Torchy’s Tacos joined the Taste of Nashville program the week of March 10 after opening a location in Midtown in September 2024. The Texas-based chain restaurant serves Tex-Mex cuisine, including burritos, tacos and fajitas. It is the second Tex-Mex restaurant in the Midtown area part of the Taste of Nashville program, following Chuy’s Tex Mex.
Sophomore Claire Cardenas said the addition of Torchy’s Tacos to the Taste of Nashville program has made her eager to go to the Nashville location more often.
“Being from Texas, I had been a Torchy’s regular for years before coming to Vanderbilt and was already excited enough that they added a Nashville location this [school] year,” Cardenas said. “When my friends and I came back from spring break last week to see the Vandy scanner at the register, we were so ecstatic and will be going even more than before now!”
Senior Nandika Chirala also said she’s been to Torchy’s Tacos locations in Texas and is excited to go to the Nashville location now that it is part of the Taste of Nashville program.
“Torchy’s is one of my favorite restaurants from back in Texas, and I am so excited to use my Commodore Card to pay there. Their tacos are so good, and I love going there,” Chirala said.
In a statement to The Hustler, Campus Dining said Torchy’s Tacos was added to Taste of Nashville because many students voted for it to be included.
“The addition of Torchy’s Tacos to the Taste of Nashville program was part of an occasional adjustment to participating restaurants in consultation with [Vanderbilt Student Government],” the statement said. “Results from a VSG survey found that Torchy’s Tacos was the most requested restaurant to add to Taste of Nashville.”
Oscar Acosta, managing partner of Torchy’s Tacos in Midtown, said the restaurant was added to the program because of its proximity to Vanderbit and the fact that 25% of their customer base is Vanderbilt students and employees. They have also catered for Vanderbilt sports teams and organizations in the past.
“[The most popular item students get is] 100% the queso, they’re always eating queso,” Acosta said. “Then the trailer park [tacos] — for some reason they all like the trailer park. But those are two of our staples. Those are the ones that bring people in.”
Acosta added that although he has noticed more students going to Torchy’s Tacos since it joined the program, the restaurant is only a little busier. He said the restaurant is usually packed, so the staff is accustomed to dealing with a large number of customers.
“I think [being part of the program] is just going to reinforce that connection we already have [with Vanderbilt]. We do a lot of donations for Vandy events — we just donated to the Relay for Life event. It was a natural relationship that happened, and that will just reinforce it,” Acosta said. “Thank you to everybody at Vandy because they have been a big support and we’ve made some pretty important relationships and had some fun times doing it, too.”
