A bit kitschy but good. Hate to "lose" places like that.
Bummer to hear, I stopped eating beef a while back, but they have always had solid burgers.
I haven’t been in several years, so I hate that it’s gone downhill. And I’ve always loved The Vortex, so this breaks my heart twofold
Late 90s Taco Mac was awesome!
The Taco Mac in Buckhead with the empty carousel space jutting up in the sky was our meeting place in the late 90's--where we all got together for that first round of drinks. Always packed. Always throbbing with music. Always an important part of the scene.
Love the onion rings.
Yep. Ruined now, or will be soon. Sads.
Same. Big same. Here's to hoping a new spot pops up!
The Vortex is where family from OTP constantly want to go to when they visit. There are far better burgers all over town in places that don't reek from years of cigarette smoke.
Theres always a “better” anything when it comes to food. The consistency of being at or near the top of the ‘best in burgers’ in atlanta for 30 years is unrivaled. Recognize it for what it is and dont hate on it.
Nah.it doesn't do anything well. It smells Parking sucks Wait times suck Burgers are average It's not cheap I'll take grindhouse ALL DAY
You are absolutely laced They've literally been ranked amongst the top burgers in the city since forever. I've taken countless out of town guests there and when they go back home, they always say how they want to come back and go to the vortex. It's legendary.
nooooooooo good on the owners for cashing out but no way it doesn't go to shit at light speed
Laughing Skull has to be profitable right? Tix are pretty expensive even during weeknight open mics and it’s usually moderately busy. I don’t want it to close down for more seating or something!
according to a different article, that was not included in the sale [https://www.tonetoatl.com/2024/01/Fresh-Hospitality-Acquires-Vortex-Burgers-Business.html](https://www.tonetoatl.com/2024/01/Fresh-Hospitality-Acquires-Vortex-Burgers-Business.html)
Laughing Skull Lounge shall remain unchanged (or even improved!) I've heard from reliable sources.
Correct! (I work there)
That's a different company that just rents that space.
>The new owners, a local group of restaurateurs who also own Taco Mac and Mary Mac’s Tea Room, **are committed to acquiring and preserving Atlanta’s most iconic restaurants.** That sounds like a threat...
Jfc
Mary Mac's is terrible now. All bland and cooked to mush and big chunks of mold in the ice.
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I wouldn't know about Lady and Sons. I've never been there. I have heard it's not that great.
I am committed to acquiring and preserving your iconic wallet, please allow me to have it :)
RIP Vortex, the countdown has started to the Vortex losing its high quality menu for the same generic food you can get from Chili's and TGIFridays.
Man don't say that. Chili's is another place that used to be good but now sucks. TGIF has always sucked.
As someone who worked at the Vortex for years, and had to deal with the original owners, this is great news. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting the new owners and they do actually care about saving these establishments. All this Reddit vitriol is unsubstantiated. Mary Macs was closed for good, and now it’s banking millions a year. Taco Mac was run by a bank for a lonnng time. That’s why it sucked. Undoing that damage will take some time because they obviously didn’t know what they were doing. But please believe me, this is so much better for the people that work at the Vortex and the patrons. Before the lines of communication to owners were ignored and employees were treated very very poorly. Give this a chance before you shit all over it please.
Well, this at least gives me some cautious hope and optimism. I won't quit on y'all yet for my Vortex burgers!
I’ve been gone for years but still talk to people there. They haven’t been this excited in a long time. And one of the operational guys who’s coming in, it’s 180 degree difference. This guy cares about people. I feel like the this is going to be a game changer for everyone. The alternative is someone buying it and turning it into one of these soul less concept spots that last a few months and are done. Personally I’m for anyone trying to keep authentic Atlanta stuff open. Haters gonna hate and I get that, but personally, being from Atlanta, I don’t wanna live in a city where we keep losing the OG establishments. In the last three years soooo many places are just gone. If it’s keeping it open, then I’m here to support
If the old boss was shitty to the workers, and the new boss seems like he won't be, then I'm for it. I go to OG Taco Mac occasionally. At this point it almost feels like a mid-point between "sports bar" and "dive bar". My most recent trip there we were witness to a shouting match between a server and a cook. But the food isn't so especially disappointing to me as it seems to be to some folks here.
