It’s the first of the chain’s “Taco Bell Cantina” test locations, aimed at catering to a younger crowd increasingly concentrated in city centers.
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By now, you’ve likely read a tongue-in-cheek story about the new Taco Bell Cantina restaurant that opens next week in Chicago’s trendy taco capital, Wicker Park. Seventy-five Starbucks cafes now offer “evening” menus that include beer, wine, and small snacks. Company officials think that selling a stiffer drink might pad the receipts – the typical Taco Bell receipt is in the $7 range – and in turn help make their urbanization push more doable. “(Customers will be) able to see all the attractive ingredients”. Aside from the alcohol and appetizers, Taco Bell says the menu will be the same as regular locations.
Taco Bell is the latest Yum!-owned fast food brand to get an upmarket version.
The original “taproom” business model included a menu of craft beer and wine. Chipotle also serves margaritas. The plans for the Chicago outlet were announced earlier in May.
On Tuesday, Taco Bell announced it is launching a new concept that “redefines fast food experience”.
“Taco Bell is treading carefully into booze”. In 2012, the company also introduced a line of Cantina bowls and burritos intended to compete with the Chipotle restaurant chain, but marketing for that lineup has since been changed to emphasize protein content.
Taco Bell Cantina will open at the Wicker Park neighborhood on September 22, 2015, and later this month at San Francisco. The new Chicago restaurant is set in a 100-year-old building and features an open kitchen that gives customers a view of almost every corner. It will serve beer, wine, sangria and Twisted Freezes, a margarita-like frozen alcoholic beverage spiked with rum, tequila or vodka.
The San Francisco restaurant, located near AT&T Park, features a patio and mobile pick-up window to cater to the quick pace, tech savvy and vibrant community. The company hasn’t said exactly when it will open.
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For Yum! Brands, which boasts over 6,000 Taco Bell locations in the USA and has plans to open 2,000 more domestically by 2022, the “Cantina” concept is an attempt to expand further into the urban markets that are attracting millennial families. But the Irvine-based chain cited “lower than anticipated foot traffic” and “hurdles securing alcohol permits” as challenges contributing to its decision to close U.S. Taco. Ms. Sandland told the AP, “several hundred” of them will be “Cantinas”.
