Taco Bell

Question

This piglix contains articles or sub-piglix about Taco Bell

Answer 1

Taco Bell

Taco Bell

Taco Bell is an American chain of fast-food restaurants based in Irvine, California. A subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., they serve a variety of Tex-Mex foods, including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, other specialty items, and a variety of "value menu" items. Taco Bell serves more than 2 billion customers each year in 7,000 restaurants, more than 80 percent of which are owned and operated by independent franchisees and licensees.

Taco Bell was founded by Glen Bell, who first opened a hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In in San Bernardino, California in 1946 when he was 23 years old. In 1950, he opened Bell's Hamburgers and Hot Dogs in San Bernardino's West Side barrio. According to Gustavo Arellano, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America, Bell watched long lines of customers at a Mexican restaurant called the Mitla Cafe, located across the street, which attracted a dedicated customer base for its hard-shelled tacos. Bell began eating there regularly, attempting to reverse-engineer the recipe, and eventually won the confidence of the proprietors such that they allowed him to see how the tacos and other foods were prepared. In late 1951 or early 1952, he took what he had learned and opened a new stand, this time selling tacos under the name of Taco-Tia.

Over the next few years, Bell owned and operated a number of restaurants in southern California including four called El Taco. Bell sold the El Tacos to his partner and built the first Taco Bell in Downey in 1962. On the night of Nov. 19, 2015, the original Taco Bell building in Downey was moved to the Taco Bell Corporate Headquarters in Irvine, CA. In 1962, he sold Taco-Tia. Kermit Becky, a former Los Angeles police officer, bought the first Taco Bell franchise from Glen Bell in 1964, and located it in Torrance. The company grew rapidly, and by 1967, the 100th restaurant opened at 400 South Brookhurst in Anaheim. In 1968, its first franchise location east of the Mississippi River opened in Springfield, Ohio. In 1970, Taco Bell went public with 325 restaurants. In 1978, PepsiCo purchased Taco Bell from Glen Bell.

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Answer 2

Glen Bell

Glen Bell

Glen William Bell, Jr. (September 3, 1923 – January 16, 2010) was the founder of the Taco Bell chain of restaurants.

Born in Lynwood, California, Glen Bell attended and graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1941. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. Bell left the military in 1946 and started his first hot dog stand, called Bell's Drive-In, in San Bernardino in 1948. In 1952, he sold the hot dog stand and built a second stand that sold hot dogs and hamburgers. Shortly thereafter, he started selling tacos at a taco stand named Taco-Tia at the price of 19 cents each from a side window. Between 1954 and 1955, he opened three Taco Tias in the San Bernardino area, eventually selling those restaurants and opening four El Tacos with a partner in the Long Beach area.

In 1962, he decided to go solo and sold the El Tacos to his partner and opened his first Taco Bell. Bell franchised his restaurant in 1964. His company grew rapidly, and the 868-restaurant chain was later sold to PepsiCo in 1978 for $125 million in stock.

Bell died from a heart attack on January 16, 2010 at age 86 in Rancho Santa Fe, California. He was survived by his wife Martha, two sons, a daughter, four grandchildren, and three sisters.

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Answer 3

Chevys Fresh Mex

Chevys Inc.

Chevys Fresh Mex is an American chain of Mexican-style casual dining restaurants located in the United States. The chain was founded in 1981 by Warren Simmons in Alameda, California. The chain's headquarters are currently located in Cypress, California. The chain is owned by Real Mex Restaurants, Inc.

The chain was founded in 1981 by Warren Simmons, when he opened the first restaurant in Alameda, California. It grew to 37 restaurants across California by August 1993, when it was acquired by PepsiCo subsidiary Taco Bell. When PepsiCo decided to exit the restaurant business in 1997, Chevys was sold to the investment group J.W. Childs Associates. In 1999, Chevys purchased Rio Bravo Cantina, a poorly performing chain of Tex-Mex restaurants with 66 locations across the United States, from Applebee's International for $59 million.

