LeBron James Invests in Mike's Red Tacos Birria Chain

A New Investment for James

LeBron James is putting money behind tacos again. On Tuesday, the four-time NBA champion announced he is joining Mike's Red Tacos as an investor, a fast casual chain built around beef birria that claims more than 300 franchise locations already in development nationwide.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, which has become something of a pattern for James' restaurant investments. What is disclosed is the leadership behind the brand: it's chaired by Bill Phelps, the cofounder of Wetzel's Pretzels back in 1994 and a founding investor in Blaze Pizza. For anyone tracking fast casual, that name alone changes the read on this deal.

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From Blaze Pizza to Dave's Hot Chicken

James has run this play before, and it has paid off. He, business partner Maverick Carter, and financial adviser Paul Wachter of Main Street Advisors backed Blaze Pizza for less than $1 million in 2012, back when the chain had roughly 10 locations.

Phelps later joined Dave's Hot Chicken in 2019 as investor and CEO, a role now held by Jim Bitticks, with James and Main Street Advisors holding a stake there too. Dave's closed out 2025 with 358 restaurants and sold to Roark Capital for $1 billion last June.

CNBC reported the financial terms weren't disclosed, but Phelps told the network's Squawk Box the billion-dollar figure was "pretty close." The payout reached well beyond the principals: Phelps told Franchise Times the Roark transaction included bonuses for more than 20 people connected to the brand, saying, "We made more than 20 people millionaires in the past two weeks."

That's the arc James and his team are betting repeats with birria: a scrappy regional concept turning into a ten-figure exit.

From Food Truck to Flagship

The brand itself started small. Mike Touma founded Mike's Red Tacos as a San Diego food truck in 2021, expanding to two San Diego locations before opening his first brick-and-mortar restaurant in August 2022.

The menu is tight and specific: beef birria tacos with slow-braised meat and a consommé for dipping, plus burritos, loaded nachos and fries, and birria ramen. Franchise Times reported the tortillas get dipped in a special red chili oil, then crisped on a flat-top to produce the brand's signature color.

The numbers behind that first restaurant are what got investors' attention: the 919-square-foot San Diego flagship generated $2.96 million in sales in 2024, according to the company's franchise disclosure document.

Andrew Feghali, the first Dave's Hot Chicken franchisee, came aboard as an early investor and board member in February alongside Phelps and their firm Four Wall Partners, just as the company launched its franchising push. By August, Feghali had been named CEO, with Touma moving into the chief brand officer role. The executive bench filled out fast, with hires out of Wetzel's, Dunkin', Baskin-Robbins, Little Caesars, and Bobby's Burgers by Bobby Flay.

Building Something Authentic

James framed his involvement in personal terms. "I love tacos, and I especially love how they bring people together to create traditions and share great moments around the table with family and friends," he said, adding that the leadership team convinced him the brand was building "something authentic with a long-term vision."

Feghali echoed that sentiment from the operator's side: "We're not interested in trend-chasing brands. We're interested in founders building something enduring. Mike did that with a focused menu, chef-driven food, and a loyalty most brands never earn. Adding LeBron and an experienced restaurant leadership team gives Mike's the megaphone it deserves."

Phelps, for his part, kept it simple about what sold him: "The product was delicious and the unit economics were unbelievable," he told Franchise Times, noting that feedback from experienced operators who evaluated the concept before signing on mattered most.

Operators Lining Up

Those operators are already lined up in numbers. The franchising announcement disclosed signed agreements from operators tied to Dave's, Jersey Mike's, Blaze, Dunkin', Little Caesars, Carl's Jr., and Wetzel's, totaling more than 200 planned locations across California, Texas, the Midwest, and New England, with openings expected later in 2026. By Tuesday, that pipeline had grown past 300 units.

Early franchisees include Mike McGuire, a multi-unit Jersey Mike's owner in Minnesota; Victor Fiss, who runs 30 Jersey Mike's locations in Southern California through JM Foods; and Michael Khalil, a Little Caesars and Jersey Mike's franchisee developing the concept in Michigan.

Franchise Times pegs the cost of opening a location between $639,800 and $1,988,000, with area development deals requiring a minimum of three units. The first Los Angeles-area restaurant is set to open in Pasadena within weeks, at 899 E Del Mar Blvd, marking the brand's first real step beyond its San Diego base.

A Niche Worth Carving Out

Birria's rise fits a pattern Phelps has seen before. Datassential data shows the dish now appears on about 4 percent of menus nationwide, more than quadrupling over four years, a trajectory that resembles what chicken went through before Dave's took off.

"There's tons of competition, but we believe that birria tacos are a great niche within the Mexican food space in the same way that hot chicken is a great niche within the chicken space," Phelps told QSR. "We think we can carve out that niche and hopefully be the leader in that niche."

The comparison to Dave's isn't incidental. Roark's purchase of that chain came on the heels of the so-called "Chicken Sandwich Wars" Popeyes ignited in 2019, a boom that lifted Dave's and Raising Cane's against legacy players like KFC. Roark now sits on the other side of the table entirely, having also paid more than $9 billion for Subway in 2023 and backing multi-brand platforms Inspire Brands and GoTo Foods, giving the firm a footprint across franchising that Phelps and his partners now operate against rather than within.

The Test of a Third Act

The gap between ambition and reality is still wide. As recently as February, Mike's Red Tacos operated just two locations even as Phelps and Feghali were committing to a 200-unit rollout, and the size of James' stake remains as undisclosed as his original Blaze Pizza investment or the Dave's sale price.

Whether the economics behind that single San Diego flagship hold up across dozens of new markets, operator groups, and real estate types won't be answerable until Pasadena opens and the rest of the 2026 slate follows.

James has also long attached himself publicly to Taco Tuesday, having tried to trademark the phrase back in 2019, which gives the brand a built-in marketing hook as it tries to turn signed franchise paper into restaurants that are actually open and serving customers.

The formula worked twice for Phelps and James. Birria is the test of whether it works a third time.