A new Taco Bell is opening in Chicago and it plans on serving up frothing cold brews along with its tacos and burritos, and that has neighbors and city leaders worried about underage drinking.
That’s why this Taco Bell will have a bouncer working 9 p.m. to midnight Thursday through Saturday night
The Wicker Park Taco Bell in Chicago will be the U.S. first restaurant in the fast food chain to serve alcohol including beer, wine, and mixed drink freezes in 16-ounce cups.
The 16-ounce cups for mixed drinks with one shot of rum, vodka, or tequila will look decidedly different from those with soda or other nonalcoholic drinks.
The Hottest Club in Chicago Is This Boozy Taco Bell http://t.co/BkRzKKTa1A pic.twitter.com/pbRKg9WTB5
— Esquire (@esquire) July 31, 2015
Even so, city leaders are worried underage drinkers will be able to hit up the restaurant for a cold brew to go with their tacos and that they’ll wander the city with open alcohol drink containers.
That’s after a community meeting in June when neighborhood residents expressed their concerns.
So Taco Bell relented and decided to hire a doorman security guard to make sure that doesn’t happen.
“I think they were very cooperative and we worked in tandem with the 1st ward office to come to an agreement.”
The restaurant will only be serving guests older than 21 with ID until 9 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
This is a unique situation, however.
Other neighborhood restaurants that serve alcohol, like Chipotle, don’t have security guards and neither do boozy Taco Bells in other countries like South Korea, Japan, and Spain.
This Taco Bell, however, caved to pressure from city leaders who were concerned about the restaurant unknowingly helping to spread underage drinking. There are 158 other Chicago area restaurants that serve alcohol and operate under more restrictive operating plans than others.
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— Dan Bigman (@Danbigman) July 31, 2015
Booze isn’t the only new thing on the menu at this boozy upscale Chicago Taco Bell, however.
The restaurant also plans on serving food in baskets to highlight their ingredients and offer appetizers that aren’t offered at other Taco Bell resaurants.
The restaurant plans to open in August with seating for 60 customers and another boozy Taco Bell is slated to open in San Francisco in September.
Yum!Brands, which owns Taco Bell, along with KFC and Pizza Hut, made an announcement earlier this year that its restaurants would only use deforestation-free palm oil by the end of 2017.
The company also joined forces with Christine Aguilera in 2014 and helped “Pass The Red Cup” to end world hunger.
[Photo by Elijah Nouvelage /Getty Images]
