Mike’s Red Tacos started in San Diego as a 2021 food truck. The brand has signed an 18-unit franchise agreement with JM Foods for Los Angeles and Orange County, with the first store targeted for Downey by the end of 2026 and a second in Long Beach in early 2027. JM Foods is led by Victor Fiss and John Thomas, the same operators who run 25 Jersey Mike’s locations across Southern California with another eight in build-out. For independent SoCal operators who have been waiting on the same retail boxes these franchisees are about to take down, the site picture just shifted.

The Eighteen-Unit Territory Commitment

What JM Foods signed is a full territory commitment across LA County and Orange County. Fiss and Thomas already operate 25 Jersey Mike’s stores in Southern California with eight more in development. They have the lease-letter-of-credit, the SBA banker, the GC, and the bookkeeping infrastructure dialed in from running that portfolio. When an operator group at that scale turns toward a second concept, it moves fast. Eighteen units over a defined geography means 18 site selections, 18 LOIs, and 18 lease negotiations running in parallel against the same landlords and brokers a single-unit independent operator is talking to.

Mike’s Red Tacos has more than 200 units committed nationwide, with pipelines in Arizona, California, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New England, and Texas. The brand brought in Vincent Montanelli as president after nearly 20 years at Wetzel’s Pretzels. Bill Phelps (former Dave’s Hot Chicken CEO and Wetzel’s Pretzels co-founder) and Andrew Feghali (first Dave’s Hot Chicken franchisee) are early-stage investors and advisors. The capital backers and the operator playbook are the same ones that scaled Dave’s Hot Chicken to a national footprint.

Three Conversations for LA and OC Operators

Three things are at stake on the ground in 2026 and 2027. Each one shows up as a different conversation operators in LA County and OC should be having with their brokers right now.

Site Competition Tightens Immediately

A franchisee group writing checks across 18 stores will move on infill QSR boxes over the next 36 months. Downey and Long Beach are the announced first markets, and Orange County pads will follow as the program ramps. If you are an independent operator who has been negotiating a particular endcap for six months, assume a competing LOI is now in the landlord’s hand. Sign the lease now, or be ready to lose the box and start over on the next listing.

Comp Set Resets for Birria Concepts

When a well-capitalized brand commits to a market at this volume, the comp set for valuations gets recalibrated. Birria-forward concepts in LA County have been valued on small-deal multiples. Once Mike’s opens at scale and produces visible AUVs, brokers and buyers will start pricing established birria operations against that benchmark. That recalibration moves both ways, lifting the value of a well-run independent or exposing it as underpriced and ready for a strategic conversation.

Exit Optionality Improves for Established Operators

Multi-platform franchisee groups like JM Foods are the buyer pool that matters most on the listings we work right now. Operators running one or two locations at real volume become relevant to groups looking for either conversion candidates or competitive moats. If you have built a recognizable Mexican QSR concept in SoCal and you are starting to think about exit timing, this deal is the kind of signal that says start the conversation now. The buyer pool is moving toward operators with clean books and proven unit economics, and exit-time conversations land better when those signals are already in motion.

The Five-Year Path From Truck to Territory Deal

Mike Touma launched Mike’s Red Tacos as a beef-birria food truck in 2021. The brand opened three brick-and-mortar restaurants in the San Diego market between 2022 and early 2026. A corporate-run Pasadena prototype opened earlier this year as the Brand Training Center. The franchising program went public in February 2026 with the Dave’s Hot Chicken alumni network behind it. By June, the first 18-unit territory deal was signed with a 25-unit Jersey Mike’s franchisee group.

That is a five-year arc from single truck to platform-funded national franchise rollout. Most food-truck-to-platform stories collapse before the fifth store, killed by site failures, COGS drift, or franchisee fatigue. The buyer side of the SoCal market is being reshaped right now by capital looking for the next regional Mexican QSR with national legs. If you are a SoCal operator with a defensible food story and working unit economics, you are closer to the conversation than you were six months ago.

Sources

Businesses Mentioned

Mike's Red Tacos JM Foods Jersey Mike's Dave's Hot Chicken Wetzel's Pretzels