The fast food chain Taco Bell opened a new storefront on Summer Street in Downtown Crossing Friday. This is Taco Bell’s second location in Boston and the first such location in Downtown Boston.
Before the most recent location opened, residents of Downtown Boston had to either travel across the river to the next closest Taco Bell restaurant in Cambridge or go to West Roxbury, one of Boston’s southernmost neighborhoods.
The restaurant is open every day from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m. and is surrounded by other restaurants, retail stores and the financial district of Downtown Boston. To get to the new restaurant via public transportation from Boston University, take the Green Line inbound, then exit at Park Street Station and walk one-third of a mile southeast down Summer Street.
Jim Lyman, the Northeast regional manager of Taco Bell, said that the new Taco Bell opened as soon as possible after the remodel of the space. Before Taco Bell moved into its Downtown Crossing location, the property had been previously occupied by a Subway restaurant.
Lyman stated business has been steady, the crowd is hard to miss and his team and he are glad to be at the new location just down the street from Boston Common.
As for why Taco Bell decided to open this new location in Downtown Boston, Lyman said his team wanted to make sure they were able to serve “everybody who likes tacos and burritos.”
Downtown Crossing Taco Bell customer Malcolm Carter, 21, of Dorchester, said he liked the appearance of the new location and saw a large number of people waiting to eat at the store a few days after it opened.\
“They’re basically brand new, and you know, it’s kinda nice,” Carter said. “It’s a large crowd of people, though, first time I’ve seen that.”
Carter compared the crowd waiting to enter Taco Bell with the rush of customers wanting to buy Popeyes’s new chicken sandwich before it sold out.
“I’ve seen it before with the Popeye’s chicken sandwich, when it first came out,” Carter said. “I remember it being big.”
Some residents said they appreciated that the new location was so much closer to where they lived and worked.
Ana Garcia, 20, of Dorchester said that she planned to visit the restaurant more often, as the new location is in close proximity to where she works.
Helena Martinez, 56 of Downtown Boston, said she was also in favor of the new Taco Bell.
“[The new location is] very convenient, I like it,” Martinez said. “The next one is in Cambridge Mall. It’s a little too far.”
Martinez also stated she would not go to Taco Bell regularly, but only if she wanted “something different.”
However, Boston University student Felipe Miyake, a freshman in CAS, complained that the new location was still too far from campus for him to regularly visit.
“20 minutes [on the train], not really,” Miykake said. “I don’t go there a lot.”
CAS freshman Alexander Smith had a different reason for not wanting to make the trip to Taco Bell.
“I need to save money,” Smith said. However, when asked where he usually gets his fast food, he said, “Probably Taco bell.”
Emerson College student Zachary Honer, 20, said he was thrilled that the new location opened only 10 minutes away from his campus.
“I love it, it’s right by school, I go to Emerson,” Honer said. “I’ve always loved Taco Bell and this is the first one that’s sort of in the area … Thank you, Taco Bell, for taking a chance.”
Not the first downtown one was in Layfette Mall in Downtown about 20 years ago
You realize, of course, that this is not Mexican food? Good.