We’re celebrating our latest Taco Bell opening in Sparta, MI. Opening its doors in late February, this newest location marks Border Foods’ 64th in Michigan!
Along with a ribbon cutting, we ran a special opening day promotion – the first 50 guests received an exclusive Border Foods golden ticket, valid for four free tacos per week for a year!
Looking for something to do? We’re going to need help fulfilling these orders. Apply now to become a taco warrior. Positions range from cashiers and cooks to Shift Leads and management.
More history in the making! As we celebrate Border Foods’ 30-year anniversary, we transformed our company rally into a full week of high energy festivities and recognition – a first!
Our company rally has always been about people, progress and a whole lot of pride.
Rally Week 2026 comprised daily sessions with messages from leadership, business and operations updates, and the doling out of countless awards.
Highlights included several fun reveals:
The debut of our founders’ story video, a firsthand account featuring on-camera interviews with Co-founders and brothers Jeff and Lee Engler;
The rewarding part is the amount of lives that we’ve touched.
-Jeff Engler, Co-founder
In addition, perhaps the most memorable session was an intimate conversation with two generations of family business leaders – Jeff, Lee and Jeff’s son Aaron Engler (current CEO and President) – moderated by Chief Ops Officer Vince Bosscher. Here, we witnessed their passion for the business and its people, and on-camera dynamics. Key topics included:
The origin of Border Foods’ name (credit given to Lee’s wife Patti whose “south of the border” idea became the launching pad);
Aaron’s insights about growing up in the business with hands-on experience from the many roles he’s had since age 15;
Reflection on the late Carol Williams’ lasting impact on company culture; and
Lee and Jeff’s continued awe of this success story, and how they’ve impacted the livelihood of thousands of people.
All in all, it was another fantastic show of how our company leadership rallies behind our incredible people!
2026 is going to be a great year because we keep making things better.
When you join the Border Foods family, your career can grow by leaps and bounds! Case in point? Taco Bell’s theLeap Program, a leadership development initiative for high potential Restaurant General Managers (RGMs) and Area Coaches (ACs).
Running six months in duration, theLeap consists of monthly training conducted online with four in-person sessions at the Taco Bell Corporate Office in Irvine, CA. The course focuses on skills like authentic leadership, bold thinking and system management that can have real impact on your teams. We were proud to send three of our brightest minds to participate and recently caught up with them to learn more about their experiences!
Border Foods’ Leap Leaders
Brenda White says she made it known to our leadership team that she’d love to be considered for this opportunity, and, being newly promoted to Area Coach, she was an obvious choice!
Brenda’s goal was to learn how to handle shifting priorities in her new AC role.
“There’s always so much room to grow and understand yourself as a leader,” Brenda shares.
She particularly enjoyed the in person classes, describing them as fun, interactive and busy! She has her sights set on being named an AC of the Year someday, and understands the tools she received from this training will bring her one step closer to achieving her goal.
[theLeap program] has given me a new perspective on my coaching style and how I can adapt to others based on their needs.
– Brenda White, Area Coach
Through it all, Brenda is most appreciative of her Border Foods family. “They truly are my world and I thank all of my peers and supporters for being there for me when I need them,” she says.
Manasseh Williams is another friendly, familiar face around here! “I love the people-side of the job,” Manasseh shares. “I enjoy building relationships, supporting others and being part of a team that truly feels like family.”
Manasseh’s goal as an AC is to make an impact, and theLeap program gave him plenty of learnings to fortify this selfless mission. He says he looks back on theLeap’s practice modules, planning tools and leadership strategies whenever he needs guidance.
theLEAP program gave me more confidence and clarity in my leadership style,
– Manasseh Williams, Area Coach
Manasseh shares what it was like to hear from AC peers during the in-person sessions. They called the exercise “sharing the room” and Manasseh says it made the experience meaningful.
“It helped me understand how to lead in my own way while still adapting to what others need,” he says.
With the insights taken from the course, Manasseh says he feels more comfortable, intentional and effective as a leader. He highly recommends the program!
“No matter how long someone has been in the Area Coach role, it’s a great refresher and a strong kick start,” he says.
Lindsay Wurhman was training to be an AC when our Chief People Officer Sharla Hennek reached out to her about theLEAP opportunity.
“I was open to learn[ing] anything and everything as I was not even an Area Coach yet, and I wanted to get as much knowledge as I could from this class,” Lindsay says.
