TACO Bell has been an American institution since it was founded in the 1960s. Customers consistently flock to this chain restaurant to score a Crunchwrap Supreme or Cheesy Gordita Crunch. But when Taco Bell first opened, it was nothing like what it is today. Founded by Glen Bell in Downey, California in 1962, the first […]
TACO Bell has been an American institution since it was founded in the 1960s.
Customers consistently flock to this chain restaurant to score a Crunchwrap Supreme or Cheesy Gordita Crunch.
But when Taco Bell first opened, it was nothing like what it is today.
Founded by Glen Bell in Downey, California in 1962, the first Taco Bell restaurant was about the size of a two-car garage and didn’t offer indoor seating or drive-through.
When Glen opened the place, he wanted it to be a small walk-up taco stand surrounded by “shops, live music, and fire pits,” according to Taco Bell.
Not only did the actual restaurant—with its live-performance area and fire pits—look and feel different than the ones we now easily recognize, but some of the most popular items on today’s menu were nonexistent back then.
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Instead, the original Taco Bell only offered five items—and unfortunately, some of them are no longer on the menu.
The first official Taco Bell menu offered frijoles, tostados, chili burgers, burritos (red or green), and tacos.
All of these dishes were sold for only 19 cents apiece when the restaurant first opened.
As it grew in popularity, however, the prices increased: in the early ‘70s, they jumped to 25 cents apiece.
Although many of these dishes persisted in some form for a few decades, today the only remaining original items are tacos and burritos.
If you feel like stepping back in time, you can visit the original store’s structure at Taco Bell’s headquarters in Irvine, California, as the building was preserved and moved there in the ‘80s.
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