There are Qdoba Mexican Grills in Baton Rouge, Bryn Mawr, Boston, and Bloomington, but there’s not a single one in coastal California north of Los Angeles County, which may explain why I first encountered the restaurant, and the name, away from home—in Portland, Oregon, to be precise.
My first reaction: Yet another qrazy Q-name! My second: How is it pronounced—K’doba? (Nope: It’s Kyü-do-bə, according to the website.) And finally: What the heck is it supposed to mean?
The website offers no clues. So I ran through a list of possibilities:
1. Something to do with Córdoba, the city in Spain. Which might make sense if this were a chain of Spanish restaurants.
2. Barbeque (’que) meets (misspelled) adobe!
3. It’s inspired by adobo, a peppery marinade or seasoning mix used in the Southwest United States—or a cooking process popular in the Philippines. Only with a feminine ending. And a Q because . . . ¿quién sabe?
4. It means nothing. Qdoba.com happened to be available when the chain launched its website.
5. Your suggestion here.
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UPDATE: On Twitter, nancycc (of the excellent Nancy’s Baby Names blog) forwarded an article published in QSR magazine about Qdoba, which was originally called Z-Teca. The name change was effected by Terry Heckler of Heckler & Associates, a Seattle ad agency; according to the article, Heckler is also responsible for naming Starbucks (in 1971) and the Panera Bread chain (originally the St. Louis Bread Company). According to Heckler, Qdoba means nothing . . . and that’s its virtue. (BTW, QSR stands for quick-serve restaurant, the industry term for fast food.)
Always odd to hear that a) something you took for local is national or conversely (as here) b) something you took for national is regional or local.
Anyway, this:
>"Which might make sense if this were a chain of Spanish restaurants."
I laugh. As if most folks made such keen distinctions. :-)
Posted by: mike | October 28, 2010 at 01:21 PM
I have no idea -- but would amend your guess No. 2 to note that "barbecue" is still standard spelling at effete East Coast publications. Hence:
2. (Misspelled) Barbeque (’que) meets (misspelled) adobe!
Posted by: Jan Freeman | October 28, 2010 at 02:29 PM
Qdoba in Boston was just down the street from my former office. My co-workers and I wondered how to pronounce it and what it meant. How fun to see it mentioned again! Thanks!
Posted by: Joanne Mason | October 28, 2010 at 03:15 PM
The enterprise of the illustrious Qdoba family?
Posted by: Duchesse | October 30, 2010 at 07:15 AM
I love making suggestions, but this time I haven't a clQue .
Posted by: Nick | October 31, 2010 at 09:45 PM