Defending Taco Tuesday® is serious business at Gregory’s Bar at the Jersey Shore

SOMERS POINT, N.J. — Crunch.

It’s the sound of Taco Tuesday, the original Taco Tuesday®, at Gregory’s Bar & Restaurant, according to Gregory Gregory, owner of the Somers Point watering hole which, obscurely, holds the trademark in New Jersey to “Taco Tuesday.”

It’s the sound of just the latest of two million hard shell tacos — thick-grated cheddar, ground beef, spices and salsa from a Playboy Magazine recipe — Gregory’s says it has slung in their red baskets across the mahogany bar since 1979

That was the year Gregory saw people lining up at the taco stand at the Gallery in Philadelphia, and thought, hmmm.

Admittedly, it’s not the most authentic taco sound you’ll ever hear, and nobody’s pretending these tacos can line up alongside the ones at, say, La Autentica in Ocean City or El Tacuate in Atlantic City or Comercial Mexicana in Wildwood, never mind the gems at Pancho’s next to the White House Sub Shop in A.C.’s Ducktown neighborhood.

But out in Somers Point, a town with a proud bar and taco tradition, they’re lining up, second and third generations even, sombreros and all, for another Taco Tuesday®.

And, to a taco, they will defend Gregory’s claims to Taco Tuesday, a claim under legal and marketing attack from Taco Bell.

On this night, they’re being sold at a throwback price of 3 for $1 to benefit the local Police Athletic League, a break from the current 2 for $2.50. (Chicken will cost you $4.50).

“CMON LEBRON!” the Gregory’s sign reads out on Shore Road, a salsa-red ball of a sun setting behind the jammed parking lot just north of the bridge to Ocean City. “HOME OF THE ORIGINAL TACO TUESDAY!”

Yes, Gregory’s is now fighting with Taco Bell and LeBron James over Gregory’s 1982 trademark of Taco Tuesday, which gives the restaurant sole rights to the phrase in New Jersey. Taco John’s owns the trademark in the 49 other states. Taco Bell wants the trademark lifted.

Later Tuesday night, during the Heat-Celtics playoff game, which was in fact being broadcast inside Gregory’s, LeBron himself showed off his new Taco Bell commercial in which he takes aim at the very idea of trademarking Taco Tuesday. “Someone owns Taco Tuesday? C’mon, man,” he says in the ad. “Everyone should be able to say and celebrate,” the phase in question, he argues (or rather, is paid to argue). How rude, LeBron.

Anyway, reports are people at Taco Tuesday® at Gregory’s paid no attention.

Let’s break it down.

That’s what Gregory Gregory says, though Gustavo Arellano, author of “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America,” told the Wall Street Journal he found a reference to Taco Tuesday in 1971 in a Spokane newspaper advertisement.

But Gregory trademarked it, and he got a loyal Taco Tuesday following, with lines out the door. People love the bar, a friendly place where everyone knows you or knows someone who knows you. It’s got a historic horseshoe bar of Philippine Mahogany with a modified Chicago bar rail for leaning. The bar from the cellar, now in the dining room, dates to Gregory’s days as a speakeasy during Prohibition.

His WonTon Wednesdays fell by the wayside and never got the following of Taco Tuesdays.

Taco Bell wants anybody to be able to use the phrase “Taco Tuesday.” Taco Bell has taken legal action to cancel the federal trademark registrations for “Taco Tuesday,” which also involve the fast food chain Taco John’s and its trademark in the 49 other states.

Taco Bell describes it as “a journey to liberate the phrase “Taco Tuesday” and they cheekily bleeped it out of part of James’ commercial, though he screams it at the end.

Very! They routinely send out letters to any New Jersey business that advertises a “Taco Tuesday,” most recently to a restaurant in Galloway. If the businesses keep using the phrase, Gregory’s can collect three times their take, so the letter usually does the trick.

Gregory said the lawyers are handling the Taco Bell action (though he’s been advised not to mention Taco Bell by name), and they expect a protracted fight. “The fact that I have to have an attorney ... ,” Gregory said. “I’m just a little place.”

It’s gone on this long, why give up now?

It was packed! Lots of people there who recalled coming as kids or as teenagers, and lots of teenagers at tables taking advantage of the cheap eats. People remembered their first tacos and their first drinks. Three generations of Gregory’s worked to rush tacos to patrons, balancing the red baskets. The Phillies were on the TVs. It was very festive! Some people ordered French onion soup, and said that should be the story.

Justin Karstens, an elevator builder, and Frank Holliday, a union carpenter, were firmly in Gregory’s camp.

“He started it, and he owns the rights in Jersey,” Karstens said. “I’ve lived here my whole life. It’s our local watering hole.”

“It’s a big corporation against a family-owned business,” said Holliday. “When did this place open, and when did Taco Bell open? This place is way before.”

(Taco Bell opened in 1962. Gregory’s dates to 1946).

Lisa Bender of Somers Point (who ordered a quesadilla) recalled she took her children so often to Taco Tuesday at Gregory’s when they were young that sometimes she would catch them at home playing “bar,” and “Taco Tuesday.” This is in the finest traditions of Jersey Shore parenting.

Yes.

Actually, he doesn’t eat them. “I can’t take the cumin,” he said.

Somers Point is where Ocean City gets its alcohol. Right over the bridge is Circle Liquor. There’s also BayFest. And the Somers Mansion, an overlooked historical landmark. And the Anchorage and, of course, the lovely Smitty’s Clam Bar, whose building is no longer for sale.

Look, they were decent enough for 33 cents each, or even $1.25. But I have true love for the places mentioned above, and their cilantro, onions, meat, soft corn tortilla tacos, a nice grilled scallion on the side. I like seeing Pancho’s making their own tacos, even though it can take forever. I’m told Gregory’s tacos started out a lot smaller in the early Taco Tuesday days, and now sport a more hefty serving of ground beef.

The French onion soup looked delicious. It’s very good bar food up and down the menu, though it’s Charlie’s up the street that people go to for wings. The second generation of Gregory family are trained chefs and sometimes have been known to put a “Short Rib Taco with Rustic Slaw,” entree on the menu.

For $17.