Taco Bell plans fancy restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip with booze

With Joël Robuchon at the MGM, Alain Ducasse’s Rivea at the Delano and Daniel Boulud’s DB Brasserie at the Venetian, Las Vegas is considered one of the best places to eat in the country. This fall, Taco Bell is hoping you’ll add its name to the city’s long list of top dining destinations.

The Irvine-based Mexican fast food chain is opening a new flagship restaurant on the Las Vegas Strip, across from the Cosmopolitan hotel. It’s a Taco Bell, but it’s going to be a fancy one. It’s called Taco Bell Cantina, and it will be the third Cantina location to open since last fall (there’s one in Chicago and one in San Francisco).

The restaurant will serve the full Taco Bell menu, plus exclusive Cantina items meant to be shared: chili cheese nachos, rolled taco platter, mini quesadilla nachos, “homestyle” nachos and chicken tenders. Dishes ranges in price from $3 to $5.

And, if you stop in for a Quesarito (burrito wrapped in a quesadilla), or a Doritos Locos Taco, you’ll be able to have it with an alcoholic drink in the form of a “twisted freeze” (a slushie-type fruit-flavored beverage that includes alcohol), wine or beer. Taco Bell plans to install an entire wall of freezes in eight flavors.

And during certain hours you can pair your drink with a “tapas-style” dish exclusive to the Cantina restaurants. Think nachos or a rolled taco.

The two-story restaurant will have a patio that offers a view of the Strip and an open kitchen, so you can see the cooks making your tacos and burritos in real time. And the restaurant will be open 24 hours a day, so Quesaritos at 4 a.m. post-nightclub are a definite possibility.

Taco Bell is currently looking into other locations for its fancy Taco Bell Cantinas, including Atlanta, New York City, Boston and Berkeley.

Living outside the box, with sour cream. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Jenn_Harris_

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