SOMERS POINT — Greg Gregory doesn’t like tacos, but he does like “Taco Tuesday” — so much so that he and cousin Walt Gregory, co-owners of Gregory’s Restaurant & Bar, are punching way above their weight to keep their trademark on the phrase they coined in the 1970s.
“It’s a battle, a David vs. Goliath battle,” Greg Gregory said Wednesday, the day after the first Taco Tuesday held on a summer afternoon.
Traditionally celebrated only in the off-season, Taco Tuesday made its summer debut Aug. 1 because of the increased attention the iconic eatery has garnered from its battle with Taco Bell, which already has pressured national rival Taco John’s to give up the fight.
According to a CNN Business article by Jordan Valinsky published July 18, Taco John’s, the regional chain that has “Taco Tuesday” trademarked in every state but New Jersey, announced it was bowing out of its fight against Taco Bell.
“We’ve always prided ourselves on being the home of ‘Taco Tuesday,’ but paying millions of dollars to lawyers to defend our mark just doesn’t feel like the right thing to do,” Taco John’s CEO Jim Creel told the writer in a statement.
According to the story, the corporate giant filed a petition in May with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office to cancel the trademark owned by Taco John’s for 34 years because Taco Bell claims the commonly used phrase “should be freely available to all who make, sell, eat and celebrate tacos.”
Taco John’s has owned the trademark in every state except New Jersey since 1989. The restaurant chain has about 400 locations in 23 states, while Taco Bell has more than 7,200 locations in the U.S. and about 1,000 restaurants across 30 countries internationally.
That leaves the Gregory family of Somers Point standing alone in the ring with the giant.
History of the phrase
The cousins’ grandfather started the business on the corner of Shore Road and Delaware Avenue in 1946 with his two sons, each of whom had one son — Greg and Walt, who have been co-owners since 1979.
Greg Gregory said he was operating a restaurant in Philadelphia at the time but he returned home to help take over the business, bringing with him a little-known food he had found in Philly.
He said he started seeing customers lining up at the food court in the Gallery Shopping Center to buy “something spelled t-a-c-o.”
After three days of watching the lines, he decided to try one for himself, getting in line to order what he called a “tayco.”
“I said ‘I’ll try one,’ took one bite and it was awful,” Gregory said, noting he dislikes cumin, a spice used in many Mexican dishes.
Despite his reaction to the food, the entrepreneur knows a good thing when he sees it, “so I brought the idea to Somers Point and talked about adding it to the menu.”
Gregory said the restaurant had closed New Year’s Eve 1978 and opened again Feb. 1, 1979. In the meantime, he suggested adding tacos to the menu but was shot down in a 3-1 vote, with Walt and their two wives both rejecting the idea.
So Gregory suggested doing it just one night a week as a special to see how it was received by customers.
“Tony Marts had a drink and drown on Wednesday, so I said ‘Let’s do Tuesday, take their legs out. We’ll do it on Tuesday, taco Tuesday … we’ll call it Taco Tuesday.’”
He said he called a couple of buddies, including Joe Almo of Almo Pools in Egg Harbor Township, and another friend who was visiting from Texas who “knew how to make tacos.”
He said they had to go to three stores before they found corn tortillas and held them with tongs in the fryer to get them to curl.
Gregory said they sold five orders the first night and 20 the following week, so they went to Philadelphia and bought 200 taco shells.
“On the third Tuesday we sold out,” he said, noting the price was $1 for three tacos and a bottle of beer was $1.50.
“It was a deal but barely covered the cost,” he said.
Trademark that thing
Taco Tuesday was flourishing by spring, when an old friend stopped by and urged Gregory to trademark the phrase.
“My friend came in and said we had to trademark it — there was a line out the door and the dining room was packed,” Gregory said.
His friend, Jack Spellman, a public speaking professor at what was then Atlantic Community College, returned a couple of weeks later and asked how the process was coming along.
“I said ‘trademark?’ I was too busy being busy to worry about that,” Gregory said.
A couple of weeks after that, Spellman was back and again urging Gregory to seek a trademark, only this time he had him sign some papers and give him a check.
“If it weren’t for him, there wouldn’t be a Taco Tuesday trademark,” Gregory said. “If it had not been for Professor Spellman, I wouldn’t have done it.”
He’s been fighting for the right to the term ever since.
“People would copy it. For the first 10 years, I called them and told them I get triple damages. What do you want to do, go to court?” Gregory said. “That’s all it took for 15, 20 years. Now it’s 40 years and Taco Bell thinks it should be disbanded because it’s in the public lexicon. The bottom line is, it’s not fair. I’ve been paying my fees.”
Gregory said he first lost control of the trademark in every state but New Jersey when Taco John’s showed in 1989 that he was not marketing outside the Garden State.
Now, he has to fight alone for his rights.
“Were taking it as long as we can before it starts to get expensive,” he said. “They can have 49 states, just stay out of New Jersey, that’s all.”
National attention
Gregory said he has been contacted by CNN, CNBC and other major news outlets to tell his story, bringing increased attention to Taco Tuesday.
“We always did it just in the winter and with all of this going on, we started doing it in this summer,” Gregory said. “Out-of-towners expected it.”
He called it “a little teaser,” selling taco baskets from noon to 5 p.m. until the Tuesday after Labor Day, when the promotion will run from 3 p.m. to close.
Customer support
Gregory said the community has shown a tremendous amount of support for the restaurant, both in person and on social media.
Even City Council backed the family’s fight, issuing a resolution supporting the restaurant’s trademark.
It notes “the iconic establishment has been operated for over a half-century and five generations.”
“A global corporate giant fast-food entity is trying to break the patent of Taco Tuesday across the nation including in New Jersey,” it states. “Taco John’s has given up the fight, but Gregory’s is committed to soldiering on in this David vs. Goliath battle.”
Mayor Jack Glasser thanked the cousins for all they do for Somers Point, noting they have hosted charity fundraisers during Taco Tuesday.
“Somers Point is known for so many things, but one of the things we are really known for is Taco Tuesdays at Gregory’s,” Glasser said, comparing it to Tony Marts and Bayshores, two well-known establishments in the city’s entertainment heyday.
“I’m glad that you are continuing the fight and not giving in. I was there for the first Taco Tuesday, I can say that,” Council President Janice Johnston said.
“We have many, many fond memories in that establishment over there and many convened around tacos. Regardless of what happens in this battle with that behemoth corporation, I will continue enjoying tacos on Tuesdays at one of my favorite establishments,” Councilman Sean McGuigan said.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff