Taco Bell is preparing to open its next Las Vegas Valley location. According to a City of Las Vegas permit, the new Taco Bell is expected to open in the Rancho Sereno neighborhood of West Sahara at 3301 W Sahara Ave.
The address sits in the Sahara Financial Center corridor on the corner of West Sahara Avenue and Rye Street. The free-standing 1-story commercial building features a drive-thru and formerly housed a standalone Starbucks location.
At the helm of the opening is SG Ellison of Silver State Bell LLC, both of whom were listed on the permit. What Now Las Vegas reached out to Ellison to find out more about the upcoming opening, but we did not hear back by the time of this publication. Silver State Bell is a large Taco Bell franchisee based in Las Vegas and Reno. The company operates under the Diversified Restaurant Group (DRG).
“Together, we’re building something extraordinary and unexpected,” Ellison, who is listed as the CEO and Franchisee of DRG, said on the company’s website.
Glen Bell founded Taco Bell in Downey, California, on March 21, 1962, after learning hard-shell taco techniques from the nearby Mitla Cafe in San Bernardino. In 1948, Bell opened Bell’s Drive-In (later Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs) in San Bernardino. He noticed long lines at Mitla Cafe across the street, which is famous for its hard-shell tacos. He learned the recipe style from head chef Gloria Hoyle and started selling pre-fried crunchy tacos, opening his first taco-focused stand, Taco Tia, in San Bernardino, where tacos cost 19 cents.
By 1964, the brand began to franchise, and in 1970, the company went public with 325 restaurants. The brand continued to boom, introducing its value menu in 1990 and a host of iconic eats and drinks through the early 2000s, including the Mountain Dew Baja Blast, Crunchwrap Supreme, and Doritos Locos Tacos.
There are now about 8,268 to 8,271 Taco Bell locations in the United States and 8,200 to 15,000 worldwide. Nevada has about 99 of those locations, with 46 serving the Las Vegas Valley.
Taco Bell is anticipated to open in West Sahara at 3301 W Sahara Ave later this year or early next year.
(This is a developing story. As more information is made available, we will update this article. Stay tuned!)
