After 52 years, Jimboy’s Tacos to close this popular Sacramento location

Jimboy’s Tacos will close its freeway-adjacent 29th Street restaurant after 52 years, the Folsom-based chain confirmed in an email to The Sacramento Bee on Wednesday.

The Tex-Mex fast food restaurant at 1420 29th St. will host customers for the last time Thursday, president and co-founder Karen Knudson Freeman wrote in the email. A similar statement was taped to Jimboy’s door Wednesday, explaining that the Rap family had decided not to renew its franchise contract.

“We know that this news will upset many but please know that this was a very difficult decision to make,” the note read. “Despite our long history with Jimboy’s, we have decided that in the long term, it would be in our family’s best interest not to exercise our option to renew the franchise contract.”

The midtown Jimboy’s has struggled to find viable employees in Sacramento’s current labor market, the Sacramento Business Journal reported last year.

Jim Knudson founded his semi-eponymous taco chain out of a Lake Tahoe trailer in 1954, and expanded to his first brick-and-mortar nearby four years later. The chain opened in India in 2015, signed 2017 deals to add 20 Southern California restaurants and seven around the Sacramento area and began welcoming customers in Downtown Commons just three weeks ago.

“We value all of our customers who have made the 29th Street location their favorite place to enjoy Jimboy’s tacos and other made-to-order items and we welcome them all to our newest location at Downtown Commons,” Knudson Freeman wrote. “There are still 33 delicious locations of Jimboy’s Tacos in (the) Sacramento (area), come join us.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2019 at 5:02 PM.