Más appeal: 22 things you didn’t know about Taco Bell

It may feel like Taco Bell has only been around since the ‘70s or ‘80s, but it was actually founded in Downey, California, way back in 1962 — only seven years after Ray Kroc joined the McDonald’s company. Taco Bell’s owner originally opened a hot dog stand (under a different name, of course) but was being outsold by a Mexican restaurant across the street so he decided to change his business model.

Most people don’t think of Taco Bell as including a surname, but it does! Although it first opened as a taco stand in 1951 and went through names like Taco-Tia and El Taco, the joint eventually settled on “Taco Bell” as a namesake for owner Glen Bell. 

The first restaurant that opened in 1962 in Downey eventually closed in 1986 but was saved from demolition a few decades later. The structure was then moved 45 miles away to the Taco Bell headquarters’ campus in Irving, where it still exists in the parking lot with the nickname “Taco Bell Numero Uno.” 

When Taco Bell first opened, it offered a bit of a pricing gimmick. Their frijoles, tostadas, chili burgers, red and green burritos, and tacos all cost 19 cents. And these six choices weren’t just the items on some sort of value menu — they were the only things on the entire menu!

Taco Bell was established in 1962, and it only took two years for the first franchise to open, with retired L.A. policeman Kermit Becky being the first franchisee. In just another three years, in 1967, Taco Bell opened its 100th location!

PepsiCo started getting into the restaurant business in 1977 when it purchased Pizza Hut. A year later, they bought Taco Bell. And in 1986, Pepsi purchased KFC. This explains two things: 1) The prevalence of Pepsi products (especially Mountain Dew, which PepsiCo has owned since 1964) and 2) The reason why many restaurants can operate as a combination Taco Bell/Pizza Hut. These eateries are all now owned by Yum! Brands (formerly Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc.), which spun off from PepsiCo in 1997. 

With Pepsi at the helm of Taco Bell, the drink company started brainstorming a soda that would specifically complement the Mexican-inspired food. The result was Baja Blast, a teal-colored, lime-flavored soft drink that was invented in 2004. Taco Bell was given the exclusive rights to this soda for 10 years—meaning you could only get it from their soda fountains—but when that agreement expired in 2014, Baja Blast was canned and bottled for worldwide distribution.

Taco Bell serves an estimated 2 billion customers every year,  which amounts to about 5.5 million people served each day! It helps that Taco Bell restaurants exist worldwide, with nearly 8,000 locations around the globe. That ranks the chain as No. 11 among its fast-food counterparts in terms of total locations.

When Taco Bell first opened in the early ‘60s, customers in Southern California were unfamiliar with how to eat tacos. In fact, John Gorham, the company’s first director of operations, said he had to hire staff who could teach customers how to eat a taco. Hilariously, many turned the tacos completely on their sides and tried to eat them like sandwiches, which caused most of the filling to fall out.

Before women managers were commonplace in the fast food industry, Taco Bell became the first chain to hire women in leadership roles. Taco Bell’s aforementioned first director of operations, John Gorman, said it was an easy decision for him once he realized the problem: “There weren’t enough managers to go around (and) they were all men.” 

In 2015, Taco Bell made a restaurant entirely out of shipping containers for the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. After that, the container store was shipped to California, where it currently sits on an intersection in the South Gate section of Los Angeles. Want to visit? Put 13601 Garfield Avenue into your GPS.

Did you know Taco Bell once waded into the hotel business? In 2019, the company opened “The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel & Resort” as an exclusive pop-up takeover of California’s V Palm Springs Hotel. Despite having a whopping 70 rooms for rent — all decked out in a motif to match the Mexican-inspired chain — reservations were entirely booked up in only two minutes.

For decades, there have been nefarious rumors and urban legends about the ingredients of Taco Bell’s seasoned beef. (You’ve probably even heard some yourself.) This culminated in a 2011 lawsuit alleging that the beef content was so low — about 38 percent — that the restaurant shouldn’t even be able to call it “seasoned beef.” The chain immediately launched an extensive marketing campaign and spent more than $3 million to tout the actual amount, 88%, and clear its name once and for all. (If you’re wondering, the other 12 percent consists of oats, seasonings, and other fairly typical ingredients.)

