SAVE THE TACO. SAVE THE WORLD
Reuters reports that Taco Bell, feeling the heat from Chipotle, is planning to upscale and healthyize its menu:
Yum Brands Inc’s (YUM.N) Taco Bell will begin testing an expanded, more upmarket menu that focuses on fresh ingredients — think Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG.N) on a budget — on January 26 in Louisville, Kentucky, and Bakersfield, California.
If it is a hit, the chain’s so-called Cantina Bell menu could be offered in Taco Bell’s U.S. restaurants by the end of the year.
the real opportunity for Taco Bell and many other restaurants is in serving “fresh” food to a growing number of diners who are willing to pay a bit more for it.
The roughly 5,600-unit chain’s Cantina Bell test menu was created by Miami chef Lorena Garcia, who appeared alongside Chipotle founder and co-Chief Executive Steve Ells on the reality television show “America’s Next Great Restaurant.”
It includes $5 tacos, burritos and bowls. Those items also are staples at Chipotle, where they cost around $8.
The Taco Bell Crunchy Shell Taco is one of America’s great historic legacies. Being a California teenager would have been nearly unthinkable without the Taco Bell Crunchy Shell Taco. For the chain to follow Chipotle down this mindless stampede to health and quality is to forsake its birthright, and to squander the trust millions of Americans have placed in the current guardians of the Taco Bell legacy.
Please blackout your website for the next two to three weeks to protest this desecration of our cultural heritage. People before profits! And people before boring healthy food!
