Mayor Paul Soglin has once again vetoed a liquor license for a downtown restaurant. Chances are the city council will once again prevail with a veto override.
Either way, Madison’s Taco Bell Cantina, slated to open this month at 534 State St., will lack the main attraction of the chain’s new restaurant concept: “Twisted Freeze” slushie drinks spiked with your choice of vodka, rum or tequila.
Taco Bell initially requested a full liquor license from the Alcohol License Review Committee so it could serve its popular booze slushies. But after conversations with Ald. Ledell Zellers and the police, the company agreed to scale back its plan and serve only beer and wine. It also agreed to stop selling alcohol at 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The council on Dec. 5 voted 14-2 to approve a beer and wine license for Taco Bell Cantina, modeled after Taco Bell’s swanky new flagship restaurant on the Las Vegas strip. The company is rolling out its Taco Bell Cantina restaurants in dense city centers; these don’t have drive-thrus, traditionally a big moneymaker for the fast food industry.
For the time being, Taco Bell Cantina won’t be able to serve any alcohol because of the veto. But the council’s vote approving the license bodes well for an override. The council’s next opportunity to weigh in on the license will be on Jan. 2.
Taco Bell Cantina will serve almost the same menu of burritos, tacos, quesadillas and chalupas as a regular Taco Bell. There will be a few more “shareable” appetizers including bacon ranch loaded potatoes, cheesy bacon jalapeno dippers, naked chicken chips and mini quesadilla nachos. And virgin versions of Twisted Freezes will be on the menu.
In recent years, the council overrode Soglin’s vetoes on liquor licenses for two other State Street establishments: Mad City Frites (which has since gone out of business), in 2015, and Lotsa Stone Fired Pizza, in 2016. The mayor also threatened to veto HopCat’s liquor license two years ago but ultimately abided by the council’s decision. Soglin did persuade Starbucks to voluntarily withdraw its application to serve alcohol at its Capitol Square location in 2016.
For years, the mayor has railed against increasing the number of alcohol-focused businesses downtown. Soglin says he vetoed Taco Bell Cantina’s liquor license over public safety concerns and the city’s decades-long investment in beautifying State Street and the Capitol Square. He predicts Taco Bell’s new concept restaurant “is just the beginning” of fast food chains getting into the bar business. He’s also skeptical that the company has abandoned its plans to serve alcohol slushies at its new Madison location.
“Most U.S. fast food restaurant chains are working on rolling out liquor-based establishments in the next decade,” Soglin said in his veto message. “These chains realize that there will be and there has been resistance to the new liquor-based model. That is why most are implementing in stages — first beer and wine and then full liquor.”
Soglin also floated the idea of starting public referenda on liquor licenses.
Until recently, 534 State St. has hosted classic fast food restaurants. The storefront was originally built for Hardee’s in the 1980s. It was an alcohol-free Taco Bell for two decades and most recently a Wendy’s.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to show the council voted 14-2 to approve a beer and wine license for Taco Bell Cantina, not 15-2. Because Ald. Marsha Rummel was chairing the meeting, she did not cast a vote.
