“We are going to open with a lot of nostalgia,” Hicks said, sitting inside the McKinney restaurant with a cowboy-chic design. Tin Star sold tacos in a fast-casual atmosphere starting in 1999, years before Torchy’s and Velvet Taco became major players in the modern gourmet-taco boom.
Tin Star grew to 16 restaurants before the founders sold it in the late 2000s. It changed hands a few times and continued operating for about another decade, when the final Tin Star closed in the late 2010s.
Many of Tin Star’s best-selling tacos from 1999 made it onto the menu in the 2026 refresh. Hicks hired Ruben Velazquez, who started his career at Tin Star cleaning tables and working the cash register before becoming a cook, manager and general manager. Hicks retained the recipes from the original Tin Star, and he said Velazquez was the key to getting them right years later. (An early taste suggests his plan worked: The smoky red salsa is just as I remember it from over 20 years ago.)
The restaurant sells à la carte tacos that range from expected combos like brisket with queso and more surprising options like a salmon BLT taco.
Notably, Tin Star’s cheeseburger taco — a tortilla stuffed with two halves of a beef patty — will return. There’ll be three options: the original cheeseburger taco, with American cheese, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles; a smashburger taco, with grilled onions and jalapeños; and a steakhouse burger taco, with bacon and fried onions. Fries come on the side.
Other tacos resurfaced from the original menu, including the Cowboy Kimchi taco with pork and grilled onions, and the OG #9 with grilled chicken, red onion jalapeño marmalade, sweet potato straws and Jack cheese. Regulars will probably be able to rattle off their favorite from memory. Mine was the portabella with roasted corn and sweet potatoes, and it’s back in 2026.
Tin Star in McKinney will have a full bar and at least eight frozen cocktails whirring in slushie machines against one wall.
To open and grow Tin Star, Hicks partnered with Aaron White, who worked at Nick and Sam’s steak house and Mooyah Burgers. Hicks cofounded Mooyah in the 2000s, and White was his first franchisee.
Hicks is the only co-founder returning to the nearly 30-year-old brand. He and White are choosing to start in Collin County this time, believing their former customers might’ve moved to the suburbs.
“I usually like to start in Dallas and go north,” Hicks said, “but because the brand has been established, we didn’t feel the need to introduce it in Dallas this time.”
Tin Star will be at 8801 Eldorado Parkway, McKinney, and is expected to open in mid-September 2026. A second location is coming in 2027 at 5408 Dallas Parkway (near Lebanon Road), Frisco.
