Lafayette’s Iconic Mission-style Taco Bell Closes After Nearly 60 Years

LAMORINDA, CA — The Mission-style Taco Bell on Mount Diablo Boulevard in Lafayette is scheduled to close today, ending nearly six decades as a local landmark and fast-food fixture.

Estimated by the city to have opened in 1968, the restaurant at 3501 Mt. Diablo Blvd. has drawn nostalgia and mourning since the closure was announced in December, with residents calling it the end of an era for one of the few remaining original Taco Bell buildings still standing.

The first Taco Bell restaurant opened in 1962 in Downey, California, and two years later, the first franchise was sold, according to corporate records.

KRON4 spoke with a 70-year-old resident who recalled when the site was just a vacant lot. He said that while he was in elementary school, the Mission-style building went up and soon housed a Taco Bell. He remembered tacos costing just 25 cents then—and though prices rose over the years, the restaurant remains a community staple.

The Lafayette Historical Association noted online that the restaurant once had a real bell set above the front door. "It wasn’t flashy, but it had charm. It was the kind of thing that begged for trouble, and eventually, trouble showed up.”

John Kennett, one of the association's officers, told the story of how a group of Acalanes High School students decided that the bell would make a perfect senior prank. "Fueled by teenage bravado and probably too many bean burritos, they snuck out in the dead of night with a truck, some rope, and a half-baked plan," Kennett recounted.

They managed to loosen the bell, which was heavier than expected, and it crashed. Pranksters kept taking the bell, and the owners kept hoisting a new one until Taco Bell finally bricked up the niche just to keep it from happening again, Kennett said.

The franchise has not commented on the Lafayette closing. Taco Bell’s parent, YUM! Brands, reports that more customers are choosing delivery, curbside pickup, and mobile carryout over dining in. And corporate plans are focused on expanding abroad including France, Greece and South Africa and increasing profits in already existing international stores.

But Lafayette’s Taco Bell is not the last — 8,236 more operate in the United States.

However, the building that houses Lafayette's Taco Bell is one of the few original Mission-style Taco Bells still standing. YUM has been replacing them with boxy, plain buildings.

The next closest Taco Bell is in Walnut Crrek, 3.3 miles away, perhaps cold comfort for nostalgic residents in Lafayette who didn't go for the food.

"Not our favorite food, but we had to do it just for the sake of memories," a woman who paid her last visit to Lafayette's Taco Bell with her husband. "This is this one of two restaurants left in Lafayette since we were kids in the 70s. When they opened a taco was only $.19."