The first Taco Bell opened in Downey, California, in 1962.
Founder Glen Bell opened the restaurant on July 6, 1962, at 7112 Firestone Boulevard. The small building, later nicknamed “Taco Bell Numero Uno,” was roughly the size of a two-car garage and served tacos, burritos, tostadas, Chiliburgers, and frijoles. Each item originally cost 19 cents.
Downey is sometimes confused with nearby Long Beach, because the second Taco Bell opened there on August 7, 1962, and remains the oldest continuously operating location. The original Downey restaurant closed in 1986, but its building was saved from demolition in 2015 and moved to Taco Bell’s corporate campus in Irvine. Bell’s earlier restaurant experiments also began elsewhere in Southern California, including a hot-dog stand in San Bernardino, but Downey was the birthplace of the Taco Bell chain itself.