A new double-drive-thru Taco Bell near Las Vegas, with one lane devoted exclusively to digital orders, is billed as the company’s first in Nevada and second in the West as the fast-food chain boosts tech-enabled service that increasingly ditches dining rooms.
The small-format location opened July 18 at 2224 E. Craig Road in North Las Vegas and follows earlier openings of Irvine, California-based Taco Bell’s concept known as Go Mobile in 12 other cities, including Rochester, New York; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Provo, Utah, with more planned in coming months.
Representatives of Sonoma, California-based franchisee Diversified Restaurant Group, which recently opened a regional headquarters in Las Vegas, said the location is the first Taco Bell Go Mobile in Nevada and still among just a handful of Taco Bells nationwide to have the two-drive-thru format, with one fully dedicated to delivery drivers and customers who have placed mobile orders in advance.
Taco Bell’s real estate configurations could in turn have a big influence on the industry as a whole. Owned by Louisville, Kentucky-based Yum Brands, Taco Bell has more than 7,000 U.S. locations and is the nation’s fourth-largest dining chain based on 2021 revenue of more than $12.6 billion, according to industry news site Restaurant Business and consulting firm Technomic.
The new “micro” concept, unveiled by Taco Bell in 2020, includes locations that span around 1,300 square feet, about half the size of a traditional Taco Bell. There is no dining room, though customers can order inside on a kiosk and take their food to a covered patio, according to a statement from the Las Vegas franchisee.
“The new design makes it an easy and convenient experience for customers who’ve ordered ahead online,” Diversifed President SG Ellison said in a statement. The company, which operates more than 300 Taco Bell and Arby’s restaurants in five states, has more of the new-format restaurants in development but did not specify numbers or locations.
The concept is similar to those rolled out during the pandemic by other restaurant chains, most notably Taco Bell rival Chipotle Mexican Grill’s “Chipotlanes” that are increasingly configured into that company’s new locations to accommodate the rise in digital ordering. Smaller formats also allow chains to put restaurants in more locations, while trimming labor, maintenance and other costs associated with operating dining rooms.
Last month, another Taco Bell franchisee opened the company’s first restaurant under a concept known as Taco Bell Defy in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. That format has no dining room but four drive-thrus, with three devoted solely to online orders, along with a high-tech lift system that delivers food from a second-floor kitchen to the drive-thru below.
Taco Bell announced in 2020 that the company and its franchisees plan to open at least 30 locations of the double-drive-thru Go Mobile format. The Taco Bell Defy format, which the company also plans to expand but which remains in testing, requires a slightly larger footprint than Taco Bell Go Mobile, at around 3,000 square feet.
“What we learn from the test of this new Defy concept may help shape future Taco Bell restaurants,” Mike Grams, Taco Bell’s president and global chief operating officer, said in an August 2021 statement when the concept was first announced.
Taco Bell has also been experimenting in New York City and other urban hubs with a small-format store that has walk-in pickup service and in-store kiosks for digital orders but little or no on-site seating. That format is expected to be used in more locations where drive-thru setups are not feasible.