Glen Bell had a hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California, and a problem: the customers kept lining up across the street. According to Tasting Table, he noticed the crowd at Mitla Cafe, became a regular, and befriended the staff. Then he learned to make their hard-shell tacos.
Mitla Cafe opened in 1937 and is still a family-owned San Bernardino fixture, run by founder Lucia Rodriguez’s grandson, Michael Montaño, per Tasting Table. Rodriguez immigrated from Mexico in 1928 and opened the cafe during the Great Depression to feed her family and community, according to Mitú.
Bell opened Bell’s Hamburgers in March 1948 near a popular public swimming pool, according to PBS SoCal. He added a second stand in a mostly Latino neighborhood. PBS SoCal says he learned tacos from friends at a Mexican-owned restaurant across the street from one of his stands.
In December 1951, he put a 19-cent taco on his menu. One customer ate one, then came back asking for another, PBS SoCal reported. The customer’s words, as quoted: “Gimmie another.”
Mitla’s side of the story is more good-natured than bitter. Irene Montaño, the mother of the current owner, said “Good for him” about Bell’s success, Tasting Table reported. She added, “Our tacos were better.”
After several ventures with partners, Bell opened the first Taco Bell in Downey, California, in 1962. The stand was at 7126 Firestone Blvd. and was designed by architect Robert McKay. The five-item menu included tacos, burritos, tostadas, and frijoles, per PBS SoCal.
The first franchise opened two years later in Torrance, California, according to Mitú. The 100th location opened in Anaheim in 1967, per PBS SoCal. The company went public in 1969 with 325 restaurants, according to Encyclopedia.com.
In 1978, Bell sold his 868 restaurants to PepsiCo for $125 million in stock, according to NBC News. He died in 2010 at age 86. At the time, Taco Bell had more than 5,600 U.S. locations.
PepsiCo does not own the chain anymore. It spun off Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants, per Encyclopedia.com. Taco Bell is now owned by Yum! Brands, according to NBC News.
“Glen Bell was a visionary and innovator in the restaurant industry, as well as a dedicated family man,” Taco Bell president Greg Creed said in a statement, per NBC News.
The Pepsi connection has outlasted the ownership, though. On Oct. 22, Taco Bell and PepsiCo extended their partnership 11 years, through 2036, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. PepsiCo will stay Taco Bell’s beverage partner in the U.S., Canada, Thailand, Ireland and the United Kingdom.
The deal arrives as sister chain KFC moves from Pepsi to Coca-Cola after 40 years, per Nation’s Restaurant News. Taco Bell and PepsiCo have already teamed up on Doritos Locos Tacos and Mountain Dew Baja Blast, which the outlet described as a $1 billion brand.
Plenty of the chain’s menu items have come and gone since Bell’s 19-cent taco. Some of the retired favorites are still missed.
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