Our latest Taco Bell brings a fresh look, a new way to experience the brand and a major milestone to Rochester, MN! Border Foods recently celebrated the opening of our newest Taco Bell Kitchen X restaurant, marking our 101st Taco Bell location in Minnesota and second Kitchen X restaurant in the state!

This grand opening brought together Border Foods team members, local leaders and community members for a ribbon-cutting celebration. Leading the restaurant team is General Manager (GM) Christopher Hill, who’s helping bring the Kitchen X experience to life for Rochester guests and team members.

Rochester is an important community in Minnesota, and we’re excited to introduce a new kind of Taco Bell experience here.

– Aaron Engler, CEO & President

A New Kind of Taco Bell

Kitchen X is Taco Bell’s latest restaurant design, created to enhance the experience for both guests and team members.

The Rochester location features a full-length dining room, an open kitchen and 24-hour lobby access. The layout is designed to make ordering and dining more convenient across dine-in, drive-thru and digital ordering experiences.

The design also creates a more efficient environment for team members by shortening travel paths between workstations and improving visibility across the restaurant. 

“Kitchen X is designed around how guests want to order and enjoy Taco Bell today, while also creating a great environment for our team members,” says our CEO & President Aaron Engler.

Growing with the Rochester Community

Opening a new restaurant is also an opportunity to create new jobs and jumpstart careers! We’re hiring for several positions, ranging from cashiers and cooks to shift leads and management roles. 

Growth is about more than adding restaurants, it’s about creating opportunity for members of the community and continuing to find new ways to serve guests. 

Stop by and see us!

3880 Cascade Creek Rd. NW
Rochester, MN

Border Foods recently celebrated the grand opening of our newest Taco Bell restaurant in Box Elder, SD with a ribbon-cutting ceremony alongside local officials, community members and team members. The new restaurant marks Border Foods’ 17th Taco Bell location in South Dakota and another step in our continued growth across the Midwest!

We’re excited to become part of the Box Elder community and look forward to serving Taco Bell fans in the area.

– Aaron Engler, CEO & President

Landing in the Community

The restaurant is located just down the road from Ellsworth Air Force Base, giving us an opportunity to serve members of the Air Force community alongside Box Elder residents.

To make opening day even more exciting, the first 100 guests received a golden ticket good for free tacos for a year! The special promotion gave local Taco Bell fans an extra reason to be among the first through the doors and join in the celebration.

A Team Effort From Start to Finish

Opening a new restaurant takes a team, and for Region Coach Carlos Fuentes, the Box Elder grand opening was especially meaningful. Hired in March, Carlos celebrated his first grand opening with us just months later!

It takes a whole village to open a restaurant, so I think my favorite part about this is just the teamwork that’s been involved by everybody.

– Carlos Fuentes, Region Coach

Creating Opportunities in Box Elder

The new restaurant is also bringing new job opportunities to the Box Elder area! We’re hiring for positions, with openings ranging from cashiers and cooks to shift leaders and management roles.

Come grow your career with us!

685 Cimmaron Drive
Box Elder, SD

If you’re not first, you’re last. And when there are free tacos for a year on the line, you better believe people take that seriously! A group of eager fans camped out overnight and lined up outside to be the first – for concert tickets? Nope. For a big game? Not quite. For Taco Bell!

The excitement was real on August 10 as fans at Carver Commons waited to be among the first through the doors of Border Foods’ newest restaurant, Minnesota’s first-ever Taco Bell Kitchen X. Check out KSTP 5’s coverage and interview with Director of Operations Ken Lund!

As one of the fastest-growing communities in the Twin Cities metro area, Carver is the ideal place to introduce Kitchen X.

– Aaron Engler, President & CEO 

The first 200 guests at our grand opening had even more reason to hustle. Each received a “golden ticket” good for free tacos for one year, making it a can’t-miss event for Taco Bell enthusiasts.

Minnesota Milestone

Our Kitchen X grand opening was a major milestone for us – our first Kitchen X restaurant in Minnesota and our 101st Taco Bell location in the state!

The celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony with local officials, community members and Border Foods team members. 

Carver didn’t just welcome a new Taco Bell. It showed up ready to make history.

