San Antonio Taco Company
A group of local investors including Edley’s Restaurant Group founder Will Newman and Blackbird Capital officials Prentiss Nelson and Chenault Sanders announced Tuesday the looming acquisition of 42-year-old Tex-Mex restaurant San Antonio Taco Company.
A release notes the sale is expected to be finalized on Aug. 3, with the financial terms not being disclosed.
Recognized for its outdoor deck and massive trees, SATCO is located at 416 21st Ave. S. near the Vanderbilt University campus. The business shares a building with a Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop.
Old Nashville, tacos, queso and Indian ice cream in the Vandy area — with a side of sentimentality
Hunter Atkins and Sandy Haury, Nashvillians and Vanderbilt graduates, have owned SATCO since 1990.
Robin Delmer and Richard Patton, two Vanderbilt graduates from San Antonio, founded SATCO in 1984. They sold it to Atkins and Haury, as noted, six years later.
Via Edley's Restaurant Group, Catherine Newman and Will Newman own Edley's Bar-B-Que. The company also owns and operates Edley’s Tacos in Sylvan Park and has ownership in Brown’s Diner near Hillsboro Village.
Blackbird Capital is the parent company of Blackbird Realty Ventures, which owns and operates The Nashville Sign, a prominent Midtown electronic billboard that towers over the West End Avenue and Broadway split.
Atkins and Haury say in the release the sale of their restaurant business is being driven, in large part, by the retirement of long-time SATCO manager Robert Wilder.
“Through the due diligence process, we recognized that Will's family values — which are reflected in his employees — Edley's successful locations across the city, the strength of the local investor group, an understanding of the SATCO culture among our employees and customers, plus his work restoring Brown's diner, we had no doubt this was the right fit,” Atkins and Haury say.
“We are leaving SATCO in good hands.”
In the early Aughts, a San Antonio Taco Company operated in downtown Nashville at 208 Commerce St. Another Broken Egg Cafe now occupies that space.
Members of a local family have owned the building from which SATCO operates since 1981, having paid $250,000 for it, according to Metro records.
Newman says the future ownership group is ready “to shepherd this Nashville institution into its next chapter. When a business has operated successfully for more than four decades, there are certainly things that are non-negotiables for customers. But there are also things that likely could be refreshed and updated.”
He adds: “We plan to start by listening and learning about all of the things that have made SATCO special over the past 42 years along with where there might be room for improvement."
This story was first published by our sister publication the Nashville Post.
