When Sid Feltenstein and Ron Powell acquired Captain D’s three years ago, they were looking to replicate the success they’d enjoyed at Long John Silver’s, which they had sold to Yum! Brands not long before. Captain D’s, after all, was one of the premier seafood concepts in the South. Eighteen months later they bought a Southern California-based Mexican chain called Del Taco, and voila! Sagittarius was born.

In an odd way the two concepts are geographically compatible, each rooted in a part of the country from which the other can benefit. Del Taco, for instance, “is a brand that people have a tremendous affinity for and it has raving fans,” company spokeswoman Barbara Caruso says. When the first store opened outside California, “It was insane. I can’t tell you the number former Californians who lived on Del Taco in college,” she says.

The same thing, to some extent, is true of Captain D’s among those from the South.

So the company is extending both brands’ geographic boundaries. It’s also experimenting with co-branding; the first location opened this summer in Nashville. “We had people who drove for two hours,” Caruso says. The second co-branded store is set to open by December.

Sagittarius plans to expand the two brands through a strategy it calls “co-franchising.”

“A franchisee in Atlanta with five Captain D’s,” Caruso says, “may be perfect for five Del Tacos in that market. We have a couple of those deals already signed, and we’re actively looking for locations.”

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