(Twitter / @PrincessSheena2, @Authoroux)

A new Taco Bell restaurant opening today in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota has shocked and excited fans of the fast-food brand and observers of modern culture. The Taco Bell “Defy” has two floors, four drive-thru lanes and no indoor dining.

Beloved menu items like the Baja Blast or the recently returned Mexican pizza are prepared upstairs and then sent down to the drive-thru in a series of tubes. In short, a customer coming for tacos will never need to lay eyes on another human being.

Taco Bell Defy’s arrival was largely met with great excitement on Twitter, and many deemed it “architecturally significant.”

Despite the praise, there were also those who were less enthused about the Taco Bell Defy and compared its look to a bank.

As is always the case when a fascinating new location drops, some asked the eternal question, “What if we kissed?”

The new location, which Taco Bell describes as “a culmination of years of success” and “the future,” is intended to keep up with changing consumer habits following the coronavirus pandemic. During COVID lockdowns, Taco Bell saw drive-thru users spike, and many customers have continued to avoid indoor dining.

The brand is heavily promoting the Defy restaurant, and it’s possible the Minnesota location won’t be the last one. Taco Bell might also not be the last restaurant to embrace semi-automation and large tubes for food delivery in drive-thrus.


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Comments 3 total

KoimanZX

Great. More car-centric infrastructure, because screw those of us without cars. The impersonal system deprives people of that bit of human connection and devalues the employees by hiding them away. The fact that my state allowed this just disappoints me.

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Autumn Able

The whole "no dine-in" kinda rubs me the wrong way too. Checkers is like that, but at least they have a front window to walk to and order from, plus actual outdoor tables and chairs so you can still eat somewhere that isn't in your car, at work, or at home.

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