Wyoming’s Own Taco John’s Turns to Big Data to Win over Taco Bell’s Younger Fans

The original story by David Madison for Cowboy State Daily.

After 56 years of mostly trusting gut instinct and local know-how, Wyoming-born Taco John’s is calling in the data nerds.

The Cheyenne-founded taco chain has teamed up with Bikky, a New York City data analytics firm, to better understand its customers and chip away at rival Taco Bell’s younger crowd — without losing the local flavor that made it a regional favorite in the first place.

“We have franchisees that have been with us for 50 years and they know the brand extremely well,” said Kevin Flaherty, Taco John’s chief marketing officer, who joined in 2024 after eight years at MOD Pizza. “But as times change, we have to evolve alongside our guests.”

Taco John’s has never completely flown blind. Back in the day, former marketing head Renée Middleton remembers hiring research firms, doing community surveys and even walking dining rooms to chat up customers mid-bite.

“I’ve gone around into the dining room and talked with customers while they were eating,” she said.

Sometimes that research misfired. Middleton points to the Super Taco Bravo, a version of the popular Taco Bravo that automatically came with sour cream. Customers in focus groups loved the idea. Franchisees? Not so much.

They liked charging extra for sour cream, and the new item complicated upselling. The result was friction between owners and confusion for loyal Taco Bravo fans.

“We ended up pulling the Super Taco Bravo as a product that we advertised,” Middleton said. “Live and learn.”

With Bikky on board, Taco John’s wants fewer “live and learn” moments and more decisions backed by hard numbers. Flaherty says the biggest change is “removing the emotion from discussions about the brand.”

Already, the data has exposed some surprises. Operators thought most of their business came from regulars; Bikky showed many locations are actually pulling in more new guests than expected, prompting a rethink of how to attract and keep first-timers.

Analytics also saved a limited-time fish taco from the chopping block. The Alaska Flounder Fish Tacos — flounder in crispy seasoned batter with Fiesta Sauce, lettuce and pico — were on the verge of being pulled. Bikky’s numbers showed the promo was bringing in lots of new customers, so Taco John’s kept it around longer.

“We’re trying to reinvent our menu from a quality equation,” Flaherty said. “Now we have visibility into which items don’t bring guests back and which do.”

Taco John’s has long known who’s parked across the street.

“Yes, we always looked at Taco Bell and how they did business,” Middleton said. “They did attract a younger consumer. Part of it was because they had a lower price point than we did. But we also felt that we had a quality product.”

Lindsay Stilwell, whose family has run Taco John’s franchises across Wyoming for decades, doesn’t name Taco Bell directly, but she’s clear about the competition.

“Market research has shown that our demographic has always been a little older than the younger crowd,” she said.

Stilwell hopes the Bikky partnership helps shift that.

“I would hope that would give us a better insight into how to reach people — maybe in a way that we haven’t been able to in the past.”

For all the talk of algorithms and analytics, some of Taco John’s biggest wins started right back in Wyoming.

Stilwell recalls working with Glenrock High School’s culinary program, where students came into the local Taco John’s to experiment with new menu ideas.

“I want to say the stuffed grilled taco came from that program,” she said. “One of the kids from Glenrock High School was kind of the one that came up with that stuffed grilled taco idea.”

Middleton backs that up. The idea was passed up the chain, moved into Taco John’s test kitchen and turned into a full-fledged menu item.

That mix of local creativity and national reach is exactly what the company is trying to protect as it modernizes.

“Having the businesses in small communities like we have has given us probably a leg up,” Stilwell said. “We have more of an intimate relationship with our customers — learning what they like and what they don’t like, having so many regular customers all the time that come and see us.”

Taco John’s isn’t Bikky’s first rodeo. The data platform has already helped other restaurant brands dig into who’s ordering what, where and why.

• MOD Pizza saw “customer visibility” jump dramatically, unlocking new insight into ordering patterns and promo performance.
• Mellow Mushroom learned that despite having huge email lists, they knew almost nothing about who those customers really were until Bikky tied store performance to staff turnover, feedback and price sensitivity.
• Tiki Taco used Bikky to identify its most frequent guests and the menu items that kept them coming back, helping boost same-store sales by about 15% year over year, according to the company.

“Every restaurant brand succeeding in today’s digital-first world understands that an investment in their technology is the same as an investment in their customers,” said Bikky CEO Abhinav Kapur.

Stilwell and her family are about to test all this in real time. They bought the Fort Saloon N’ Eatery site on F Street in Casper, tore it down, and are building a new Taco John’s, slated to open in spring 2026.

Will younger, Taco Bell-leaning diners show up? That’s the bet.

“The future of all business and everything in our country are these generations to come,” Stilwell said. “I think we would want to find a better way to reach into a demographic that hasn’t been our strong suit in the past.”

For Taco John’s, the next chapter looks like this: Wyoming roots, Glenrock-inspired tacos, and a lot of New York data humming quietly in the background.