However, business was poor at the Rio Bravo locations, and in 2003 Chevys' executives filed for Chapter Eleven bankruptcy protection. For the next year and a half, Chevys operated as debtor in possession under Chapter Eleven. In January 2005, Chevys and Fuzio Universal Pasta were acquired by Real Mex Restaurants, Inc., the Long Beach, California-based parent company of El Torito Restaurants and Acapulco Mexican Restaurants. The acquisitions gave Real Mex Restaurants claim as the largest operator of full-service Mexican restaurants in the United States. Real Mex subsequently passed through bankruptcy in 2011-2012.

As of July 2014, there were 49 Chevys Fresh Mex restaurants located throughout the United States, mostly in Northern California (24 locations). Many of these locations are owned by the company; however, some are franchisee-owned.,

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Answer 4

Dollar Cravings

Dollar Cravings (or $1 Dollar Cravings) is the value menu of American fast-food restaurant Taco Bell. Dollar Cravings was launched August 18, 2014 in reaction to the new McDonald's and Wendy's value/dollar menus. The current menu contains 11 food items. Dollar Cravings replaced Taco Bell's previous value menu Why Pay More. A Taco Bell spokesperson said few of the food items from the Why Pay More menu will remain in Dollar Cravings.

In March 10, 2016, Taco Bell introduced a breakfast value menu.

On 26 December 2012, fast food culture site Brand Eating reported Taco Bell planned to replace their value menu Why Pay More with Dollar Cravings.Brand Eating speculated Dollar Cravings was "probably a response to rising food and labor costs." The value menu was tested in select locations in southern California, Kansas City, and Sacramento.

The pricing of the Dollar Cravings food items was largely determined by the competition from other fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and Wendy's. Magazine Time pointed out the increase in price from 99¢ to a dollar. Television channel CNBC also noted the price increased from the previous value menu Why Pay More which had a three-tiered menu offering food items from 79, 89, or 99 cents.

The menu was divided based on five food cravings: "Beefy", "Cheesy", "Crunchy", "Spicy", and "Sweet".

Food items on the Dollar Cravings menu include:

On August 15, 2014, the new menu was advertised via the mobile application SnapChat with the target demographic being millennials.

On August 26, 2014, Taco Bell announced the new contest "Everlasting Dollars" in which 11 participants in 11 American cities could win a lifetime of Taco Bell food. However, The Consumerist points out the fine print:

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Answer 5

Double decker taco

The Double Decker Taco is an offering of Taco Bell restaurants. It is a traditional crunchy taco with a tortilla secured to the outside with a layer of refried beans. It is a single item.

The Double Decker Taco origins are vague, however anecdotal reports can trace the origins as far back as 1989. Memorable advertisements included a series of commercials featuring NBA basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon.

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Answer 6

Enchirito

Enchirito (Spanish pronunciation: [entʃiˈɾito]) is the trademarked name of Taco Bell's menu item of the Tex-Mex food similar to an enchilada. It is composed of a flour tortilla filled with seasoned ground beef taco meat (with options to substitute steak or chicken), beans, diced onions, cheddar cheese, and "red sauce".

There is an unsubstantiated claim that the Enchirito was invented in 1967 by a high school student in Montebello, CA.

However, a 2008 article published in the Long Beach Press-Telegram claimed that a Cerritos, California based franchise owner named Dan Jones had created the Enchirito.

In an article published in a Corsicana Daily Sun in 1971, there is a third claim that a Taco Bell franchise owner in Texas was the actual inventor.

The original Enchirito of the 1970s was advertised as a special tortilla filled with ground beef, pinto beans, and onions; topped with red sauce, cheese and olives. It was served in a reheatable aluminum foil tray. One of the earliest print reference to the Enchirito is an August 1967 Taco Bell ad in an Amarillo, Texas newspaper for a meal consisting of a taco, Enchirito, and soft drink for $0.89.

