Taco Bell began with a hot dog seller studying the queue across the street
In 1948 Glen Bell ran a hot dog stand in San Bernardino, California, and kept noticing the long line outside the Mitla Cafe opposite, famous for crunchy hard-shell tacos. He tried to copy the recipe on his own. Eventually the owners and their head chef, Gloria Hoyle, simply showed him how it was done.
Bell took that lesson and, after some experiments, opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California, on 6 July 1962. The building covered just 400 square feet, roughly a two-car garage, with mission-style arches over a walk-up window. Everything on the short menu, from tacos and burritos to tostadas and frijoles, cost 19 cents. That original stand closed in 1986, but in 2015 it was rescued from demolition and trucked 45 miles to the company's headquarters.
Franchising began in 1964, when a former police officer bought the first one, in Torrance. PepsiCo acquired the chain in 1978 and grew it quickly through the 1980s by buying rival taco chains and converting their outlets. In 1997 PepsiCo spun off its restaurants, and the new company later renamed itself Yum! Brands, which also owns KFC. Taco Bell now counts 8,212 restaurants serving over two billion customers a year, and more than 94 percent of them are run by independent franchisees.
Some moments were bumpier. In 2000 up to $50 million of Taco Bell shells sold in supermarkets were recalled because they contained StarLink, a genetically modified corn approved only for animal feed, the first-ever recall of a GMO food. In 2005, after a four-year boycott, the company accepted a farmworker coalition's demands to improve pay and conditions for Florida tomato pickers.
Marketing has often gone for the absurd. Bob Barker appeared in the first commercials in 1968, Johnny Cash promoted the value menu in 1992, and the 1993 film Demolition Man made Taco Bell a plot point. Gidget the Chihuahua, the mascot from 1997 to 2000, turned the line about wanting Taco Bell into a national catchphrase.
Source: Taco Bell
