by Claire Carter | editor in chief

On Fridays as the school day reaches its end, Mr Guthrie has one thing on his mind: tacos. Not the mere foil wrapped food found from Taco Cabana or Taco Bell, but the handcrafted, sacred art found from none other than Torchy’s Tacos. Followers to the @MrGuthrieCTJ twitter account have seen this passion put into action.

While many administrators use social media to inform parents of upcoming meetings, or due dates for important paperwork, Assistant Principal Stuart Guthrie is determined to create a revolution. For tacos, of course. Recent tweets using #TorchysOnTPC stirred up conversation, not only in the halls of Johnson, but also from the big leagues in the taco industry. The official Torchy’s Tacos twitter account has responded multiple times to Guthrie, giving hope to the mighty cause.

“I’m a connoisseur of breakfast taco places like Blanco Cafe and Eddie’s Taco House,” Guthrie said. “[Torchy’s] is not a mom and pop taco shop, which caught my attention.”

Torchy’s Tacos is unlike the typical Mexican restaurants surrounding Johnson. Tacos are each sold separately, and are each packed with a variety of ingredients and cleverly named like “The Democrat” which has barbacoa, avocado and tomatillo, or “Trailer Park” which has fried chicken and green chiles, with a “Make it Trashy” option. Another feature setting this restaurant apart from the rest, is the “Lil Nookies” otherwise known as fried chocolate chip cookies. Yes, you read that correctly.

“There is a niche for these tacos, every time you go down in Alamo Heights they are packed and I think it would do well here. I have not been there yet where I didn’t have to wait at least at the door,” Guthrie said. “We have 3,500 people on this campus just about everyday so we have a built in clientele for tacos here.”

Wondering how you can help Mr. Guthrie’s cause?

“Get on twitter, use the hashtag #TorchysOnTPC. They are really responsive. They are definitely on Twitter,” Guthrie said.

At the end of the day, a taco is just a taco. But at Torchy’s, the options are more than ‘just’ anything.

“It’s just a taco. They have refined it, but they didn’t go crazy,” Guthrie said. “They don’t try too hard. It all seems to work and the sauces are pretty good too.”

Guthrie’s dream is to see a Torchy’s Tacos open up along TPC Parkway, where plenty of land is up for sale, along with retail spots between the Village at Stone Oak or further down by Sonic.

“it’s funny how [my campaign] took on a life of its own,” Guthrie said. “It wouldn’t be too far fetched opening this up.”