If you only watched HBFG’s share price all day, you missed almost everything that mattered.
Inside TSA, members were tracking openings, reading founder posts, counting locations, and connecting small pieces of public information before the official announcements arrived.
Here’s what we found
HEAL Texas is no longer an idea
That is the first U.S. HEAL location at 1111 University Avenue in Lubbock, directly in front of Texas Tech University’s main campus entrance and around the corner from Broadway.
The exterior appears substantially complete, the signage is installed, and the location is being promoted as “opening soon.”
This is more than another opening.
It is the first real-world test of whether HEAL’s playbook—branding, menu, customer appeal, and unit economics—can translate to the much larger U.S. market.
See Sean Black’s Texas Tech update
At nearly the same time, HEAL announced that it is heading to Nova Scotia, with opening details expected shortly.
See the Nova Scotia announcement
Two markets. Two different countries. One increasingly portable brand.
Ghost Taco officially joins Happy Belly
Happy Belly has now closed its acquisition of a 50% interest in Ghost Taco, with the option to acquire the remaining 50%.
Sean Black summarized the transaction this way:
Great people and partners
Great product
Great process
Debt-free
Cash-flow positive
No HBFG shares issued
No cash spent
That final point deserves attention.
Happy Belly obtained 50% of the brand—and the option to buy the remaining half in the future—without putting immediate pressure on its treasury or cap table.
That is capital-efficient optionality.
Read the official Ghost Taco announcement
They aren’t learning this category from scratch
John DeLutis said the company is now “out of the starting blocks” and ready to make noise in the category.
Sean’s response was more revealing:
“Time to go lead the category again…just like the old days when you ran Mucho Burrito.”
That is the strategic connection.
DeLutis previously served as Brand Vice President at Mucho Burrito. Sean Black co-founded and helped build the brand.
Happy Belly isn’t handing Ghost Taco to executives who need to learn about Mexican fast casual. It is putting the brand into the hands of people who have already operated and scaled within the category.
The product may be new to HBFG.
The operating playbook isn’t.
Early franchise demand may already be forming
Restaurant area developer Scott Grandin posted that three franchise groups have requested to enter the disclosure period for potential Ghost Taco franchises in Ontario.
This is not the same as three signed franchise agreements.
But it is a meaningful early signal: prospective operators were reportedly moving into the formal evaluation process immediately after the closing.
Ghost Taco founder Samantha Buckley had previously written that the brand was already handling conversations ranging from single-unit prospects to substantially larger development opportunities.
Read Samantha Buckley’s Ghost Taco update
Then California and Arizona appeared
In a public exchange with Ghost Taco co-founder Steve Tallis, Sean said he was looking forward to touring California and Arizona with him shortly.
To be clear: this is not an announced U.S. development agreement.
It could be early market reconnaissance, franchise meetings, or site exploration
But California and Arizona did not appear in the conversation randomly. The comment came immediately after the Ghost Taco closing and included a taco.
Arizona also carries some history for Sean. When MTY acquired Extreme Brandz in 2013, the platform Sean helped build was already supporting approximately 40 U.S. franchised restaurants through its Scottsdale office. Those restaurants became MTY’s first operating foothold in the United States. So, while we cannot know what this upcoming tour means, Arizona is not unfamiliar territory or a random point on the map. For Sean, it represents a return to the state where the U.S. infrastructure of his previous restaurant platform had already established a beachhead.
That is precisely what scuttlebutt is supposed to do: identify potentially meaningful signals early, without presenting them as confirmed outcomes.
Ghost Taco’s story and growth path
Ghost Taco began as a pandemic pop-up in 2021. Its first permanent restaurant did not open until December 2023.
According to Buckley, the brand has since:
Become a multi-unit franchise system
Built an Instagram community of approximately 13,800
Generated thousands of Google reviews
Maintained ratings of roughly 4.8 stars at its established locations
Set its sights on entering the United States in 2027
The attraction is not simply that Ghost Taco has five locations today.
It is how quickly the concept moved from a pop-up to a permanent restaurant, from a restaurant to a franchise system, and now from an independent operator to the Happy Belly platform.
HBFG is not just getting 50% of some taco QSR
It’s identifying the brand before the steepest part of its growth curve.
The location math moved again
The current TSA working tracker maintained by $MONEYMAKER$ shows 39 locations opened or added to Happy Belly’s system in 2026, including Ghost Taco’s five established locations.
Another 31 announced locations are being tracked across various stages of leasing, development, or construction.
This is community compiled research.
But if the underlying count is substantially correct, Happy Belly’s goal of adding 30–50 locations in 2026 no longer looks aspirational.
The lower end may already have been reached.
With approximately 16 weeks left in the year, the question is changing from:
Can HBFG reach its target?
To:
Where does the 2026 count finish, and how much of 2027 is already being built?
What we’re watching now
The opening date for HEAL Texas
Initial evidence of U.S. customer demand
Details on HEAL Nova Scotia
Ghost Taco’s first post-closing franchise agreements
Whether the reported disclosure activity converts into signed locations
The purpose of the California and Arizona tour
Yolks Vaughan and Rosie’s Edmonton
Changes to the signed-location pipeline
HBFG’s final 2026 opening count
This is why we created the HBFG Expansion & Research Report.
Discord is excellent for discovering information, but terrible for finding it.
Every two weeks, we’ll take TSA’s best store counts, expansion updates, public-source scuttlebutt, and community research and organize the important pieces into one concise email you can save and reference.
This edition is public; the rest will be private.
And everything in this report emerged within roughly 48 hours.
Talk soon,
The Stock Avengers
Disclosure: The Stock Avengers and/or its contributors may own shares of Happy Belly Food Group. This is independent community research and is not affiliated with HBFG. Nothing in this email constitutes investment advice. Public comments and third-party reports should be independently verified.
Join The Stock Avengers Discord Channel to continue the conversation.