Designed Around a Better Experience

Kitchen X is more than a new look for Taco Bell. The concept was designed from the inside out to create a better experience for team members and guests.

Our Carver Kitchen X location features an open kitchen and 24-hour lobby access. Its redesigned layout shortens travel paths between workstations while improving visibility across the drive-thru, front counter and mobile order pickup areas.

The restaurant also features upgraded 15-inch kitchen display screens to give team members greater visibility and make food production more efficient.

“By rethinking the traditional restaurant layout and implementing a modern approach, we’ve created a workspace that enables our teams to operate more efficiently, communicate more effectively during busy periods and enjoy a better overall work environment,” says Border Foods’ Vice President of Development Zach Zelickson.

Kitchen X was designed with our team members in mind, which directly translates to a better experience for our customers.

– Zach Zelickson, Vice President of Development 

Guests camped out for the opening, now it’s time to dig in. Welcome to Kitchen X, Carver!

See it to believe it:

Taco Bell Kitchen X

1700 Market Avenue
Carver, MN

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.

Stop in today:

43 Applewood Dr. NW
Sparta, MI

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.

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!

When you’ve been in business for nearly 40 years, you get to celebrate a bunch of awesome milestones along the way. Today, we‘re thrilled to share that we’ve grown to 250 Taco Bells in 10 states!

No. 250 opened July 23 in Davenport, IA. Nicknamed “Kimmy” because of its location on Kimberly Road, those intimately involved in the Quad Cities market know this particular restaurant opening marks a company first. Border Foods entered the Quad Cities in 2019 with the purchase of 13 Taco Bells in the area, but this is the first time we’ve built and opened a brand new location there!

In speaking with Director of Operations Kasey Baeza, it becomes obvious that it all came down to patience on this one. According to her, this opening has been made possible by the company’s dedication to stabilizing operations in the region. Up to this point, we’ve been running existing restaurants in the Quad Cities. But thanks to the investments made in finding the right people, strengthening the bench and maintaining the facilities in place, we built up enough stability to open our own store!

Kasey says it’s hard to put the significance of this milestone into words when you think about the rich history of the company. When she joined us just six years ago, there were only 184 locations. 

“It’s been really incredible being a part of this legacy,” Kasey says with a nod to Co-founders Jeff and Lee Engler. 

Davenport’s historic grand opening included live music, a ribbon cutting, refreshments, a raffle for commemorative Border Foods t-shirts, and other giveaways. CEO and President Aaron Engler provided remarks, along with several local officials.

Forging Ahead

Border Foods continues to look at expansion, according to Aaron. Growing up in the family business, he remembers those early years “when Lee had a one-room office in the basement of an office building … just him and his assistant.”

Aaron started working for our Maple Grove Taco Bell at age 15. “I don’t even know how many restaurants we had at the time, but there’s no way I’d have told you we’d be doing a ribbon cutting for our 250^th restaurant!”

Aaron continues, “Each restaurant proves we can scale without sacrificing our culture or the Border way. The 250^th restaurant is the start to the next 250!”

Opening our 250th location, it’s pretty incredible … success and growth has been built on truly doing the right thing.

Kasey Baeza, Director of Operations

“We want to continue to grow the Border family in every state that we operate in,” says Chief Operations Officer (COO) Vince Bosscher, who’s been with the company for seven years and remembers the 200^th restaurant opening. “The more stores that we open means the more people we get to hire … which means the more lives we get to impact with career paths and leadership development. ‘Making lives better’ is something we love to do and we’re going to do it with tacos!”

“For me, I’m just very proud of the Region 4 team, very proud of Jen,” says Kasey. “It’s been a journey … to get to a place where the company can really consider building a store there. [We] couldn’t do it without building a really stable foundation of people.”

Wanted: New Hires

According to Region Coach Jen Copeland, the hiring never stops! Though Davenport opened with a solid restaurant team under the helm of Restaurant General Manager (RGM) Brandon Wagner (a former “RGM of the Year”), we still have openings! Grab a taco and snag a job with a company who cares. Check out available positions here.

If you allow people to be your foundation, they’ll continue to raise you up.

Kasey Baeza, Director of Operations