30 Days of Tacos

Student takes on 30-day Taco Villa challenge
By Alexandra Pedrini/Daily Toreador Staff Writer

Everyone has their favorite go-to restaurant they claim they will never get tired of, but few people test the accuracy of that statement.

After being confronted by his friends, Brad Phillips, a first-year law student from Lubbock, decided to take on a 30-day challenge to prove he will never get tired of eating Taco Villa.

While eating at Jason’s Deli one afternoon, Phillips’ friends said they could eat there every day. After this comment, Phillips decided he could eat Taco Villa and not get tired of it. His friends decided to call him out and challenge him to eat Taco Villa at least once a day for the entire month of April.

“We told him, ‘Bull. Put your words where your mouth are and eat there for 30 days,’” said Tiffany Au, a first-year law student from Houston.

His friends created the challenge to see if he gets tired of eating the food because some of them are tired of always going to and hearing about Taco Villa.

With every challenge comes rules, so Phillips’ friends Zack Allen from San Angelo, Tim Craddock from Dallas and Ben Robertson from Kingwood created a list of rules Phillips must follow. Phillips must eat at Taco Villa once a day for 30 days, take a picture of him eating each meal, keep all receipts and use his debit or credit card. He also must eat everything on his plate and answer the question, “How do you feel about Taco Villa?” Robertson said.

“That’s kind of the whole point: If he can truthfully say he’s not tired of Taco Villa, then he wins,” he said.

Robertson made a deal with Phillips to pay him back for all of his expenses from Taco Villa if he honestly still loves eating there after the challenge is finished, which is why he must keep all of his receipts.

Phillips is no stranger to Taco Villa and because he is such a frequent visitor, Phillips knows the location of all 11 Taco Villas in and near Lubbock.

“This kid eats there for any special occasion, every day, any time,” Au said. “His birthday, Valentine’s Day, he loves that place.”

Phillips said he has little concern for what his health will look like at the end of the month because unlike Morgan Spurlock, writer and director of “Super Size Me,” he only will be eating one meal a day from Taco Villa and already maintains a healthy lifestyle.

"I’m not a huge fatty or anything,” Phillips said. “I just don’t see something like that happening, but who knows. Time will tell.”

The main difference between Spurlock’s experiment and Phillips’ challenge is Phillips and his friends aren’t trying to make a statement about the food; they’re simply trying to see if he gets sick of eating Taco Villa, Allen said.

“We didn’t want to put his health in danger any more than it already is at least,” Allen said.

The group of friends started a Facebook group for them to know what was happening with Phillips’ progress, but as some of their friends started seeing the group, others were eager to join, Craddock said.

“Its really spread like wildfire,” Craddock said. “It wasn’t really supposed to be a big deal, it was just sort of us giving Brad a hard time, but because it’s been publicized, a lot more people have joined.”

Oh, rich kids. What will they do next? This did get me thinking of whether I could eat at the same place 30 days in a row and upon further reflection, I don't even think the challenge is that hard. I'm willing to say there are at least 10 restaurants I could eat at every day for 30 days. It's not like you have to eat every meal there. Plus there are lots of menu choices. This thing should be a cake walk.

And what's with all the good nature between him and his friends? "We didn’t want to put his health in danger"?. If my friends had bet me a month's worth of Taco Villa and I came close to winning I'm sure they'd be praying for a stroke. Me and my friends are a unhealthy mix of competitive and cheap. But good luck to this guy anyway. He shouldn't need it but something tells me he will.