Taco Bell’s new Taco Bell Cantina restaurants are not following the fast food crowd.
They’re serving alcohol, they have murals by local painters gussying up their walls, they have no drive-through window, and franchisees are setting prices and choosing menu items. They’re offering open kitchens and plating foods in a more traditional way rather than wrapping them in paper. They’re serving the same food, but they’re cooking in full view, not behind a wall. One Cantina offers frozen cocktails while another will serve beer and wine.
“We want to make each restaurant experience unique and memorable,” a spokesperson is quoted as saying in news reports.
The essence of the franchise model is that each restaurant is not unique and memorable, but familiar and predictable.
So Taco Bell is trying their new concept in just two stores: Chicago and San Fransisco. They’re trying to woo urban millennials, who are more likely to eat at the restaurant than to carry the food out. They’re also trying to cope with costly urban real estate, which makes it hard to provide a drive-through window and a parking lot. It’s hoped that the new concept will increase the typical Taco Bell order, which averages about $7.00, by adding alcoholic drinks to the ticket.
In fact, adding a Cantina Punch or a Cantina Margerita to a typical Taco Bell order will nearly double it. The Cantinas will also offer appetizer items like flautas and mini quesadillas for customers who choose to focus on the drinks. Wine is being bought in innovative one-serving packages people can drink from.
The Cantina locations will use mobile ordering apps and digital menu boards to meet the expectations of the younger clientele. Commenters are also pointing out the similarity of the Cantina concept to Chipotle, a restaurant chain with a hipper reputation which is more successful among young urban professionals — and which also serves alcohol at some locations.
Neighbors made some protests about serving liquor in a venue that appeals to kids, but the new Cantinas are going out of their way to be responsive to those concerns, limiting the hours during which they serve alcohol and hiring extra security for the weekends. These proof-of-concept stores are working hard to show that thinking outside the box is a good plan in this case.
Taco Bell has been a financial high point for parent company Yum! Foods, so it makes sense to expand the brand. And Yum! might be big enough to be able to handle giving franchisees more flexibility without ending up with a watered-down brand. But there’s a reason for the similarity of one franchise to another.
Will consumers understand the Cantina concept, or will they be disappointed by old school Taco Bell locations? Will sales of alcohol cause the kinds of problems that brought worried citizens into town meetings in Chicago neighborhoods? Are police right in objecting to the liquor licenses the Cantinas have requested?
Only time will tell. But it’s good to see established franchises pushing the envelope in an effort to keep their franchises relevant to new consumers.
