I didn’t know this, but the beginnings of the Glen Bell and his now-ubiquitous Taco Bell restaurant chain began at a corner eatery on Route 66 in San Bernardino, Calif.
According to OC Weekly:
This taco comes from the above restaurant, which is the exact location where Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs opened in 1952: on the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue and Sixth Street, in the city’s West Side barrio. It’s here that Bell decided to try and sell tacos–although tellingly, the largely Latino clientele he had forsook his Mexican offerings in favor of the hamburger and hot dogs. But Bell nevertheless had an instantaneous following, because Mount Vernon was originally Route 66, ensuring he got all that famished cross-country traffic.
Interestingly enough, the red-tile roof and wrought-iron fencing aren’t original; Bell hadn’t yet learned the value of exotifying Mexican food. Bell only stayed at this location for a couple of years, because he lost it in a nasty divorce. Amapola Rico Taco has sold tacos at the stand since 1975; this was its second location, and it’s now its own successful chain, located only in the Inland Empire. The taco, by the way, was delicious–nothing like its ancestor.
Bell also bought the tortillas a short distance away on Sixth Street (aka Route 66). That was all before he started buying and establishing El Taco chains in Southern California. He later built the first Taco Bell in 1962, and now boasts almost 6,000 restaurants in the United States.
I’m not about to become a big defender of Taco Bell food. But it did bring Mexican cuisine in a lot of places that didn’t have it before, and undoubtedly opened the taste buds of people so they could try even better food derived from south of the border.