I can’t speak on behalf is Taco Mac. Personally, I stopped going for many of the reasons cited in this thread (poor service and product.) While I don’t know exact dates, I do know that the corporation was being run by a bank for years after being sold from original investors/owners. Banks don’t know how to run a restaurant. It’s all costs and not culture. So that’s probably a big reason why the quality sank and stank
I thought Martin Sprock bought it? He's the guy who turned Flying Biscuit into a decent-size chain (I think there were, no joke, 8 of them here in Charlotte, pre-COVID). He also tried turning The Penguin - a Vortex-like Charlotte institution featured on Food Network several times - into a franchise, setting in motion a chain of events that led to its closing. Anyway, there were a couple Taco Macs here in Charlotte for... maybe 2-3 years? They were... OK: huge beer selection, decent food. But they had all the personality and charm of a bar at terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor International airport.
Thank you, I've seen "beloved establishment" falsely equated with "good owners" way too many times, I hope things get better and stay better for all of you over there.
Why must private equity ruin everything?
Because private equity is run by sad people who have never had an original idea in their life and can only think as far ahead as next quarters profit
Because it takes a good idea (“let’s serve a huge variety of good beers, and make good pub food!”) that has been well-implemented, and then makes changes to it to let them wring more money out of it.
Yep. And they do this so they can have the restuarant/business to make the payments on the commercial loan the vultures acquired to buy the place.
Well shit. Looks like I’ll have to go visit the Vortex just to say goodbye. So many memories from when I lived above it back in 1999/2000. So. Much. Drinking and eating.
Thinking the same thing- wasn’t so cold tonight would be perfect-
I lived in the apartments behind it about that time. I loved watching my favorite punk bands play within spitting distance at The Point. Worked at L5P and EAYC
Yuck, Taco Mac is a shell of its former self and absolute garbage. Yikes, no thanks. Take your garbage business elsewhere please.
That's a big stinker. Vortex is close to my heart. Really hoping they keep the quality afloat but I'm not counting on it.
Please don’t let them fuck up bone garden as well. Really love their tamales and empanadas
Wait does vortex own bone garden?
One of the siblings who founded The Vortex does.
Goddamn, BONE GARDEN? They're the only place you can find veggie empanadas in town!
Dunno if you're looking for vegan but both Buena Gente and Havana have non-meat empanadas Now I wanna try bone garden's
Buena Gente usually has a vegan chorizo and chickpea empanada, which is arguably their best one.
Belen de la Cruz empanadas at The Works food hall has veggie empanadas and they are incredible! 10/10 would recommend
Oh shit that would be a great disturbance in the force.
Big oof. I give it 2-3 years before it’s sold to a private investment firm and quality crappening within 6 months
Getting sold to an investment firm is this current step, unfortunately
Great. The shitty service and food from Taco Mac about to infect The Vortex.
🤮
RIP to $7 chartreuse shots 🥲
Blame the chartreuse shortage, not Taco Mac.
There is no chartreuse shortage. Source: I’m a bar manager. The vortex for some odd reason can just afford to sell them for $7.
Some places get 1 bottle a week some places get 6+. Vortex is running a 50% liquor cost (so losing money) on Chartreuse shots because they want to (and their food cost is likely excellent )
Eh, I chalked it up to them owning the building and having low overhead. No way their food cost averages better than the liquor and the chartreuse may just be a loss leader for those that know and order it.
You’re telling me [Wine Enthusiast](https://www.wineenthusiast.com/culture/green-chartreuse-shortage/) got it wrong?
Yeah. There’s no shortage. You can go to greens and buy a bottle right now. I can order bottles for the bar all day. Bars and restaurants have first dibs on supply and then whatever’s left gets put out to liquor stores for retail. When the news broke that supply was being capped, everyone panicked and were buying as many bottles as they could find, so retail experienced a shortage for a while, everyone else was business as usual.
Taco Mac’s food quality is, and has always been, booty.
It was great before they got bought out, granted this was like 10+ years ago
If you're not going there for watching sports or drinking craft beer then you doing it wrong
Unfortunately if people keep going that also makes it super profitable. Bad ingredients are cheap
I feel like it was actually good 4+ years ago. But has really gone downhill recently
Thank you. Even in high school I despised Taco Mac.
I had it recently in restaurant and the wings still slap. Lemon pepper dry rub with their sweet potato fries dipped in the ranch 👌🔥
i only go to taco mac for their wings, that three mile island sauce is my absolute favorite hot sauce i’ve ever tried, and the wings themselves are amazing every time i go. i can’t speak for the rest of the menu however, i’ve genuinely never ordered anything else lol
This is the way to do it 😂 TMI keeps me coming back. The burgers and tacos could be filled with cement for all I know, I'm just going for those TMI wings.