The biggest takeaway for her was understanding how to be confident, and how to productively coach and set up strategies for each restaurant in her care. Lindsay’s aim is to make each of her locations the best version of themselves, and she views their performance as a direct reflection of her.
“The experience was really interactive, gave you tons of tools to use and made a great network of peers to be able to reach out to,” Lindsay shares.So if you want to become part of a team that sets you up to be the best version of yourself, consider joining us!
Back by popular demand, it’s a recap of this year’s most read blog posts about company milestones (100 stores in Minnesota! 250 Taco Bells in the U.S.!), celebrated award winners and other 2025 highlights. We can’t help it, there’s so much to taco ‘bout!
Coming Soon: Our 100th Minnesota Taco Bell
This was an announcement to remember! We planned for the unveiling of Minnesota’s 100th Taco Bell in the state. Located in Ramsey, this milestone gave us good reason to throw a party!
Our heartwarming callout to the latest Heart of Border Foods honorees: Richelle Johnson, Tony Christiansen and Brenda Foley. These three make us proud that they call Border Foods their home away from home.
This is THE list to be on around here! And it’s a best read blog post for a reason! Everyone wants to know who makes Best of the Best status and earns a trip to Mexico!
Here we do a happy spin around this year’s Circle of Excellence winners, a small but mighty group of dedicated Area Coaches whose commitment and drive are nothing short of impressive. Congratulations to Connie Horan, Aaron Mechtel-Kilborn, Lori Sumner and LouAnn Hansen.
Beloved Region Coach Pam Hare readies for retirement! We celebrate her 44-year-long career with the Taco Bell brand and the many things we’ll remember her for at Border Foods.
World, meet Kitchen X, Taco Bell’s latest restaurant design – more open, sleek and modern. It’s nacho average layout! Here we announce the first two of our restaurants to be updated with the new look and layout!
It’s not surprising that an ultra run paired with Taco Bell pitstops would attract attention! Seven of our Taco Bells landed on the route for the inaugural Twin Cities Taco Bell 50K this summer. Here’s the scoop.
David Ziemer Celebrates 30 Years with Border Foods
We journey through time with IT Operations Manager David Ziemer. His story starts like many with his first job in a Taco Bell restaurant but it spans three decades and lands him squarely in the middle of security, software and other high-tech systems.
There’s a new trophy in QSR town, and it’s admission into Taco Bell Corporate’s just-launched Founders’ Club! To become a member of this exclusive group, Taco Bell restaurants must achieve 62 consecutive days of positive, year-over-year transaction growth.
At first glance, 62 consecutive days might seem like a bit of a random number. However, it’s actually a reference to 1962, the year that Taco Bell was founded. “These restaurants are making history, just like the brand did — so “62” is an homage to that,” Kasey Baeza, Border’s Director of Operations, says.
We’re excited to share that since it was first rolled out just a few months ago, 27 of Border Foods’ Taco Bells have officially achieved Founders’ Club status!
[This achievement] shows that the team is engaged and invested in taking care of each other so they can then take care of customers.
Kasey Baeza, Border Foods Director of Operations
ROOKIE-FRIENDLY RECOGNITION
The parameters of the Founders’ Club make it a really accessible goal for newer restaurants, Kasey says. For example, if a restaurant experienced significant change last year — like new ownership or a big construction project — then positive growth this year would be pretty feasible. In fact, many of the 27 Border restaurants that recently joined the club are either recent Border acquisitions or new builds.
EYES ON THE PRIZE
One of the main operation pillars presented at Border’s rally this year was transaction growth — so the fact that 27 of our restaurants have achieved exactly that is amazing! Rather than focusing on gaining new customers, Kasey shares that the Operations team challenged our restaurants to boost our incremental transactions instead.
“You can’t build a business on new customers. You have to build a business on loyal customers who come back to you,” Kasey says, adding that the team focused on transaction speed specifically to earn trust and, hopefully, gain new repeat customers!
MORE THAN BRAGGING RIGHTS
So, what’s the benefit of being in the Founders’ Club (besides bragging rights!)? As the team hits specific benchmarks on their way to the ultimate 62, they’re invited to enter a Bell Box raffle. Bell Boxes are packages from Taco Bell Corporate filled with unique Taco Bell swag. Some of our team members have already won Bell Boxes for their achievements!
We want to congratulate all 27 restaurants on this incredible honor. We can’t wait to see what they do next!
Every Taco Bell that’s been built since 2019 has been constructed in Taco Bell Corporate’s “Endeavor” design style. While Endeavor proved to be more modern than the mission-style buildings associated with the brand’s storied past, it’s high time for an upgrade.
