Second Arlington Fuzzy’s location for the residents

Late last year when Eddie White and Clint Bixler were contemplating installing a new Fuzzy’s Taco Shop restaurant in downtown Arlington on East Abram Street  – think Baja-Mex cuisine as opposed to Tex-Mex – they figured they’ve have to hit on at least two of three “economic pillars” to make a go of it.

“We calculated that to be a success we’d need to attract business from UT-Arlington students, from the Downtown business community and then from residential traffic,” White said.

Of those three customer clienteles, White and Bixler guessed that the biggest part of their business would come from the university – the campus edge is five short blocks away – and from Downtown business establishments.

They hit on both. Their Fuzzy’s – one of the first franchises the locally-owned company has authorized – is often packed. But a funny thing – funny as in cha-ching, cha-ching – happened in the process. The new Abram Street Fuzzy’s, which opened in January, began attracting increasing numbers of customers who neither worked Downtown nor attended college.

“We were pulling in residential traffic from all over town,” White said. “In fact, by now that component of our business is bigger than either the Downtown or academic sides.”

Side note: Fuzzy’s Taco Shops have something of a collegiate brand, historically being located near campuses, specifically Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and the University of North Texas in Denton. So it made sense for a Fuzzy’s to be located near another university, in this case the University of Texas at Arlington. The tasty but economic menu – the most expensive item is $7.99 – clearly appealed to college kids with a taste for cold beer and odd items like fish or shrimp tacos or tempura fish burritos.

Fuzzy’s has hit it big with reviewers, too, lately being lauded by Fort Worth Weekly’s “Best Of” section for “Best Mexican Food Under $10” and also winning the “Best New Restaurant” award at the recent Taste of Arlington event.

Both White and Bixler attended UT-Arlington in the late 1970s and early 1980s, so the turf was familiar to them.

“We were both in the same fraternity and I think we closed down Gilligan’s (a popular eatery and bar a block away) on many a night,” White said. “I suppose our business might have paid the light bill a few times. We knew the potential because we’d lived it.”

But the residential traffic? It surprised both White and Bixler. But not for long.

“It hit us both at about the same time,” White said. “If people will drive miles to dine with us, why not bring a restaurant to them? Why can’t Fuzzy’s be more than a college hangout?”

That being said, or perhaps asked, the duo opened the first residentially-oriented Fuzzy’s, this one in southwest Arlington at Pleasant Ridge Road and Green Oaks Boulevard in a former Cici’s Pizza.

Business thus far has been brisk. Both the Abram and Green Oaks location are being run by the company restaurant manager, Randy Day. White and Bixler are not white apron guys – more like banking types.

“We’re smart enough to know what we can and cannot do, and run a restaurant ourselves is not one of them,” Bixler joked.

Why a Fuzzy’s instead of, say, a McDonald’s or Whataburger?

“We wanted something with a different appeal, but also something that would let us put our own unique brand on things,” White said. “Fuzzy’s has a distinctive menu, but if we want to try some different things they’re willing so long as we run it by them first.”

A sample: Margaritas are popular but everybody has them.

“We asked Day to experiment with a unique drink for us and he came up with the Fuzzy Driver (think margarita style frozen screwdriver),” Bixler said. “It now outsells margaritas three-to-one.”

Likewise, when White was vacationing in Colorado recently he tried an unusual but tasty beer with the unlikely name of “Moose Drool.” One thing led to another.

“Fuzzy’s is now the only restaurant in Texas that offers Moose Drool beer,” White said. “Things like that – and ability to try new things – is what makes a business like this fun to operate.”

Are there other Fuzzy Taco’s in the pair’s franchise future?

“We’d never say never, but we want to get our new location up to speed first,” White said.

okcarter@bizpress.net