Seattle - 30 April, 2004 -

Seattle restaurant chain Taco Del Mar said it has signed a master developer agreement in San Diego with A Better Life Franchise Development LLC, a franchise owned by early Taco Del Mar investors John and Bertha Boyken. A Better Life is currently scouting locations for the first San Diego-area restaurant and expects to franchise up to 60 units. Boyken got involved with Taco Del Mar in the late 1980s, when he met co-founder James Schmidt, who at the time was a student at the University of California at San Diego, participating in the university's entrepreneurial program. Schmidt and his brother John modeled their restaurant concept after Mexican-food stores common along San Diego's shorelines. Boyken helped finance the original Pier 57 Taco Del Mar that opened in Seattle in 1992. The Boykens have continued holding shares as well as reinvesting in the company, which is now approaching 100 stores and $40 million in sales. Under the master franchising agreement, the Boykens plan to open and operate at least one restaurant themselves, and they will control franchising of Taco Del Mar from San Diego to Imperial County, including such inland areas as Borrego and El Centro.

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