Session Taco and LaPeZ Mod Mex shut final St. Louis sites after a decade

Session Taco and LaPeZ Mod Mex closed their remaining St. Louis locations, ending a decade-long run for the Tilford Restaurant Group. The restaurants served customers through midnight on Saturday, October 17, Yahoo reported. The group closed Session Taco on Delmar Boulevard in the Delmar Loop and in Soulard, along with LaPeZ Mod Mex on North Euclid Avenue.

Session Taco's Final St. Louis Closures

The Tilford Restaurant Group cited rising costs, pandemic-era challenges and a difficult rebrand as reasons for the closures. Its first restaurant opened on Delmar Boulevard in 2013 as Mission Taco Joint. The business later became embroiled in a trademark lawsuit filed by Mission Foods, prompting a name change as part of a settlement in 2024. Mission Taco Joint became Session Taco, but the owners said the rebrand took a toll on the small, family-owned company.

"(We) absolutely s--t the bed on our rebrand. We're just a small family-owned company, and that hit hard," the owners wrote in a statement announcing the closures.

Josh Laney, the group's director of operations, has been with the company since 2016 and worked as a general manager and bar manager before taking on his current role. He said the lawsuit and rebrand added pressure at a time when restaurants were already dealing with higher food and labor costs.

"It's gonna be hard to see that something that was a big part of my life for, yeah, the last 10 years is going away," Laney said.

Nya Ross began working for the company on her 16th birthday and had hoped to return during school breaks. "It's the end of an era," Ross said. "It's a little bit heartbreaking because I planned to work here when I went to college."

Session Taco's Consolidation From Nine Sites

Session Taco consolidated from nine locations at its peak to three operating locations, according to akta.pro company records. The three sites are two in St. Louis, in the Delmar Loop and Historic Soulard, and one in Kansas City's East Crossroads Art District. The company, founded in 2013 and headquartered in St. Louis, has an estimated revenue of $5 million to $10 million and an estimated valuation of $10 million to $50 million, the same records show.

The Road to the St. Louis Exit

Session Taco said on October 13, 2026, that it would close all remaining St. Louis locations after October 17, with Delmar, Soulard and LaPez Mod Mex as the last three, Yahoo reported. The decision followed post-pandemic challenges, rising costs and a 2023 trademark lawsuit that forced a name change from Mission Taco Joint. In August 2026, Session Taco sold its St. Louis headquarters to Hess Equipment, a transaction that followed the closure of three restaurant locations and the conversion of two others to new concepts, American City Business Journals reported.

Sobremesa's Earlier Closure

Sobremesa, the group's newest restaurant in St. Charles, closed last month, four months after opening in the former Session Taco space.