This Week in Taco Bell is For the Win’s weekly roundup of Taco Bell news and the internet’s foremost source of aggregated Taco Bell content.
IRVINE, Calif. — Look: This post represents a huge moment for This Week in Taco Bell, and I don’t want to bog it down too much by starting with an aside about my personal beliefs and values. But it’s important to me that you understand I recognize the dicey territory that comes along with trying to discuss and report in an honest fashion on subjects you happen to love almost unequivocally, like, say, baseball and sandwiches and Taco Bell.
As a fan of all of those things, I aim to celebrate them accordingly, but know that this name is the only one I’ll get in this world and I would never, ever use it to do anyone else’s bidding. Please appreciate that if and when Taco Bell next comes out with a substandard menu item or any other embarrassing gaffe, I will cover it with all the severity and integrity you have come to expect from the lauded pages of This Week in Taco Bell. But for today, right now, permit me to geek out over an extraordinary day at Taco Bell headquarters.
Because holy hell, I went to Taco Bell headquarters! Taco Bell made me its honorary president for the day, set me up in CEO Brian Niccol’s office and even decorated the desk with photos reaped from my social-media history.
Now this is happening. pic.twitter.com/SSJTBiCMmF
— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) July 13, 2016
Yo @tacobell pulled out all the stops. pic.twitter.com/rxQSxrSgam
— Ted Berg (@OGTedBerg) July 13, 2016
More on all that in a moment, but first, this: As part of the tour, I spent some time in Taco Bell’s test kitchen. I got to try out the brand-new Triple Double Crunchwrap (before it got released to the public, even) and the forthcoming Naked Chicken Chalupa. Then I got to build my own Taco Bell things, a task far more difficult than I imagined. I streamed the session on Facebook Live, and it lives on in archive form here:
I left Taco Bell headquarters stuffed with Taco Bell, grinning from ear to ear, and humming I’ve Got a Golden Ticket from the Willy Wonka soundtrack. Indeed, visiting Taco Bell’s test kitchen is the closest I’ll ever come to having my own Wonka factory tour, except I fear I behaved more like an Augustus Gloop than a Charlie Bucket. I didn’t quite drown in a flowing river of nacho cheese, but it felt like I did.
In the absence of a better way to organize my thoughts, here are nine (of many) things I learned at Taco Bell headquarters:
1. Everyone who works at Taco Bell seems psyched about it
Presumably my Taco Bell tour guides weren’t putting me in rooms with headquarters’ most disgruntled employees, assuming they exist, but every single person I met at Taco Bell headquarters seemed extremely excited about Taco Bell as a brand and Taco Bell as food. It just doesn’t seem like you stumble into working at Taco Bell without serious passion for their products, and I cannot express how refreshing it is to finally meet other people who can match or better my knowledge of the Taco Bell menu and its history. Also, Taco Bell seems to think outside the proverbial bun in its hiring practices, too: Plenty — maybe even most? — of the people I met had started out working in some different mechanism of the vast Taco Bell machine before moving into their current role. Taco Bell’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike Grams, started with the company decades ago as an assistant store manager in Detroit.
Also, fun fact: Taco Bell employees refer to the Cheesy Gordita Crunch — this site’s top recommendation for uninitiated Taco Bell consumers — as “the Cheesy G.” Makes sense: These people probably go to whole meetings just to discuss making and marketing Taco Bell stuff, and “Cheesy Gordita Crunch” makes for a lot of syllables that take time away from eating free Taco Bell. Speaking of which…
2. Taco Bell headquarters looks like a dope place to work
(USA TODAY Sports)
Multiple times a week, Taco Bell employees are encouraged to head to the test kitchen to sample new products or taste for distinctions where subtle alterations are being made — a new cheese supplier, say, or a slight change in recipes. But beyond even the constant access to Taco Bell food, Taco Bell headquarters appears a generally fun place to go to work. The place hosts a gym, a daycare center, a laundry and dry-cleaning service, a big cafeteria with both Taco Bell and non-Taco Bell options — Wednesday is barbecue day, and they had a big smoker going in the backyard — and a game room with video games, a pool table and foosball, among other things. Dude in the back in the photo above was killing it at Pop-A-Shot basketball.
And I get, again, that Taco Bell put its best feet forward for my visit, but there’s no way they could have staged the Nerf-gun fight I happened to accidentally interrupt.
3. They all have to do in-store training
I don’t know if this is standard at restaurant chains — to date, I have toured no other fast-food headquarters — but every Taco Bell employee has to start out with in-store training, and Taco Bell executives must spend at least a day a year working in an actual Taco Bell restaurant. I visited Marisa Thalberg, Taco Bell’s chief marketing officer and formerly an executive in high-end cosmetics, while she was wearing a hairnet and serving as an expediter in the Tustin, Calif. Taco Bell, a short drive from headquarters. This program keeps the Taco Bell bigwigs aware of the challenges inherent in actually preparing and serving Taco Bell at Taco Bells.
