El Pollo Loco Is (Quite Possibly) Coming to Lubbock Soon

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According to FastCasual.com, El Pollo Loco is seeking franchisees to bring the restaurant to multiple Texas locations.

El Pollo Loco is originally from California, and for some reason, the brand's name bore itself into my brain even though I may have eaten there once, maybe twice. But I certainly remembered it, as my nickname for my Dad's dog Apollo is, you guessed it, A-Pollo Loco.

So if you have some money to invest, you can have your very own, very memorable fun fast-casual restaurant:

The cost to open a unit is between $770,000 and $2,097,000, and franchisees may choose between two restaurant formats.

One version features a takeout window, a dual drive-thru, curbside pickup parking spaces and patio seating without a dining room. The other has a dual drive thru, curbside pickup parking spaces, as well as a "smaller-than-typical" dining room that opens to a large patio through garage style doors.

There are nearly 500 El Pollo Loco restaurants throughout the U.S., and about 3/5ths of them are franchises.

What makes El Pollo Loco different from any other fast-Mexican option? They serve bone-in chicken, for one thing. They prepare their meats "fire-grilled." They also appear to have legit, for real, no-joke churros, and that makes my stomach's heart happy.

Lubbock loves to go out to eat, and there's a huge influx of Californians in Texas these days to spread the good word about El Pollo Loco. Confession: half of my family is originally from California. My people just can't help it that they like Texas better.

Thanks to our eagle-eyed friends at Lubbock in the Loop for spotting this tantalizing information.