That’s where Taco Bell Corporate’s latest design style, Kitchen X, comes in.
OPEN. MODERN. SLEEK.
Kitchen X’s look is in stark contrast to the traditional fast-food restaurant layouts of the past. Usually, dining rooms are in the front and kitchens are in the back, tucked away from guest view.
In Kitchen X layouts, these components will be completely rearranged. Upon entering one of these new Taco Bells, guests will find a dining room that runs the full length of the building. Additionally, thanks to more windows, the kitchen space of Kitchen X Taco Bells will be more open and visible to guests, both in the restaurant and drive-through. The entire experience will feel much more like fast-casual dining, and hopefully encourage customers to dine in more often!
Kitchen X will also include 24-hour lobby access and a streamlined layout for order pick-up. Zach Zelickson, our Vice President of Development, feels strongly that the new, bold style will help spearhead the next generation of fast food restaurant builds.
Kitchen X is a cleaner, more modern approach to fast-food restaurant design.
Zach Zelickson, VP of Development at Border Foods
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER
As our VP of Development, Zach is responsible for sourcing and purchasing the locations where Border Foods restaurants are built. He works with each municipality, city or town to get the necessary building approvals and permits.
Border’s Kitchen X locations — Rochester and Lakeville, MN — are both already home to Taco Bells, however, they were built according to earlier design styles. Given that the new, additional locations will now be built in the Kitchen X style, Zach will have to start the whole approval process over. He’ll work closely alongside key stakeholders from each town and Taco Bell Corporate to find design workarounds and material replacements whenever necessary. It’s quite the song and dance, but we’re confident he’ll find a way to make everyone happy!
COMING SOON
The Rochester and Lakeville restaurants are our first foray into the Kitchen X style. The new design isn’t approved nationally yet, but given our close great relationship with Taco Bell Corporate, they reached out to us to be the new style’s first “test.”
We couldn’t be more honored to be chosen, and we’re so excited to deliver Taco Bell’s very best to guests in 2026!
On Nov. 19,we welcomed business and community partners, local leaders and employees for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at our newest Taco Bell location in Ramsey, Minn. The opening of the restaurant, located at 14751 Armstrong Blvd. NW, marks a major milestone for Border as our 100th Taco Bell location in Minnesota.
“From our first Minnesota Taco Bell in 1996 to opening our 100th restaurant, our team has grown this business one Taco Bell and one community at a time,“ said Aaron Engler, President and CEO of Border Foods. “This new Ramsey restaurant marks a big milestone for us as our 100th Taco Bell in Minnesota and our 254th in the Upper Midwest. It’s a testament to our dedicated team members and the loyal guests who continue to support us. We look forward to serving the Ramsey community with the same great food and hospitality that have fueled our growth for nearly three decades.”
Wednesday’s grand opening event featured brief remarks, a ribbon-cutting ceremony with Border Foods leaders and community partners, and live music performances from the PACT Charter School pep band. The first 100 customers received an exclusive Border Foods golden ticket, good for up to five free tacos per week for an entire year.We’re currently hiring at our new Taco Bell location, as well as several others across the state. Positions available at the Ramsey location include cashiers, cooks, shift leads and management. A complete list of job openings and an online application can be found here.
Recently, select Taco Bells in our Minnesota market have taken the lead on a very exciting (and seasonally appropriate) project for Taco Bell corporate! The brand’s new Diablo Crispy Chicken Nuggets have been added to the menu of a few of Border’s Taco Bell menus, a process that Corporate calls a Rapid Innovation Test (RIT).
The Diablo Crispy Chicken Nuggets feature bold flavors, a Taco Bell kick, and signature breading made with crunchy tortilla chips. It’s a totally Taco Bell-ified fried chicken experience!
BORDER’S GOT IT DOWN
This isn’t the first time that Taco Bell Corporate has tapped us to test out a new Taco Bell product. For years, we’ve been their go-to when it comes to giving our guests the latest and greatest in Live Más flavor. In fact, we were one of the first Taco Bell franchisees to begin serving potatoes – which has now become a key ingredient in many of the brand’s best-selling meals!
Ken Lund, a Director of Operations here at Border Foods, shares that there are a few reasons why Corporate continues to trust us with such an important responsibility. For one, our unique demographics and geography play a big role. But more than that, our teams are reliable, organized and efficient. Those qualities – plus our state-of-the-art technology – allow us to easily track how a product is doing and provide the test kitchen with the most accurate, actionable information.