Taco Bell registered the name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office as a service mark in May 1970. In its application, Taco Bell described the item as a [ Combination Enchilada And Burrito Prepared As Part Of ] Restaurant Services and that "Enchirito" Is Merely A Fanciful Combination Of "Enchilada" And "Burrito."

The coining of the name Enchirito (a portmanteau of the words enchilada and burrito) for this item was a bit of a peculiar action by Taco Bell. It was the only item on the menu, at the time, to not use the common Mexican food nomenclature for that item. Whereas a burrito is typically a flour tortilla filled with beans, and an enchilada is typically a corn tortilla filled with meat and smothered in chile sauce, the name Enchirito communicates the combination of these elements. On the other hand, it appears the unusual name was not to help Americans unfamiliar with the Spanish names of the food items; indeed, for many years Taco Bell menu boards featured a system of phonetic pronunciation guides next to each item.

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Answer 7

Hot %27n Now

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Answer 8

NBA All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge

The NBA Skills Challenge (officially named The Taco Bell Skills Challenge), is a National Basketball Association (NBA) contest held on the Sunday before the annual All-Star Game as part of the All-Star Weekend. First held in 2003, it is a competition to test ball-handling, passing and shooting ability. In the current version of the contest, two participants race against each other on identical courses by first dribbling between five obstacles while running down the court. Next, the player must throw a pass into a net that does not touch the ground. Then, the players must dribble back the full length of the court for a lay up. Shortly after, the players must dribble back down the court and hit a three pointer from the top of the basketball key. The match ends when the first player hits the three pointer. Currently, the champion is decided via a single elimination tournament format, with a guard and a center guaranteed to face off in the final.

The current champion is Kristaps Porziņģis of the New York Knicks.

Starting with the 2015 edition of the Skills Challenge, a tournament format was adopted.

"Davis, Cousins give Taco Bell Skills Challenge new look". NBA.com. 4 February 2016. 

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Answer 9

Pup %27N%27 Taco

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Answer 10

StarLink corn recall

The StarLink corn recalls occurred in the autumn of 2000, when over 300 food products were found to contain a genetically modified corn that had not been approved for human consumption. It was the first-ever recall of a genetically modified food. The anti-GMO activist coalition Genetically Engineered Food Alert, which detected and first reported the contamination, was critical of the FDA for not doing its job. The recall of Taco Bell-branded taco shells, manufactured by Kraft Foods and sold in supermarkets, was the most publicized of the recalls. One settlement resulted in $60 million going to Taco Bell franchisees for lost sales due to the damage to the Taco Bell brand.

StarLink is a genetically modified maize, containing two modifications: a gene for resistance to glufosinate, and a variant of the bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) protein called Cry9C. Cry9C had not been used in a GM crop prior to StarLink, causing heightened regulatory scrutiny. StarLink's creator, Plant Genetic Systems, which later became Aventis CropScience during the time of the incident, had applied to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to market StarLink for use in animal feed and in the human food supply. However, because the Cry9C protein lingers in the digestive system before breaking down, the EPA had concerns about its allergenicity, and PGS did not provide sufficient data to prove that Cry9C was not allergenic. As a result, PGS split its application into separate permits for use in food and use in animal feed only. StarLink was approved by the EPA for use in animal feed only in May 1998. After the incident the company at first tried to get the application for human consumption approved, and then withdrew the product entirely from the market.

The Garst Seed Company (part of the Advanta group) was licensed by Aventis to produce and sell StarLink seed in the US.

In 2000, Genetically Engineered Food Alert was launched by seven organizations (Center for Food Safety, Friends of the Earth, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Environmental Trust, Organic Consumers Association, Pesticide Action Network North America, and The State PIRGs) to lobby the FDA, Congress and companies to ban or stop using GMOs. One of their activities was testing food for the presence of GMOs via a lab called Genetic ID, the vice president of which was Jeffrey M. Smith.

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