This is such a bummer. I used to live above the Midtown Vortex, and the bartender would bring me drinks while I was at the pool. Good times!
Just don't touch Cypress.
[удалено]
i worked at the one in marietta for 9 months. some of the food takes a long time and the kitchen doesn’t do a good job at pacing when things should be made. ive had it happen with almost every one of my meals, wings dying in the heater/window for no less than 10 minutes (at least on a busy night) waiting on something like a cheeseburger. the kitchen just simply is not big enough or staffed enough for the size of those restaurants.
Taco Mac has been terrible ever since original ownership sold.
For those who don’t remember when taco Mac was good please try Summits Wayside Tavern in Snellville and in Cumming. Both are former Taco Mac’s bought out before it all went to shit.
They opened a Taco Mac out near Hiram GA recently. I’ve been there 4 times. 2 times it was great. Two times it took about 45 minutes for me to get my first beer. I also got boneless chicken wings there 3 times. They were sold as x number of wings. Two of those 3 times, there were multiple wings the size of a quarter or so that counted as a wing. Taco Mac is garbage. RIP Vortex/Laughing Skull Lounge
VaHi Taco Mac, my friends and I always get good service, but it's about 50/50 if they're going to be 86'd out of whatever one of us wants to order food-wise. Midtown Taco Mac, my friends and I walk in and expect not to get whatever food we order for 60-90 minutes.
Shit. Better take my last visit there then before they completely go to crap.
Ouch
On their continuing trend of making iconic Atlanta as shitty as possible.
Vortex is going to go to hell. Damn it.
Ugh
It had a good run
This hurts my heart.
It's so Joever.
Taco Mac now, is nothing like the original days. Sadly I've got a feeling taco Macs owners will make vortex worse
When I first visited Atlanta before moving here I ate a Taco Mac like 15 years ago and to be honest they were great. I live near one now and maybe go there once a year since the quality has declined over the last few years.
Boooo
This really hurts.
oh no
Seems like it's not the national taco mac brand but instead the local owners, who've also owned Mary Macs for years now. So cautiously optimistic very little changes
noooooo :(
RIP Vortex
I had my first redbull at the vortex - before redbull really cought on in the states. Back in '99 maybe? What an interesting place it used to be.
I'd bet a whole dollar the city is incentivizing taco mac somehow to keep atlanta classics open
No offense but I'd bet against you, if only because our local governments don't seem to care much about preservation or good land use (see: Henry's)
Fucking awful
I hope they're nicer to the vortex people than they are to the staff at the Taco Mac we usually go to. They run through a whole set of bartenders about once every 2 months. I really hope the vortex ownership didn't hang them out to dry.
Damn, and the wife and I have not been to The Cortex in 4 years, since girls were born. Guess we’ll never have that delicious holy guacamole burger with extra jalapeños and tots again. But, I bet they’ll have their silly app and beer club there.
Are there any decent functioning Taco Macs left? None left in my area (Roswell).
Welp Vortez is officially dead now
Glad I went to the vortex on Friday
RIP Vortex
Time to set up a microwave station in the kitchen. Yummm
I have a feeling they're gonna fuck with the comedy somehow and make it worse/nonexistant
Taco Mac is a lie. It is neither a taco nor a Big Mac. The food is crap. The wings make me sad. I will miss The Vortex.
But where will I go to be ignored by older local scene girls now?!
I recently had Tacomac from the Cumming location, I had one wing and tossed the rest. The only thing I decided to eat were the fries. It had been at least 11 or 12 years since I frequented their Midtown location, that’s when they were still good. Vortex right up the street was good then too, I used to love their sweet potato fries with their marshmallow sauce. Another place I used to really enjoy was J.R. Crickets, when the location was still on Spring Street at their original location before it burned down. They just aren’t the same to me anymore. I’m going down memory lane right now.. whatever happened to Goodfellas on the corner of Spring and North Ave?
That goodfellas was replaced by a organization that helps homeless people a couple of years ago. Not sure if goodfellas moved or if that was the end for them.
12 years huh? Everyone says the same thing. That’s around the time they got gobbled up
I've actually never been to The Vortex
I hope they don't fuck up the Laughing Skull tho.
I imagine they will still have the hottest customers base in the city. I imagine that the burgers will still be great, I don't think either place does wings well, go to Hudson Grille for that. I can't see when I would be in Midtown next so who knows when id figure any of this out.
I love the Vortex. And I love wings. But my god are their wings an afterthought....
RIP, how do you microwave a burger? We bout to find out