Gay Demaree, another Border Foods Director of Operations, shares that a large part of hosting product tests is all the preparation that has to happen beforehand. Both Ken and Gay are responsible for making sure that our restaurants and teams can take on the challenge of making and serving the new product – in addition to everything else they’re doing. Each team member needs to be specially trained on how to prepare the new menu item and briefed on the recipe’s key qualities – just in case Taco Bell guests have any chicken-related questions!
Consumers like to have something new and different – Ithink that’s been part of Taco Bell’s success.
– Ken Lund, Director of Operations
While the operational tasks may seem like they’re a behind-the-scenes part of this whole process, they’re actually just as important as the consumer experience to Corporate. Thanks to our firsthand experience with the new menu item, we’re able to go back to the test kitchen team and give them vital feedback about the food’s operational requirements. If a product is too time consuming or confusing to make, it might be impossible to scale nationally.
Gay and Ken also share that after every market test, Corporate hosts a management round table. This gives both Assistant General Managers (AGMs) and Restaurant General Managers (RGMs) of participating restaurants the opportunity to provide feedback, too.
A TRUE TEAM EFFORT
Taco Bell Corporate also puts boots on the ground during market tests. Members of the brand’s test kitchen will visit Minnesota to try the Diablo Crispy Chicken Nuggets in-store themselves. While on site, they’ll also ask team members and guests for real-time taste reactions.
If, after all of that, these tasty chicken nuggets prove to be a success, it’s only just the beginning. The test kitchen team will go back to the drawing board to figure out the supply chain, launch timing, and a nationwide marketing plan. It’s safe to say that there’s a lot that goes into it!
WHAT GUESTS ARE ALREADY SAYING
Participating Taco Bells are already getting great feedback about the Diablo Crispy Chicken Nuggets. “My lips are tingly, but it’s a good burn!” said one guest, while another added: “This feels like Taco Bell is finally competing in the chicken nugget game, and they’re doing it right!”
Want to try the Diablo Crispy Chicken Nuggets for yourself? Visit one of our participating locations in Minnesota today:
This just in: Hudsonville, MI’s first Taco Bell is now open. This project is especially unique, because the new Taco Bell wasn’t built from the ground up. The building was formerly home to a Taco John’s that closed last year, so our team worked hard to Taco Bell-ify the space before its big reveal.
Today, the location looks slightly different from our others, but Hudsonville residents have no need to worry: we’re still serving up the same world-class food that the Taco Bell brand is known for.
Hudsonville is a growing community, and the city has been investing in their surrounding businesses. We get to be a part of that growth.
Vince Bosscher, Chief Operations Officer
Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
In addition to completing some necessary upgrades, over the last few months, we’ve dedicated time to hiring and training the crew who is now serving the Hudsonville community. Over 30 team members spent time learning the ins and outs of the business at our surrounding Taco Bell locations. It’s hard work, but it’s been worth it — we wanted to give Hudsonville nothing but the best from day one!
”I’m most excited for the new jobs and careers we create,” Vince Bosscher, Border Foods Chief Operations Officer shares. “I started as a team member with Taco Bell 27 years ago when one was built near me.”
From team member to COO — now that’s a career worth aspiring to!
The Big Reveal
To celebrate the occasion, Hudsonville offered a special opening day promotion: the first 100 customers who visited the restaurant on Tuesday, October 7, received an exclusive Border Foods Golden Ticket. The Golden Ticket grants them two free tacos per week for an entire year!
We celebrated our “sweet 16” in Sioux Falls, SD as we opened our 16th Taco Bell in the state and 252nd restaurant in the Upper Midwest! Our newest location at 8340 W. 41st Street. opened August 26.
“In 2015, we acquired our first Taco Bell restaurant in Sioux Falls,” says Border Foods President and CEO Aaron Engler. “Now, 10 years later, we’re beyond excited to be opening and can’t wait to welcome local taco fans with the bold flavors and fast, friendly service they’ve come to love.”
To celebrate the new Sioux Falls location opening, the first 50 guess received a free No. 1
combo meal. Did we mention we’re hiring?
Order a meal and get a job when you apply to join our team! Positions available at the Sioux Falls location range from cashiers and cooks to Shift Leads and restaurant management. As a family-owned franchisee with a people-first culture, we pride ourselves on setting team members up for long-term career success. Good food, great jobs — can’t lose!
