Dive Brief:
- Taco Bell will offer two menu items — Fajita Street Chalupas and Chicken Fajita Nacho Fries — featuring grilled, fajita-style onions and peppers for a limited time starting Thursday, according to a press release issued this week.
- The new items allow Taco Bell to adapt a full-service menu item, in this case sizzling fajitas, to a fast food format. The items, priced at $5.99 for the chalupa and $5.49 for the fries, sit toward the premium side of Taco Bell’s menu structure.
- The LTOs could serve as a proving ground for a new menu addition. Taco Bell’s permanent menu items, especially premium options like its Cantina Chicken and Nacho Fries, often begin life as temporary items, allowing the chain to test the item’s operational impact and guest appeal before permanent deployment.
Dive Insight:
Even if the grilled fajita onions and peppers do not become a core modifier for the chain’s menu, they may still join its rotating cast of LTOs, which have helped the brand become Yum’s sales engine in the U.S.
Taco Bell said the LTOs were inspired in part by the buzz around fajitas on social media.
“The internet’s ongoing fascination with fajita ‘drama’ only reinforces what Taco Bell has known for years: fans are obsessed with fajita flavor,” according to the press release.
The chain’s new items offer the flavor and ingredients without the typical production required of fajitas, which are often served on a sizzling metal plate atop a wooden sheet in full-service and casual dining contexts.
The brand has had several fajita items over the years, including a fajita burrito in the 1980s and regional test menu items at other times, which have performed well, according to the press release.
Taco Bell’s menu innovation in recent years has often recombined elements of previously successful tests and LTOs. The Chicken Al Pastor Street Chalupa, for example, combined the Cantina Chicken base with al pastor flavors and a street chalupa format. The brand has also used the street chalupa as a base for other protein LTOs, like a chicken, bacon and ranch offering that ran in February.
Items like these, combined with beverage innovation and strong value plays, have helped Taco Bell outperform the vast majority of publicly traded fast food brands in recent years.
Yum Brands has a “clear multiyear plan to expand [Taco Bell’s] offerings with long-term targets that reflect persistent market share gains,” Yum CEO Chris Turner said on the company’s April earnings call.
Turner said the brand possessed significant structural advantages.
“The Mexican category is growing ahead of the overall restaurant space, and Taco Bell is a category of one in that space,” Turner said. “We also have a business model there that allows us to deliver value, while also ensuring high margins for our franchise partners.”
LTOs preserve novelty, attract new consumers and offer opportunities for premium pricing.
