After hearing about all the green improvements the Fifth Group is making in their restaurants, we just had to go and taste it for ourselves. We decided to start with El Taco because it's the closest to our house and we were hungry. I don't know why we haven't been there before except that the Atlanta area's got like a jillion fantastic restaurants and Decatur is in between our place and Virginia Highlands. We get sidetracked.

Whatever. We're finally here and as soon as we walk in a congenial hostess hands us each a token and tells us we have a chance to win something at the next spin of the lotto wheel. Something else to look forward to, on top of the margaritas and tex mex meal.



We found the veggie pizza at ET to be out of this world, something to phone home about although I might not recommend it if you're on a first date trying to make a good impression. However, I pretty much own Larry at this point so it didn't really bother me that a certain percentage of the abundant topping kept sliding off the flatbread and landing in my lap or that I had to keep licking the yummy sauce off my fingers.

We picked out some flavors from the salsa bar to add to the mix and were glad to see that even the little ramekins ET supplies for sauces are made from reusable material instead of plastic - kind of a rarity for the casual dining sector.

We didn't have a bite left over to take home but noticed that the table next to us, a family with a couple of little girls, requested a to-go box and got something paper-based, not Styrofoam (Way to go, El Taco!). They were just wrapping up their leftovers when a voice came over the intercom saying that it was time to spin the lotto wheel. Some lucky diner was about to win something free, possibly me.

"And the winner is...number 28." Okay, not me. 

But one of the little girls at the table next to us let out a yelp and started jumping up and down. "I won! I won!"

You know, watching a little girl jumping up and down like that is so much nicer than winning a free drink. Seeing her reaction made us both feel like we had won something. Come to think of it, when restaurants take their responsibilities to the environment seriously, as The Original El Taco does, we all win.