4. Taco Bell is coming to China
(USA TODAY Sports)
I spent a month in China for grad school back in 2007. While there, when I needed a break from the generally delicious local cuisine, I visited both of Taco Bell’s companion restaurants under the Yum Brands umbrella: KFC (which is ubiquitous in China) and Pizza Hut. On Wednesday, a group from Taco Bell China trained in Taco Bell’s international kitchen to prepare to open the first location in that country. International Taco Bells apparently feature open-concept kitchens like the one shown above, and menus include Taco Bell items catered to local tastes. Before my gluttonous turn in the test kitchen, I ate this shrimp and avocado burrito with fries. Though way outside my Taco Bell comfort zone, it was delicious:
(USA TODAY Sports)
5. You can see the O.G. Taco Bell from I-5
Remember when Taco Bell moved the building that housed its original location to headquarters? Numero Uno, as it’s known, is still there in the parking lot in Irvine as Taco Bell works through plans for what to do with it. This Week in Taco Bell does not recommend taking your eyes off the road while speeding on the freeway, but if you happen to get caught in traffic at the exact right spot, you can see the O.G. Taco Bell from I-5.
I got to duck inside the kitchen of the original Taco Bell, a borderline religious experience. It was not unlike visiting the Colosseum in Rome, my mind consumed with thoughts of the historic events that once took place in this very building.
6. There is a random photo of Pitbull
(USA TODAY Sports)
The overwhelming majority of the decor at Taco Bell headquarters is Taco Bell-themed, from the details on the doors to the timeline of Taco Bell history spanning one first-floor wall to the motivational Taco Bell posters hanging all over the place. It’s not clear why there’s a big photo of Pitbull inside a room Taco Bell uses as a video studio, but it felt important. I guess we all could stand to turn to Pitbull for inspiration sometimes. Above is a photo of a photo of Pitbull.
7. Taco Bell’s trying to shake one aspect of its rep
You and I both know that Taco Bell is often enjoyed while something far less than sober at hours far past our bedtimes, but I think the only times anyone inside Taco Bell headquarters stopped smiling were when I referenced the joys of eating Taco Bell in the middle of the night when you’re all messed up. Taco Bell would like you to know that it’s not only drunk people who enjoy Fourthmeal and that late-night Taco Bell also appeals to clear-headed people of all demographics. I buy it: Writing about baseball professionally means a good deal of late nights on the job, and I have frequently stopped at Taco Bell for postgame meals while drunk only on homers.
8. I wore Glenn Bell’s hat
(USA TODAY Sports)
I own an autographed copy of Taco Titan — Taco Bell founder Glen Bell’s authorized biography — and so I immediately recognized the sombrero in Niccol’s office as the same Bell wore on the cover of that book. They let me wear it, which I very much hope will transfer onto me all of Glen Bell’s incredible taco-conception talents. Should have put it on before visiting the test kitchen to test that theory out, but I blew it. Life is regret.
9. You’re going to love the Naked Chicken Chalupa
@grubgrade Naked Crispy Chicken Chalupa in test markets for Taco Bell pic.twitter.com/UxcdrZZWGT
— Gianpy Belaunde (@plooneytunes) April 24, 2016
This Week in Taco Bell brought readers word of the Naked Chicken Chalupa a couple of months ago, but I finally got to eat one on Wednesday. It’s the attention-grabbing type of Taco Bell item that seems certain to create internet buzz upon its nationwide rollout sometime next year, but it also happens to be extremely good. It’s fried chicken shaped into a taco, which feels like a can’t-miss concept, and the chicken is crispy and juicy and delightfully seasoned. I tried to see if I could use the Naked Chicken Chalupa shell in the test kitchen to give it the Cheesy G treatment — i.e. to stuff another taco inside there — but the Naked Chicken Chalupa I sampled turned out to be the only one ready to be served at Taco Bell headquarters at that time.
Someone’s definitely going to stuff a taco inside it at some point, though, and it’s going to be spectacular.
This Week in Taco Bell would like to send a heartfelt thank you to everyone at Taco Bell headquarters for the warm welcome and royal treatment this week. Though, as I explained both here and there, the visit will not color the content of the ruthless Taco Bell journalism I aim to provide, it went a long way toward informing my understanding of the Taco Bell business and all the intricate systems necessary to provide us delicious Mexican-inspired American fast food on the regular. Also, I had a heck of a lot of fun, and I came away with some new business cards I’m totally going to use in any situations that require I distribute business cards:
(USA TODAY Sports)
Good show, Taco Bell. Good show.
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