Taco Bell will test four new concept designs for its restaurants this summer in an attempt to draw more people from the drive-thru to the dining room.
The designs feature "modern seating, exposed wooden beams and trendy light fixtures," aimed at enticing more evening business,
USA Today reported.
"We hope that we see a renewed interest in actually using it as a place to go out to dinner vs. picking up convenience and food to go home," said Deborah Brand, vice president of development and design at Taco Bell.
The new designs will be introduced at four stores in Orange County, California, this summer followed by four more stores later in the year. The designs will allow the stores to be customized by location and include environmentally friendly features.
The new designs are dubbed Modern Explorer, California Sol, Heritage and Urban Edge,
The Orange County Register reported. The publication noted that the variations include indoor-outdoor seating, beach-inspired artwork in the California Sol design, and large tile floors and hacienda-style chandeliers in the Mexican-inspired Heritage design.
"One size fits all is no longer what we’re doing," Brand said, according to the Register.
Franchisees will choose among the four themes as they remodel their store or open new ones.
The new designs follow the company's introduction of cantina-style restaurants late last year that feature open kitchens and serve alcohol.
Taco Bell has 6,437 locations, mostly in the United States, and plans to open 2,000 new restaurants by 2022,
The Los Angeles Times reported.
The Orange County restaurants, in Brea, Newport Beach, Santa Ana, and Tustin, were chosen to debut the new designs because they were already up for remodels.
Twitter users shared mixed reactions to the new concepts.
Related Stories:
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.