Ed board

Will Taco Bell’s new cantina-style restaurants be successful?

Ed+board

Taco Bell announced they’ll be opening over 300 cantina-style restaurants in the coming years, according to news reports.

E! News reported the restaurants will be located in major cities all over the United States, with 50 alone in Manhattan.

This new style of Taco Bell will feature alcoholic beverages and get rid of the drive-thru, according to the same article.

The Spectator Editorial Board gathered to discuss if this cantina-style restaurant would be as popular as the late-night fast food chain currently is.

The first speaker deemed the new restaurants “brilliant.”

“Seeing as they already opened a store in Vegas that is basically the same thing, and it’s been wildly successful, I don’t see why these also wouldn’t be,they said.

They also said the people who grew up with Taco Bell are now primarily over 21 years old, so they’d be able to enjoy the new restaurants.

The next speaker agreed with the first, but posed the question of how these new additions would look. They said the drive-thru is a more popular option for Taco Bell, since every time they’ve been inside there are hardly any people dining in.

“I wonder if this will bring people into their restaurants more, now having a higher quality sitting area and dining area,” they said. “It will probably change the face of Taco Bell.

Another editorial board member compared the chain to other Mexican restaurants.

“Any typical Mexican restaurant serves you margaritas with your tacos,” they said. “That’s a good combination, especially if you’re looking for cheap tacos because you are broke and hungry.”

Adding to that, one member mentioned the new Taco Bell cantina-style restaurants likely wouldn’t be a competitor for authentic Mexican restaurants, but for other Tex-Mex-style places like Chipotle.

The last speaker thought these new additions would attract a new demographic on top of catering to the current fans of the fast food chain.

The Spectator Editorial Board voted 7-0-1, with seven members saying the restaurant would be popular among the same demographic, and one member choosing to abstain from voting.