Watch The Very First Taco Bell Restaurant Being Driven On The Back Of A Truck
The food fast company's very first restaurant was transported from its original location in Downey, Calif. to the company's current headquarters in Irvine on Friday.
Last month, the taco chain announced it would be saving its first restaurant –nick named Numero Uno –from demolition and moving the 53-year old building to be preserved. On Friday, a team of movers lifted the building from its cement foundation and moved it via truck 45-miles southeast.
The journey was captured by several onlookers who saw the building being carted down the highway, escorted by a team of six police cars.
The restaurant was opened in 1962 by founder Glen Bell as a walk-up taco stand with live music and fire pits. It closed in 1986, and other restaurants took over the space until it was emptied last year. Taco Bell is now owned by fast food operator Yum Brands Inc., which is based in Louisville, Kentucky.
"This is arguably the most important restaurant in our company's history," Taco Bell CEO Brian Niccol said in a statement.
The Orange County Register reported that the trip from Downey to Irvine was estimated to take around five hours. But the police-escorted structure, which is about 400-square feet, completed the trip in just over three hours, arriving at Taco Bell headquarters at 1:30 a.m. local time on Friday night.
It will stay in storage at the chain's headquarters until the company figures out what to do with it. Taco Bell says it will take suggestions from customers.
"We had to step in," said Niccol. "We owe that to our fans, we owe that to Glen Bell." The Taco Bell founder died in 2010.
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This article was originally published on November 23, 2015