McDonald’s and their Ronald McDonald House Charities get plenty of attention, so we forgive you for not knowing that Taco Bell has its own foundation, too. Since 1992, the Taco Bell Foundation has provided more than $155 million in “Live Más Scholarships” and grants to youth-focused non-profits involved in education and career readiness. To date, they’ve reached approximately five million kids!

In 1996, Taco Bell took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times announcing that they purchased the Liberty Bell in order to help ease America’s debt, and they were going to rename it the “Taco Liberty Bell.” Thousands of people flooded Taco Bell’s headquarters and the National Park Service with angry calls — apparently unaware that it was April 1 and the whole thing was an April Fools’ Day prank. Despite the outrage, the stunt was considered a success, as Taco Bell received $25 million worth of free publicity and saw a $1 million increase in sales, with the actual advertising fees only costing the chain about $300,000.

The 1993 sci-fi action movie “Demolition Man” stars Wesley Snipes as a cryogenically frozen criminal who awakens in 2032 and escapes custody and Slyvester Stallone as the police officer tasked with taking him down. In the futuristic world of no crime or illicit behavior, they reference Taco Bell as the only surviving restaurant chain following something called “The Franchise Wars.” McDonald’s and Burger King both turned down this product placement opportunity before an enthusiastic Taco Bell agreed — however, the chain was changed to Pizza Hut (a fellow Yum! Brand) and re-dubbed for the film’s European release.

The Doritos Locos Taco — a hard taco with a Doritos shell — debuted in 2012, 50 years after Taco Bell first opened. It didn’t actually take that long to create this concoction, but it wasn’t easy either. The restaurant chain’s research and development team spent two years making some 40 different prototypes before settling on the final version. Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

If you’re a Taco Bell fan and you’ve never been to a Taco Bell Cantina location, you’re in for a treat. These eateries (of which there are dozens, with plans for a nationwide expansion) have fancier decor, open kitchens, lounge areas, custom menus, and even DJs. Plus, they serve booze! The alcoholic offerings include an assortment of beer, wine, and sangria, but also “twisted” versions of their frozen Freezes spiked with rum, vodka, and tequila.

Did you propose with the hot sauce packet that says, “Marry Me”? If so, we have the perfect venue for you: the Taco Bell Chapel. Located in the flagship Las Vegas Cantina location, the venue includes custom wedding swag (including a garter and bow tie), a half-hour ceremony, a reception area for 25 guests, and even a sauce packet bouquet. 

For a fast food chain that keeps prices notoriously cheap, Taco Bell still makes efforts to protect the planet. Since 2018, they have used recyclable cups and lids for cold beverages and are currently working to do the same for their hot cups. Their paper bags are also 100% recyclable and made from sustainably sourced materials. By 2025, Taco Bell has even loftier goals: making all customer-facing packaging recyclable, compostable, or reusable; removing PFAS, Phthalates, and BPA from all customer-facing packaging; and adding recycling and/or composting bins to all restaurants.

Many fast food chains claim to have vegetarian options, but some of these meals are actually just alterations or substitutions, and other places have foods that may seem vegetarian but are not. (McDonald’s fries, for instance, contain beef flavoring in the oil.) However, Taco Bell has an entire vegetarian menu that is certified by the American Vegetarian Association, much of which features black beans, vegan refried beans, or potatoes as the protein.

Back in 2021, the residents of Bethel, Alaska, thought the town of 6,200 was getting its first Taco Bell, thanks to fliers posted around the community. It turned out to be a juvenile prank but Taco Bell caught wind of the hoax and decided to do something about it. They hired a helicopter to airlift in a food truck and the makings for 10,000 of their new Doritos Locos tacos. This amounted to 950 pounds of seasoned beef, 300 pounds of lettuce, 150 pounds of cheddar cheese, 500 pounds of reduced-fat sour cream, and 300 pounds of tomatoes — all delivered and distributed for free.