The Tattoo That Got Loyal Customers Free Tacos For Life



In 1998, Martha Sanchez, owner of restaurant Casa Sanchez in San Francisco, hung a sign in the front window of the eatery offering a free lunch for life to anyone who had the restaurant’s logo tattooed onto their body. She was sure no one would actually be willing to have the image of a kid in a sombrero, sitting astride a giant ear of corn in the shape of a rocket ship, tattooed on their body. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Not only did “someone” do it, but 40 someones got the tattoo. Martha sat down with a calculator and did the math. If the 40 people who got the tattoo demanded an $8 lunch every day for the next 50 years, the family would be on the hook for $5.8 million. The family patriarch, then 77-year-old Robert Sanchez, said they should change the offer to make it for a year only, but Martha said no……..a deal is a deal. We'll never find out whether the deal cost millions; the restaurant shuttered in 2012 in a deal with another local restaurant. As for those disappointed in the meals running out, no worries. The restaurant that ultimately took over Casa Sanchez’s old lease, the pupusa shop D’Maize, has it in their lease agreement that anyone with the Casa Sanchez tattoo is welcome to a free pupusa. In case you don't know what a pupusa is.......they are thick corn tortillas stuffed with fillings, such as meat, refried beans, cheese, and squash flowers.