“It just wasn’t meant to be,” says Lisa Weiss sympathetically of the very short-lived restaurant called El Ranchito at Stone Plaza at the corner of Stone School Rd. and Ellsworth. “But you know what?,” adds Weiss, the plaza’s assistant property manager. “There’s something pretty exciting going in there.”

The exciting development is a second location for Taco King–and the news that owner Saber Naghmouchi is scouting for a third in Plymouth. “We figure we have to have about three or four stores of our own, to get our name out there,” says Naghmouchi, who with his wife, Sihem Ben Aich, opened Taco King a few years ago as a window inside their Mexican market, Tienda La Libertad. “And then, we’re going to franchise. That was the plan from the beginning.”

Taco King has raised its prices, slightly–Naghmouchi shrugs. “I can’t help it. The price of food went up.” Tacos are still pretty affordable, though: they start at $2.25, and the menu has grown considerably in complexity, offering burritos, enchiladas, tortas, nachos, and tamales. Naghmouchi says the southside Taco King should open for business “first week in February.”

Taco King, 4079 Stone School. No phone at press time. Daily 9 a.m.-10 p.m. tacokingannarbor.com