Pink Taco Takes Over Trader Vic’s in the Pearl District

A Mexican restaurant franchise clearly hoping to attract the young, fabulous, and drunk is moving into the former Trader Vic’s spot at 1203 NW Glisan St. A clubstaurant owned by the Z Capital Partners brand management group, Pink Taco aims to open in Portland in summer 2018, vice president of operations David Ficklen tells Eater.

“We look forward to joining what’s already going on in Portland,” says Ficklen. “The city already has a great grip on who they are, and we want to jump in and add to the mix.”

Pink Taco has two current locations — one on Los Angeles’s Sunset Strip and another inside the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas — with four new locations currently in the works around the country. It also operates a few food trucks.

The name of the game at Pink Taco is simple: The restaurant “simply throws a party every day with amazing food, drinks, rock ‘n’ roll, and lots of friends,” according to its Facebook page. It serves brunch, lunch, and dinner, and the many-paged menus run the gamut from vegan bowls to fried lobster tacos.

Even beyond its giggity name and branding, Pink Taco courts attention. A now-closed location in Scottsdale, Arizona, made the dating website Ashley Madison’s list of top spots to have an affair, and another now-closed location in Century City, California, provoked outrage when it painted a donkey pink for Cinco de Mayo. Until next summer, the question is: How will the franchise make waves in Portland?

• Pink Taco [Official]