GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Go to any restaurant in Grand Rapids. Fast food or fine dining. What's on the menu? It makes no difference. You won't find one with a following like the Taco Bell on Michigan Street.
For parts of July and August, the franchise with a cultish fandom on the internet has been closed for construction.
According to a real estate listing that has since been removed, its building was also up for sale.
Lovers of the Doritos Locos Tacos should not fret, though, as the restaurant recently reopened and, according to an employee, will remain in operation through any potential building sale in the near future.
For Natalie LeFebre and Jake Adams, who I interviewed when the restaurant was working on its renovation, this means they'll continue to be able to enjoy Baja Blasts, Beefy 5-Layer Burritos and Discovery Luxe Boxes on a weekly to bi-weekly basis.
"It's more than a Taco Bell. It is a Taco Home," LeFebre said. "That's what we need. We need our home."
"It's very, it's Sisyphean to me," Adams said. "I'm constantly pushing that boulder up the hill."
Four years ago, the two friends were laughing together about the "lore" that surrounded the Taco Bell on Michigan Street — TBOM for short. So, they created r/tacobellonmichigan, an online community on the social media platform Reddit where other Grand Rapidians could share the highs and lows of eating at the restaurant.
"As far as I know, it's the only restaurant in the city with its own dedicated community," Adams said.
TBOM soon turned into an urban legend. To this day, r/tacobellonmichigan, referred to as a subreddit, boasts of hundreds to thousands of weekly visitors — a third space for Fourthmeal.
"This Taco Bell has been a staple in the city for so long," LeFebre said. "It’s drawn people in from other cities because they see the posts, and they want to experience what it's like going to this Taco Bell."
"Taco Bell on Michigan is an experience," Adams agreed. "You can have fast food from anywhere. Here, you leave with most of what you ordered and a story, and I think that's a really beautiful experience."
While LeFebre and Adams like to play up the restaurant's infamous reputation, they also say the service at the restaurant has recently been "really good."
"I'm happy to see that," LeFebre said. "She's doing her best."
In July, a real estate listing with Fortis Net Lease showed the Taco Bell on Michigan Street's building — a 2,690-square-foot facility found at 1014 Michigan St. NE — as up for sale for $2.2 million dollars.
On the date of the publication of this article, the listing had been removed from the real estate agency's website.
Fortis Net Lease did not confirm to me whether the building had been sold, and there is currently no proof of a transaction in Grand Rapids or Kent County public property records.
