Baqba Mexican Grill
Formerly known as Barbacoa Mexican Grill
Bottom line
- Total investment $328K – $813K including a $40K franchise fee, 5.0% ongoing royalty.
- Average unit revenue of $2.1M/year. Estimated payback in 1.4 years.
- Rated MODERATE with a risk score of 60/100.
- Emerging franchise — only 1 year of franchising with 0 units. Early-stage systems carry higher risk but may offer better territory availability.
Item 1 · who you're contracting with
The Franchisor
Yale framework · single-unit ROIC
Returns Analysis
Pulls Item 7 (investment) and Item 19 (revenue) from this brand's FDD into the Yale unlevered-ROIC formula. Override any input to stress-test it against your own assumptions.
The model · Yale framework
What would one BAQBA MEXICAN GRILL unit return on the cash you put in?
Unlevered ROIC · per unit
54%
In Yale's "attractive" band (30–60%)
Levered LBO scenario · Yale Crease Capital framing
What would 25 BAQBA MEXICAN GRILL units return on equity?
Equity IRR · 5-yr
30.3%
3.76× MOIC
Year-1 DSCR
2.66×
EBITDA ÷ debt service
Equity required
$8.2M
on $18.8M purchase
Total debt
$10.6M
SBA $5.0M + senior + seller note
Overview
About
Franchisees operate fast-casual Mexican grill restaurants, managing daily food preparation, customer service, inventory, and staffing. Revenue model depends on dine-in/takeout/delivery sales with 5% royalty obligations to franchisor. Operations require food safety compliance, labor management, and local marketing execution.
Item 7 · what it costs
The Vitals
Item 19
Financial Performance
Item 20 · unit dynamics
The Growth Chart
Year-over-year franchised unit counts and net change. Source: FDD Item 20.
Item 20 · 13 states with active franchisees
The Territory Map
Derived from franchisee contact records. Shows states with at least one current operator — not where the franchisor is registered to sell new units (that data is re-extracting in a future refresh).
States derived from franchisee phone area codes (Item 20). Approximate — ported numbers may show the original state, not the franchisee's current location.
Government records
SBA Loan Data
Aggregated from SBA 7(a) loan disclosures, public data unique to FranchiseVerdict.
No SBA loan data available for this brand.
FranchiseVerdict rating + FDD Items 3, 5, 6, 12, 17
Risk & Legal
Critical transparency gaps combined with franchisor going concern status create substantial validation risk; investment thesis cannot be verified without access to existing franchisee performance data and unit count.
Score breakdown · what drove the 60 / 100 rating
- 01HIGHGoing Concern status is FALSE — indicates potential financial/operational instability at franchisor level
- 02MEDZero disclosed franchise units with unknown growth trajectory — impossible to validate system health or franchisee success rates
- 03MINORNo Item 19 (Financial Performance Representations) provided — cannot verify if $395K avg net income is achievable or representative
- 04MINORWide investment range ($327.5K-$812.5K) with no clarity on variables driving 2.5x cost difference
- 05MEDHigh initial investment relative to disclosed average net income (83% ROI year 1 assuming full revenue, unlikely)
Severity inferred from the FDD text · not a regulatory classification
FDD Items 5, 6, 12, 17 · continued from Risk & Legal
Contract & Territory Detail
Item 11
Training & Operations
Item 20
Franchisee Contacts
Phone numbers extracted directly from this brand's FDD Item 20. After purchase, you'll also receive a list of validation questions tailored to this brand.
Franchisee contacts
14 numbers
One-time purchase · CSV download · Validation questions included
FDD download
BAQBA MEXICAN GRILL · FDD (2025) PDF