Taco Bell Doubles Down on Vegas

New Cantina restaurant expected to have a distinctly local experience on the Las Vegas Strip.

July 14, 2016

IRVINE, Calif. – Taco Bell is making a run for Las Vegas, announcing that the QSR is planning to open a flagship Taco Bell Cantina restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip.

The 24-hour Taco Bell Cantina restaurant will have a Vegas-like design throughout the décor, its open kitchen layout, community seating and shareable menu items. Taco Bell says the Cantina will offer a dining atmosphere fit for the lifestyle of the Vegas Strip.

“Expansion into urban markets is a key focus for us both this year and over the course of the next several years,” said Brian Niccol, CEO of the Taco Bell Corp. “When we talked about where to establish a flagship store, it didn’t take long to realize that having a presence in the heart of Vegas would undoubtedly create a unique, distinctive and fun destination and experience for Taco Bell fans.”

The new Taco Bell Cantina will be centrally-located on the Las Vegas Strip on Harmon Corner, directly across from CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan Hotel. The two-story restaurant will feature an outdoor patio for al fresco dining. Taco Bell first introduced the Cantina restaurant concept in 2015 with two store openings. In that same year, Taco Bell opened more than 275 new restaurants, remodeled approximately 600 more, and is currently on pace to exceed both of those numbers in 2016. Of the 2,000 restaurants planned to be built by 2022, 200 will be urban locations, a typically underrepresented geographic area for the brand.

Atlanta is currently being explored for the next urban development, while numerous cities across the United States are also under consideration for future locations. These include major metropolitan areas from New York, Boston and Ohio to smaller cities with revitalizing downtown areas like Berkeley, Calif., and Austin, Texas.

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