Rosa's Cafe Now Outsells Taco Cabana on Alcohol, With Half the Stores

The Fort Worth family chain is down too. Taco Cabana fell further.

Rosa's Cafe out-sold Taco Cabana on audited Texas alcohol revenue over the last year with half the stores. Brand-by-brand numbers, Taco Tuesday pricing and the Grand Prairie opening.

Key takeaways

  • From September 2025 through August 2026, excluding July, Rosa's Cafe & Tortilla Factory took in $1.18M in audited beverage revenue. Taco Cabana took in $983,550. Rosa's had 52 locations filing in August; Taco Cabana had 107. A year earlier Taco Cabana led, $1.34M to $1.23M.
  • At the 50 Rosa's stores open in both years, audited beverage revenue fell 5.6%, against 2.1% for Texas overall. Forty of the 50 were down.
  • Taco Cabana fell 15.8% at its stores open in both years, with 97 of 106 down. June and August combined were down 26.1%.
  • Rosa's Taco Tuesday plate went from $4.39 in 2018 to $6.65 today, up 51%. Restaurant prices in Dallas-Fort Worth rose 49% over roughly the same stretch.
  • Rosa's bar runs on beer. Beer is 51.5% of its alcohol revenue, and it hasn't reported any wine since at least 2011. Taco Cabana's is 85.1% liquor.

By the numbers

$1.18M: Rosa's audited beverage revenue, September 2025 to August 2026 excluding July, 52 locations filing in August.

$983,550: Taco Cabana, same months, 107 locations filing in August, down from 139 a year earlier.

-5.6%: Rosa's at its 50 stores open in both years. Texas overall fell 2.1% across 14,151 locations open in both years.

$6.65: Rosa's Taco Tuesday plate today, up from $4.39 in 2018.

A tortilla chain with a small bar

Rosa's opened in San Angelo in 1983. Bobby D. Cox bought it in 1995, when it had five locations, and his family's Fort Worth company still owns it. The chain runs through DFW, West Texas and the towns along I-35, with no stores in Houston or San Antonio. It sells itself on tortillas made in the store, fajitas grilled over mesquite, and a fast drive-thru.

Alcohol is a small line. The average Rosa's took in $2,084 a month in audited beverage revenue over the last eleven months measured, against $773 at the average Taco Cabana. Beer slightly outsells liquor, and beer's share runs higher at the West Texas stores than in DFW.

Eight years of Taco Tuesday

Rosa's Taco Tuesday plate was $4.39 in 2018. It moved to $4.99 by the end of that year and held there through most of 2021, then rose to $5.49 by the end of 2021 and $5.99 by late 2022. By early 2024 the deal had widened from three tacos with rice and beans to all taco plates, at $6.39. It was $6.59 by late 2024 and has been $6.65 since late 2025.

That's a 51% rise. Food-away-from-home prices in Dallas-Fort Worth, Rosa's largest market, rose 49% from July 2018 to July 2026. Today the Tuesday plate is $6.65 against $10.45 for a crispy beef taco plate the rest of the week. The two-chicken Fajita Carbon Plate is $13.65, the same price we reported in August.

Taco Cabana fell further

In August we traced Taco Cabana's alcohol business from April 2020, when $2 drive-thru margaritas made it 4.2% of every audited beverage dollar in Texas, to a line down 85% from its 2019 level. At the time, 33 permits had stopped filing in twelve months. We said the next twelve months of filings would show whether the smaller fleet had stabilized.

Through August the decline continued. 107 locations filed in August, down from 139 a year earlier. At stores that filed through both summers, June and August combined were down 26.1%. Over the full eleven months, 97 of 106 stores open in both years were down.

That's how the lead changed hands. Rosa's revenue fell by $56,384 and Taco Cabana's by $355,628.

Where Rosa's is slipping

| Stores open in both years | Rosa's change | |---|---| | September 2025 to August 2026 | -5.6% (50 stores) | | January to August 2026 | -5.0% | | June and August 2026 | -4.1% |

No single store changes the result. The best was up 5.2% and the worst down 19.6%. The drop is steepest outside the big metros:

| Area | Stores | Change | Stores down | |---|---|---|---| | DFW | 23 | -4.3% | 16 | | Outside DFW and Austin, mostly West Texas | 23 | -7.0% | 20 | | Austin | 4 | -6.3% | 4 |

Beer fell 5.2% and liquor 6.0%, so neither drink carried the drop. Rosa's July 2026 filings repeat its June numbers to the dollar at 51 of its 52 stores, so every comparison here leaves July out of both years.

Rosa's fell less than Chuy's and Torchy's in every window. Our Darden piece measured Chuy's down 10.1% across June through August. Fuzzy's, whose Texas stores are mostly franchised, was roughly flat, between -2.6% and +1.6% depending on the window.

| Brand | Stores open in both years | Sep 2025 to Aug 2026 | |---|---|---| | Fuzzy's Taco Shop (mostly franchised) | 45 | -1.0% | | Rosa's Cafe | 50 | -5.6% | | Chuy's | 44 | -6.9% | | Torchy's Tacos | 73 | -8.3% | | Taco Cabana | 106 | -15.8% | | Texas overall | 14,151 | -2.1% |

Grand Prairie

The newest Rosa's opened in late May at 1525 Mayfield Road in Grand Prairie. It took in $4,818 in its partial first month, then $11,463 in June and $8,633 in August, an average of $10,048 across those two months. That's nearly five times the chain average. Opening months tend to run hot, so treat it as an early read.

Rosa's has added two Texas stores in two years, in Waxahachie and Grand Prairie. Over the last twelve months, 32 Taco Cabana locations stopped filing. Grand Prairie is off to a strong start, and DFW is Rosa's best-holding region. The other 50 stores open in both years are still down.

Figures are audited Texas beverage receipts, which cover on-premise alcohol sales only, not food or total restaurant revenue. Airport locations are excluded. Menu prices are from Pourcast's menu pricing data. Pourcast is a Texas hospitality intelligence platform. pourcast.ai