Kris and Angel Scott were looking into owning a franchise when they stumbled upon the California-based chain, Chronic Tacos.
“We got tired of working 9-to-5s and working for other people,” Kris Scott said. “One day I came home and Angel asked if we could franchise. We both researched brands. She found Chronic Tacos by looking at the Fortune 500 list and they were at the bottom, and the logo was what caught her eye.
The first location of Chronic popped up in Newport Beach, California in 2002 when Daniel Biello and Randy Wyner wanted to put their own spin on their inspiration from local taquerias in Southern California. Now there are locations in 10 states and three countries (Canada and Japan).
The chain serves Mexican food in a fast-casual way, similar to Qdoba and Chipotle. They offer burritos, bowls, tacos, and nachos with customers able to select the ingredients for their meal.
The Scotts opened their first location in Oregon, and if it’s successful, they hope to open more in the future.
“Ideally, we’d like to open a couple more; if this one does well, we’d like to expand,” said Kris Scott. “Salem was the ideal choice because our children attend school here and we’re already established. We’ll explore the local market first and then work our way up from there. Ideally, we’d like to explore I-5.”
However, getting to the grand opening was far from easy for the Scott family. The couple started looking for a franchise in 2017 and signed the Chronic Tacos franchisee agreement in 2018.
They then began searching for a location with minimal success for a few months.
“This was the first space we looked at, and for some reason, Pacific Automation didn’t respond at first,” Scott said. “At first, they seemed very motivated, so we made an offer, and they didn’t respond. A couple of months later, we came back here when they finally contacted us. They gave us a grant to help renovate the space and turn it into a restaurant. They were very helpful with the process and very flexible.”
Halfway through the project, they experienced another delay due to the pandemic, and the lender they had been working with for a year withdrew the loan while the space was being built.
“We had a half-built space, we owed a ton of money to the landlord, we owed money to the general contractor, and we had just paid the franchise fee,” Scott said. “We had invested all our money in this space and put the project on hold for over a year. The good thing was that our landlord contacted us and said, ‘Don’t worry about the rent, don’t worry about anything. When construction resumes, we can talk.’”
Eventually, the owners received government grants to offset their losses and managed to secure a new lender, which wasn’t easy since the space was already half-built.
Finally, its soft opening took place on May 30th of this year, and the grand opening on July 16th, with a special appearance by “Jackass” actor and franchise owner Jason “Wee Man” Acuña.
“We’re a local business open seven days a week, which is rare downtown,” Scott said. “My wife and I are focused on our mission. We don’t do this to make money, but to give people an experience and make them feel valued and part of the community.”