History
Tijuana Flats was started by a recent University of Central Florida graduate, Brian Wheeler, in 1995 in Winter Park, Florida. It was modeled after Burrito Brothers, a Mexican restaurant in Gainesville, Florida and funded with $20,000 in borrowed money from Wheeler's family. Students from Wheeler's former college made up some of the restaurant's early customers. Wheeler tried to create his own signature hot-sauce unsuccessfully before hiring Edgewater to formulate the restaurant's sauce brand, "Smack My Ass & Call Me Sally." When Wheeler received an order to have 25 cases of the sauce shipped to California, he setup a separate company called Tijuana Flats Hot Foods Inc. as a hot sauce business.
After the third location was opened, a semi-retired restaurant executive, Camp Fitch, was invited to Tijuana Flats by his golf partner. In 1999, Fitch invested in the company and was appointed its CEO to expand the chain nationally. When the fourth location opened, the founder's dad, Chester Wheeler, was reimbursed for his $20,000 loan used to start the company and joined as the CFO.
Tijuana Flats had six locations by 2001, which grew to 18 locations in 2004 and 65 by 2009. In 2005, Tijuana Flats built its first training center for branch managers in Winter Park. In 2007, Tijuana Flats shifted from a franchise model to corporate-owned stores. The chain re-purchased some of its under-performing franchise locations. That same year Tijuana Flats created its non-profit arm, the Just in Queso Foundation. The Foundation donated $46,000 to remodel the home of a handicapped war vet and started donating profits from the Just in Queso hot sauce to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
A second restaurant with a cajun menu was opened in 2011 called Tibby's New Orleans Kitchen. It was named after Wheeler's late uncle, Walter “Tibby” Tabony, and used some of the family's recipes. That year Tijuana Flats updated its menu with fish tacos, "Norrito" bowls and Bangin Chicken entrees, salads and tostadas. In 2012 Tijuana Flats donated the proceeds from their seasonal hot sauces to Kids Beating Cancer and gave out free entrees to teachers after a school shooting in Newton, Connecticut on December 27.
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