Reader: How will Cantina Bell taste when the food's made by a stoned teenager?

Taco Bell is rolling out a more upscale menu on July 5, and after eating a test dinner hosted by America's Next Great Restaurant chef Lorena Garcia, Jenn Wohletz suggested that the "Cantina Bell menu may make Chipotle a little nervous." Only if Garcia stays in the kitchen, doubters respond...

By Patricia Calhoun

June 20, 2012

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Taco Bell is rolling out a more upscale menu on July 5, and after eating a test dinner hosted by America's Next Great Restaurant chef Lorena Garcia, Jenn Wohletz suggested that the "Cantina Bell menu may make Chipotle a little nervous."

Only if Garcia stays in the kitchen, doubters respond.

Says Scott B:

Of course the stuff at the press junket hand prepared by the TV chef was tasty. What really counts is how it tastes when it's thrown together by a sullen, stoned high school student.

If you walk past a Chipotle to spend $5 on a Taco Bell burrito, you deserve a nasty case of salmonella and a punch in the balls.

And of course I'm sure Yum Brands will share Chipotle's drive for natural meat sourcing. And by "natural," I mean they're working on resequencing chicken DNA so they can create a chicken-fungi hybrid and grow breast meat in big stainless steel vats.

Will a Taco Bell menu by any other name -- say, Cantina Bell -- smell as sweet? Post your thoughts below, or join the conversation already under way here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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