S.A. man helped grow Taco Cabana
Lynn Moody, who worked alongside his stepfather Felix Stehling in building the Tex-Mex restaurant chain Taco Cabana into a Texas success story, died Dec. 31 after a long illness. He was 68.
Moody and Stehling took Taco Cabana from a single San Antonio restaurant in the late 1970s to a chain of more than 100 locations before it was sold in 2000.
Moody served as Stehling’s “right-hand man” in other Stehling ventures, too, said Richard Ellwood, the younger brother of Moody’s wife, Susy. They included Bombay Bicycle Club, barbecue restaurant chain Tom’s Ribs and Lyndy’s Great Indoors, a onetime popular lunch spot in San Antonio. The pair also were early investors in the San Antonio Spurs.
“Lynn’s been by (Stehling’s) side since he was a boy,” Ellwood said. “Lynn was Felix’s get-it-done guy. Felix would be in the kitchen creating recipes, testing things and seeing what the customers thought. Lynn was the guy who managed the employees and got
the store built and got open.”
More recently, Moody oversaw Supreme Meat Purveyors, a wholesale meat processor in San Antonio. It sells meat to suppliers and restaurants.
Moody spent roughly the last year of his life embroiled in a legal battle with his late stepfather’s longtime financial adviser. Moody, Stehling’s heir, alleges that his stepfather’s fortune, once valued at $20 million, had been squandered.
Moody was born to Thomas Edward and Billie Jo Moody in 1951.
The next year, Stehling started selling hamburgers from a tiny San Antonio shack known as the Triple S. He introduced San Antonio to the bean burger, a now-famous concoction of refried beans, diced onions, Fritos and Cheese Whiz.
It was at the Triple S where Moody’s mother first met Stehling. They later married, and Stehling helped raise Moody, serving as a mentor and best friend.
Moody graduated from high school in 1969 and then served in the Coast Guard. He returned to San Antonio, where he attended Trinity University, majoring in psychology. He graduated in 1976.
Stehling invested his earnings from the Triple S in a string of nightspots and restaurants he operated.
One of them, the Crystal Pistol, was so popular that after a Dairy Queen across it the street closed in 1978, Stehling leased the property for the bar’s overflow parking. But he didn’t let the shuttered building sit unused.
Stehling decided to open another restaurant. He considered selling hamburgers, then switched to barbecue before deciding on tacos. The restaurant was a hit from the start.
Moody, in a 2013 video on Taco Cabana’s history that’s posted on YouTube, recalled cars lining up in the street trying to get into the restaurant’s parking lot. He credited the food for the restaurant’s popularity.
“It was easy, portable food,” he said. “Tacos were something that nobody had really gotten into, where you go through the drivethru, get a taco and eat it while you’re driving without creating a mess.”
Moody explained why Taco Cabana stayed open 24 hours a day.
“We always had a philosophy, one that my father taught me,” he said. “If there’s somebody that wants to give you money, you stay there and take it.”
Taco Cabana opened a second store in 1983. It had nine locations three years later.
In 1992, Stehling sold 30 percent of the chain to the public for $35 million. About $20 million went to the company and the rest to insiders, Forbes reported in 1993.
Stehling was eased out as chairman in late 1994 in a dispute with Taco Cabana’s CEO.
Taco Cabana and its 126 restaurants — primarily in Texas, Oklahoma and Arizona — were sold to Carrols Restaurant Group of Syracuse, N.Y., in 2000. The $154 million deal enriched Stehling by $28 million, according to a court document filed by Moody.
Around the time Stehling exited Taco Cabana, he began working with San Antonio
financial adviser James C. Worth. Worth said he was hired to help with problem investments. The pair formed a partnership called STW Interests to hold Stehling’s investments.
Worth testified at a March court hearing that Stehling liked to invest in operating businesses rather than stock and bonds.
Worth cared for Stehling and his wife until their deaths. Billie Jo Stehling died at age 86 in 2011. Felix Stehling died the next year, also at 86. At the time of his death, his assets were valued at about $20 million.
Last year, in a lawsuit, Moody alleged that those assets were “worthless” because Worth had had loaded them with too much debt to generate cash for himself and others. Moody accused Worth of engaging in fraud, self-dealing and negligence relating to Stehling’s assets.
Worth’s lawyer has disputed the allegations, calling the legal fight a money grab by Moody.
The litigation has been moved to arbitration. Moody’s heirs and estate will take up the fight.
Moody loved to fish and hunt with his son, Kirk, and was involved in his daughter Koy’s national equestrian activities. He also enjoyed golfing and managing his ranch. Moody was married to his wife, Susy, for 38 years.
A private funeral will be held for immediate family and close friends at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.