The NBA Finals repeat between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs have given two Fiesta Restaurant Group COOs a reason to renew a sibling-restaurant rivalry of their own.
San Antonio-based Taco Cabana COO Todd Coerver and Miami-based Pollo Tropical COO Danny Meisenheimer are wagering that their respective hometown will win the finals. The losing city's COO will have to go to the winner's city and work a busy three-hour lunch shift in a "superfan" uniform designed by the winning city's home office.
San Antonio's 2013 loss sent Coerver to Miami to bus tables in a Heat jersey.
"Meisenheimer better be sharpening his tortilla-making skills, because San Antonio is looking good – a heck of a lot better than Danny will in the costume we have planned for him," Coerver says. "This time, it's personal."
Pollo's Meisenheimer, meanwhile, says he'll welcome Coerver back to his highest-volume Miami store for a second year.
"I know our guests will get a big kick out of seeing Todd work the grill, or maybe wipe down the Saucing Island," Meisenheimer says. "I'll tell you, he's not a bad little worker, and we look forward to him helping us out during a busy lunch in the near future."
And Fiesta isn't taking sides.
"It's all in good fun, and we're all about fun at both Taco Cabana and Pollo Tropical," says Fiesta President and CEO Tim Taft. "Just don't ask me who I want to see win."
The winning city's restaurant will also donate 10 percent of the shift's sales to the charity of the winning executive's choice.