Glenn Bell of Taco Bell fame can claim the title of "Taco King", mass-producing and marketing tacos almost exclusively, the central food product of his culinary empire. In Northern California, around the same time as Bell was making his "discovery", another taco influencer was emerging...
On the shores of Lake Tahoe, a popular tourist destination, Jim and Margaret Knudson were also marketing this most beautiful of Mexican foods. The Knudson's tasted the taco at a friends house in the early 1950s. These homemade Americanized tacos, loaded with ground beef, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes differed from true Mexican tacos, made of two stacked and small corn tortillas, some meat, onion, cilantro and salsa. The Knudsen's tacos were similar "tacos dorados", which Glen Bell was selling at Bell's Burgers in San Bernardino. These in turn had been co-opted (or stolen) from Mitla Café, a storied Mexican restaurant across the street from his establishment. In both instances, the taco itself was a long time staple in the Mexican community, but morphed into an Anglo dish with cultural changes and differences.
It was 1954...
The Knudsons took a 16 foot trailer, converted it into a kitchen, and towed it to tourist hot spots along the lake...they christened it "Jimboy's". Not knowing it at the time, Jim and Margaret had created the concept of a mobile food truck, with the shared benefit of being one of the first to purvey fast-food tacos as an exclusive menu item outside of the Hispanic community. Like Bell's (or should I say Mitla's) tacos, the Jimboy's taco consisted of a fried tortilla, ground beef, cheese and lettuce, but it had a twist, the tortilla was dusted with parmesan cheese after it came out of the fryer. Billed as "Spanish" tacos (so as not to confuse Anglo customers with the taco's true origin, heaven forbid) along with a sombrero wearing, mustachioed Mexicano completed the painted logo, and the first "taco truck" was a success...and everyone wanted a taste...
Jim and Margaret went on to open a restaurant in North Lake Tahoe in early 1958, generously built for them by Joe King, who was a diehard fan of the Jimboy's taco truck. Joe King is a topic all in itself, but suffice to say he was a one-eyed card shark who made his fortune as a gambler in the area, using his winnings to purchase a strip of land on the shore of Tahoe, naming it "King's Beach" and building it into a very successful resort.
In close proximity to the Lake Tahoe "gambling mecca", Jimboy's was well known and frequented by the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. (the "Rat Pack"), as well as the cast and crew of the television show "Bonanza", which filmed locally. As the 1960s turned into the 1970s, the Knudsons began expanding further, making Jimboy's a well known staple in Northern California, eventually expanding into Nevada and Texas.
While not a huge chain restaurant like McDonalds or Taco Bell, they have presence outside of California and can claim their taco as one of the first to bridge the cultural culinary divide. Glenn Bell took tacos to a level of business that is unmatched, albeit tarnished with unsavory business practices by never giving back to the family from which he stole the idea, but...along with their taco, Jimboy's was also a food truck pioneer, and can claim both as firsts in a long list of California culinary achievements.
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