One of the last remaining Taco Bell restaurants built with the chain’s original design is set to close on Tuesday, Sept. 7, according to social media posts.
The restaurant, at 669 S. Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, opened in 1967, five years after the chain was founded in Downey by Glen Bell.
It was said to be a hangout of Timothy Leary, a psychologist who became famous for advocating psychedelic drugs in the 1960s. His association with a local group of hippies called the Brotherhood of Eternal Love is the subject of a documentary, “Orange Sunshine.”
News of the closure came from a Facebook post by franchise owner Steve Smith.
The restaurant lost its lease, according to the post.
Taco Bell’s original look was created by architect Robert L. McKay to suggest a Spanish California mission with stucco archways and tiled roofs.
Those restaurants were designed to serve the public through walk-up windows and didn’t have dining rooms or drive-thrus.
The archways remain at the Laguna Beach restaurant, but the Taco Bell sign and an ornamental mission bell at the top of the building are gone.
The original Taco Bell, called Numero Uno, still exists, but the building was hauled out of Downey on a flatbed truck in 2015 and is now parked at Taco Bell’s headquarters in Irvine.
