Cilantro Taco Grill

The vendor opportunity at Cilantro Taco Grill

Cilantro Taco Grill is a quick-service restaurant concept headquartered in Illinois with 15 company-owned locations and no franchised units reported in the 2024 FDD. The brand generates an average unit volume of $1,581,794.87 and charges a 6.0% royalty on a 10-year initial term. For software vendors, the immediate addressable market is confined to these 15 corporate units. Year-over-year unit growth is not disclosed, and no operator footprint is mapped in our corpus, which means expansion-driven software procurement is not a near-term catalyst. The absence of a parent company suggests independent ownership, keeping decision-making centralized.

Who controls software purchasing

The 2024 FDD Item 1 lists four executives: Cuahutémoc Morfin (Owner), Hernan Valencia Morfin (Chief Technology Officer), Gerardo Morfin (Chief Operations Officer), and Aaron DeAngelo Morfin (Chief Marketing Officer). The CTO, Hernan Valencia Morfin, is the most direct entry point for software vendors. In a 15-unit, owner-operated chain, the CTO likely holds significant influence over technology evaluation and procurement, with final approval resting with ownership. There is no franchised operator layer to navigate, so a pitch to HQ covers the entire system.

Mandated and current tech stack

The 2024 FDD does not capture any mandated or recommended technology systems. No POS, back-office, payroll, or inventory management vendors are named. This absence of Item 11 tech mandates means the brand either has no standardized stack or chooses not to disclose it to franchisees—though with no franchisees, the latter is moot. Vendors should treat Cilantro Taco Grill as a blank-slate opportunity where the current tech environment must be discovered through direct outreach to the CTO.

Procurement, renewals, and timing

Item 8 of the FDD provides no procurement signal, so the brand’s supplier model—whether designated, approved, or open—is not publicly known. Renewal conditions under Item 17 are detailed: franchisees must be in full compliance, have no more than three defaults during the term, no monetary defaults in the prior 12 months, provide six months’ written notice, execute a new franchise agreement, pay a Successor Agreement Fee, maintain location and trade dress, execute a general release, and meet then-current training requirements. The renewal term is 10 years. Because all current units are company-owned, these renewal triggers do not create franchisee-driven software evaluation windows. Any software purchasing cycle will be internally driven by HQ on their own timeline.

How to read the Cilantro Taco Grill FDD

The full 2024 Franchise Disclosure Document is embedded below. It contains the legal and operational disclosures that govern the franchise relationship, including Item 1 executives, Item 8 procurement obligations, Item 11 technology requirements, and Item 17 renewal terms. Reviewing the FDD directly gives software vendors the factual basis to align a pitch with the brand’s actual constraints and decision-making structure. For a ranked target list of franchise systems matched to your software category, FranCloud can help.