Knoxville, Tennessee, “is an underrated food hub,” said Nirav Patel, and one reason he believes Roll-Em-Up Taquitos will prove successful in the market. Patel signed a 10-unit franchise agreement with the Mexican quick-service concept with plans to introduce the brand in Knox County, Tennessee, and Jefferson County, Kentucky, in early 2024.
“The main competition is Cook Out,” said Patel, referencing the fast-food burger, barbecue and hot dog brand with a heavy presence in eastern Tennessee. “Knoxville and Louisville, they’re college towns but really there’s not a lot of late-night options.”
Serving five taquitos, including braised shredded beef, ground beef and citrus-marinated chicken, plus sides such as street corn and chips and queso, Roll-Em-Up Taquitos sits in a popular Mexican category but with a focused menu that to Patel reminded him of Raising Cane’s. That brand, he said, found success with a single core item, chicken fingers, and Roll-Em-Up is doing the same with taquitos.
“The menu is very simplistic. The less SKUs you’re dealing with … everything else becomes such much easier,” said Patel of the operations. He also noted the lower startup costs—the brand’s investment range is $288,700 to $805,500—and the potential to quickly scale.
Franchisee Nirav Patel plans to develop Roll-Em-Up Taquitos in Tennessee and Kentucky.
“I talked to another franchisee who’d added a second store within the first year and did it for less than $100,000,” he said.
Based in Chino Hills, California, Roll-Em-Up got its start in 2019 when founder Ryan Usrey decided to create a restaurant concept around his mother’s beef taquitos. The company began franchising in 2021 and has 16 locations open, in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. Making taquitos the star of the menu, said Head of Franchising Paul Tran, is what differentiates the brand from others in the crowded Mexican space.
“Taquitos are a well-loved item, but it’s an afterthought or not given much love at Mexican restaurants,” said Tran of a product often found at 7-Eleven or in the frozen food aisle. Roll-Em-Up, meanwhile, emphasizes fresh ingredients in its pan-fried taquitos, and the branding is “more mainstream fast-casual” than traditional Mexican.
Tran, who joined the company in February, spent 10 years at franchise development firm Fransmart and is also a Halal Guys franchisee with nine restaurants. He’s working to attract franchisees who have the ability to inject some speed into the expansion efforts and bring operations experience to a fledgling system that so far had been partnering with mom-and-pop owners. The company is also being more intentional about development, such as in Texas, where in early 2022 it announced the signing of a 300-unit master development deal. Those franchisees have since “let the territory go,” said Tran.
Paul Tran is leading franchise development at Roll-Em-Up.
“We’re approaching it a lot slower and more intentionally in Texas,” he continued.
With the solid performance of its existing locations—the company doesn’t disclose sales information but Tran said the 1,500-square-foot units are doing “crazy volumes”—there’s proof of concept to draw interest from more sophisticated franchisees, he said.
That includes Patel. Also a Tropical Smoothie Cafe franchisee with one store in Knoxville, Patel took over the business from his parents, hired a management team and is working to develop additional units.
“I’m more about scalability,” said Patel, who’s worked in the financial technology segment and most recently was the chief product officer for Card.io. He’s on the hunt for real estate—high rents and low availability are proving a challenge—with a goal of opening his first Roll-Em-Up in early 2024.