What Happened to Taco John’s in Mountain Home?
But...but...where are we going to get our Potato Oles?
When it comes to deep fried potatoes, you've got your french fries, your steak fries, your curly fries, your sweet potato fries and your tater tots. You love them all, but the just can't compare to the Potato Oles that Taco John's is known for. If you're driving through Mountain Home, it's hard to resist stopping at the one remaining Taco John's in our area to grab a tub of those round bites of crunch potato sprinkled with whatever brilliant blend of spices they came up with. Whether you dipped them in nacho cheese, sour cream, guac or salsa, they always hit the spot.
Your mouth is watering just thinking about them and now you're thinking "do I have a reason to go to Mountain Home this weekend?" Well, we hate to burst your bubble but if your only motivation is stopping at the one remaining Taco John's close to the Treasure Valley...it's gone.
Yup. Just like that, Taco John's has closed up shop! Wednesday night, Facebook user Jordyn Breann posted a photo of the drive thru board with a sign on it that read "Closed Permanently." Some of Jordyn's Facebook friends speculated that it was because of an air conditioning issue, so we got curious.
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The Taco John's website still lists the location as open, so we called the listed number and were a little surprised that someone answered the phone. When we asked "Is this Taco John's?" the voice on the other end said "Yes." Naturally our next question was "Are you guys open anymore?" The female voice told us "No." By this afternoon the logos were being painted over and the drive-thru menu board is empty.
While many former Taco John's fans admitted that the service and quality of Mountain Home's location has declined since new owners took over, they were still sad to see it go. Many parents remembered visiting it fondly when they were in school and passed their love of Potato Oles onto their children.
Taco John's previously had locations in Nampa and Boise, but they closed in 2014 and 2020, respectively. If you need to satisfy your Potato Ole craving, the closest Taco John's location is in Twin Falls.