The Taco That Ate Wellington

Restaurants are scaling back plans for expansion. That new carpet for the foyer has been put on hold, and the chipped plates will just have to last another year. So it's nice to see one Florida company planning to open 12 new locations this year: According to today's Orlando Sentinel, Tijuana Flats of Maitland, a fast-casual Tex-Mex cafe, is rolling out 11 new stores in Florida and one in Raleigh, N.C. Palm Beach County recently got its first store, in Wellington, complete with a sauce bar that's purportedly purveying the hottest sauce being sold on the market. New locations are planned for Coconut Creek, West Palm Beach, and Miramar. "As hot and wet as you like it" goes the TF motto: That goes for the oversized eight-inch tacos and "megajuana" burritos (nobody says this is health food, but they do offer whole wheat tortillas). Founder and CEO Brian Wheeler said TF had 40 percent growth last year, with total sales of $61 million.