The award-winning food truck T-Licious Tacos is no more and the partnership between chef/owner Jordan Kean and manager/owner Cathy McGoldrick has been dissolved.
Chow Bella spoke with Kean Friday; she says the split was a "long time coming" but that she plans to be back in action by Wednesday with a rebranded truck called J-Licious Tacos.
"I'm just going to pick myself up and start myself up again on Wednesday," Kean says.
T-Licious Tacos was slated to be filmed for Food Network's Eat St. last Friday but abruptly pulled out the day before. Kean says McGoldrick refused to sign the necessary releases to allow that to go forward.
Eat St. staff tells Chow Bella that T-Licious Tacos had to back out of filming due to the liabilities associated with not having a signed release from both halves of a business partnership.
While Kean did not get specific, she implied that she and McGoldrick had ongoing conflicts over the direction of T-Licious Tacos. This stemmed, at least in part, by the nature of their partnership, which granted each significant autonomy to pursue future business ventures on their own. While Kean is obviously distraught that their business venture was breaking apart, she says they were attempting to resolve this amicably.
Since the partnership dissolved last week, Kean says, she has been scrambling to get all her truck's paperwork in order. She's expediting the creation of a new LLC as well as reapplying for membership to the Phoenix Street Food Coalition.
We spoke briefly with the coalition's chairman, Short Leash Hot Dog's Brad Moore, and he said that it would only take a few days for the coalition's board to vote on a new application. On Friday he said that he had not seen a new application from Kean just yet.
J-Licious Taco's first gig should be an event at the Barlet Lake marina where they will be available to serve the general public after 2:30 PM until the marina closes, Kean says, adding that the truck will feature many of the same tacos that fans have come to love but that she is also going to use this as an opportunity to push for new items as well.
Beyond that, her goal is to expand the business and relocate to Lake Pleasant for the summer. While there are some questions as to whether she could get the required to permits to bring the truck to Lake Pleasant, she says that she will definitely have a new hot dog cart ready to go by Memorial Day. The yet to be named cart will serve Diablo Nachos as well as Cheesy Dogs, she says.
Chow Bella placed a call to McGoldrick but has not heard back. We'll be sure to let you know if we do.
Kean says that fans can still use the T-Licious Facebook page to get in touch with her or where she's going to be until she is able to get her new webpage and twitter account online.
