In an email to customers, Del Taco early Tuesday announced it had permanently closed its restaurant at 12996 Alpharetta Highway in Milton. The freestanding, approximately 2,700 square foot restaurant was built in 2015 and opened March 30, 2016. No explanation was given for the abrupt closure, but COVID-19 is not believed to have been a major factor.
Lake Forest, California-based Del Taco, which last year celebrated 55 years in business, has had mixed results in their latest return to metro Atlanta. The chain had previously opened locations in Atlanta in the 80s and 90s, but all had closed when the chain returned to metro Atlanta in 2012 with a restaurant along Scenic Highway in Snellville. In the years since, the chain has added more than a dozen franchise and corporately owned locations, with some performing well and others experiencing incredibly short lives.
In 2018 a ground-up Del Taco closed on Roswell Road in East Cobb after about three years in business. This past September, another Del Taco in Roswell, this one in a renovated building, also closed, having been in business less than nine months.
Reviews on Yelp.com where the Milton location had a cumulative 2.5 star rating, suggest that it, like previously shuttered locations in Roswell and East Cobb, suffered from poor service, which in turn likely resulted in poor financial performance. One reviewer this past fall summed up his entire experience saying: "Del Taco puts the " Meh" in Mehx-ican."
Elsewhere around metro Atlanta, the company in recent months has opened new locations in Lawrenceville, Tucker and Buford, with a total of 21 other locations around the state.
In an email to members of the restaurant's Raving Fan E-Club entitled "Its So Hard To Say Goodbye," the company invited those that had frequented the Milton restaurant to instead patronize the Woodstock restaurant on Highway 92... nearly 18 miles away.
Are you surprised that Del Taco closed its Milton restaurant? What would you like to see open in place of Del Taco in Milton? Where would you like to see Del Taco open next?
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