Tin Star, the fast-casual taco chain that introduced North Texas to gourmet tacos back in 1999, is reopening in McKinney in mid-September, with a full bar, frozen cocktails, and a menu built around many of the same best-selling tacos it served on day one. A second location is planned in Frisco for spring 2027.
The revival is the work of Rich Hicks, described as a D-FW restaurateur and one of Tin Star's original co-founders, according to The Dallas Morning News. Hicks is the only original co-founder returning to the brand this time around, and he retained the recipes from the original Tin Star, which sold gourmet tacos in a fast-casual atmosphere for about two decades in North Texas starting in 1999. The chain eventually grew to 16 restaurants before closing its final location in the late 2010s.
A Familiar Menu Built on Nostalgia
Hicks said Tin Star will open with a lot of nostalgia, and the new menu leans into that history by including many best-selling tacos from the original 1999 lineup. Among the returning items are the portabella taco with roasted corn and sweet potatoes, the OG #9 with grilled chicken, red onion jalapeño marmalade, sweet potato straws and jack cheese, and the cowboy kimchi taco with pork and grilled onions. The lineup also includes a brisket taco with queso and a salmon BLT taco, all sold à la carte.
Cheeseburger tacos remain a centerpiece of the concept, with three versions on the menu. The original cheeseburger taco comes with American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles; the smashburger version adds grilled onions and jalapeños; and the steakhouse burger taco is topped with bacon and fried onions. Each cheeseburger taco contains two halves of a beef patty tucked inside a tortilla and comes with fries on the side.
McKinney Location Adds a Full Bar
The McKinney location, at 8801 Eldorado Parkway, will feature a full bar and at least eight frozen cocktails, a step up from the fast-casual counter-service format of the original chain. Hicks said the brand did not need to be introduced in Dallas this time, a nod to the recognition Tin Star still carries among longtime North Texas diners.
Hicks partnered with Aaron White to open and grow the revived Tin Star. White previously worked at Nick and Sam's Steak House and MOOYAH Burgers, and was Hicks's first MOOYAH franchisee. The pair chose Collin County as the starting point for the relaunch, and the choice lines up with the county's growth: U.S. Census Bureau estimates released in March showed Collin County gained nearly 43,000 residents between July 2024 and July 2025, ranking second nationwide among all U.S. counties for population growth, according to KERA News. That put the county's population near 1.3 million, with an annual growth rate of 3.4%, in sharp contrast to population drops in neighboring Dallas County, the outlet reported.
McKinney itself has been part of that surge. The city's population grew to 237,130 as of January, a 21.4% increase over the 195,308 residents counted in the 2020 Census, according to demographic data published by the City of McKinney. McKinney has consistently ranked among the fastest-growing large cities in the country over the past decade, per the city's own figures.
From Busboy to General Manager
One of the new hires connects directly to Tin Star's past. Ruben Velazquez started his career at Tin Star cleaning tables and working the cash register, eventually working his way up to cook, manager, and general manager. Hicks hired Velazquez for the revived chain, bringing a piece of the original operation's institutional memory back into the fold.
A Much More Crowded Taco Market
Tin Star returns to a taco landscape it helped create but no longer dominates. When the chain launched in Dallas in May 1999, it was founded by a quartet that included Hicks, chef Al Nappo, Mark Brezinski and Hull, at a time when gourmet fast-casual tacos were still a novelty in North Texas, according to the Dallas Observer. Tin Star's founders sold the chain in the late 2000s, and it continued operating for about another decade after the ownership change before closing its last location.
In the years since, Texas-born rivals have scaled the model the original Tin Star pioneered. Torchy's Tacos, founded in Austin in 2006, and Velvet Taco, founded in Dallas in 2011, have both grown into national chains with more than 100 locations each by 2026, according to a PR Newswire release cited by Velvet Taco. Velvet Taco itself was originally created in Dallas by FB Society before securing major private equity backing for its national expansion.
Hicks has spent the years since leaving Tin Star building other DFW-based concepts. He co-founded MOOYAH Burgers, Fries & Shakes in Plano in 2007 and grew it into an 80-unit national fast-casual chain as its chief executive. In 2016, he founded Pie Tap Pizza Workshop + Bar in the Dallas Design District, expanding it to locations including Henderson Avenue, Addison, Plano, Frisco, and Fort Worth. He also opened TacoLingo, an elevated taqueria and cocktail lounge, at the Union Dallas building in February 2019 — an earlier attempt to modernize the gourmet taco concept he first built at Tin Star.
Tin Star's Frisco location will be located at 5408 Dallas Parkway near Lebanon Road, with an opening planned for spring 2027. For now, the McKinney reopening marks the brand's first storefront in North Texas since its closure roughly a decade ago, betting that nostalgia and a booming Collin County population can succeed where its earlier expansion into states like Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Carolina ultimately did not.
