Anything For Tacos: Taco Bell’s Drastic Move to Save Its First Location
Taco Bell’s first location is making a run for the border and into another city.
That’s right – the 53-year-old structure, which measures approximately 400 square feet, will be taking a road trip to a new location.
“This is arguably the most important restaurant in our company’s history”, said Brian Niccol, CEO of Taco Bell Corp., in a press statement.
Known affectionately as “Numero Uno”, the 400-square-foot taco stand that opened in Downey in 1962 and gave a Mexican face to fast food will be carried 45 miles to Taco Bell’s corporate headquarters in Irvine Thursday night, saving it from the wrecking ball.
I always assumed that Taco Bell was named after the bells that top California missions, a kind of romantic blurring of the realities of the 18th-century Franciscan compounds.
A social media campaign to save the building ensued. Using the hashtag #SaveTacoBell, the company reached out to their supporters, asking them to help save “Numero Uno”.
The chain will also begin to remove artificial flavors and colors, added trans fats, high fructose corn syrup and unsustainable palm oil from its core menu at the beginning of 2016. “These places can be a valuable, sustainable resource”, the organization’s website reads.
Taco Bell is taking a stand for its consumers, and the chickens. “But it does demonstrate how even the most ordinary buildings can tell tremendous stories”. The company has designated restaurants along the route “watch points”, where people can catch a glimpse of the eatery on the move. But today I learned that Taco Bell was, in fact, named for a human Bell: Glen Bell, who “pioneered” the concept of tacos as fast food in 1960s Southern California. Leave your comments below.