Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.120 | GNY at The Taco Bell Cantina!

Episode Date: November 13, 2025

Inside the First Taco Bell Cantina with a Drive-Thru: Manlys Cantina Sneak Peek In this episode of Good News York, Matt takes viewers on an exclusive tour of the soon-to-open Taco Bell Cantina in Manlys, New York. Joined by Syracuse community members Alec and Jessica, they discuss the local ownership of this Taco Bell franchise, the unique features of the Cantina concept, and the transformation of an old firehouse into a lively dining and entertainment space. The Cantina promises not only Taco Bell's classic menu items but also events, live music, and a full bar offering boozy freezes and local beers. Jessica highlights the community involvement of Hospitality Syracuse and the benefits of working at their establishments, including scholarship opportunities. The episode concludes with information on the official opening date and ordering tips for local customers. 00:00 Welcome to the New Taco Bell Cantina 00:47 Meet Jessica from Hospitality Syracuse 02:04 The Unique Concept of Taco Bell Cantina 03:54 Exciting Events and Features at the Cantina 04:20 The Historic Manlys Fire Department Building 05:53 Opening Date and Special Features 06:30 The Bottoms Up Beer System 07:50 Boozy Freezes and Beverage Options 08:33 Adapting to Alcohol Service 09:54 Local Inspiration and Community Support 12:20 Live Music and Events Calendar 12:56 Upcoming Events and Live Music 13:20 Seating Capacity and Outdoor Activities 13:51 Menu and Hiring Information 14:29 Scholarship Program and Charity Initiatives 16:04 Drive-Through and Alcohol Policy 17:58 Community Involvement and Real Estate Impact 20:41 Final Thoughts and Closing Remarks

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and Unirold's 50th anniversary summer specials. All right, guys, it's Matt from Good News, York, and I am very excited. You might have noticed this is not our place. This is a brand new place, a place you're very excited about. If you haven't figured out the logos or whatever, we are at the brand new Taco Bell canteena. It's not even open yet.

This is like a super exclusive. I really got to thank these guys. And before this special event, our man, Mike, was out today. So we brought in a ringer here, Mr. Syracuse. Alex is back with us to join us and learn all about this. But let's dive in to what's really happening here. If you wouldn't mind, go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us where we're at. Great.

Thank you. So we're at the Manlius Cantina. My name is Jessica. I am working in the marketing department for. Hospitality Syracuse and Hospitality, Syracuse is the local franchise organization that owns and operates the Taco Bell is pretty much in all upstate New York. We're based right in Liverpool, the ownership team, and the owners live right in the local area. I think a lot of people don't realize how local we are. We know we run a Taco Bell brand. We're all based

right here in Syracuse. That's, you know, something I was going to mention, I'm so glad you brought that up, because we all see these, you know, this is obviously a big national company, but the reality is it's It's really just local people who get to sell this national product. Correct. Yep. Yep. So we, like I said, we work for hospitality Syracuse, and the brand is our kind of governing factor, but we're all employees of hospitality Syracuse.

That's great. How many restaurants, how many locations do you have all together in your room? So when this one opens, this will be our 113th location. Wow. Yeah. Wow. You must span a very wide area in New York here? Yeah, we go all the way from Rochester to Albany, up to Watertown.

All the way up to Messina, down to Ithaca, Almyra, Owego. And then we do have about 40 stores in Western Tennessee, which is another branch of our company. That's incredible. That's incredible. Now, we are here at the Taco Bell Cantina, which that's not a thing I've seen anywhere else, right? Correct. So, yep, this is the manliest canina. And Cantina is kind of an elevated brand for Taco Bell.

The first canteen opened several years ago out in California for Taco Bell's headquarters. And it's to do a full different experience when you go to a Taco Bell. Yes, we have all your favorite Taco Bell food, but we also have lots of events. We're going to have music. We're going to have bingo, music bingo, trivia nights, some great holiday parties. And we have pretty much a full bar. So you can enjoy all your favorite Taco Bell food and come out at an event and you have an adult drink with it as well. Usually you go to the bar and then you got to find the open Taco Bell afterwards, you know?

I think you really, I think you've really married the two. Yeah, you really save people a lot of time and effort here. This is so neat. And so obviously, like you said, this is a very rare concept so far. Do you think that it's something that we'll see a lot more of? I hope so. I mean, definitely I hope so. Like I said, this is a first for our company.

So this is a really big undertaking for our company. We're hoping once we get this one open and going that, you know, we'll see what the future brings. Yeah, that's really neat. It seems like there's a lot of experiences that people are looking for, right? And we've always had the traditional restaurants and the food and the brand we love. But there's more to it, right? We've got to get out of our house. We were talking a little bit beforehand on how, you know, after COVID, it seemed like people got a little comfortable with a lot of takeout

and not necessarily going to the restaurants and things. and you're giving them a reason beyond the food to come here. We hope so. Yeah, we hope so. Like I said, we're going to have some really amazing parties here. We're going to have Thanksgiving Eve or pre- Thanksgiving Eve, the night before Thanksgiving. You know, it's a big night for everybody to go out.

We're going to have a great party here. We're going to have some limer attainment. Some local radio DJs are going to be here. All that will be to be announced. Wow. We're going to have a jewelry-making girl or a girl who does, like, the permanent jewelry is going to be here. A great party.

to come, you know, and I wanted to mention, too, about this building that we're in. It's pretty unique. So, as you probably know, this was an old Manlius Fire Department. It was open in 1968. Wow. And actually ran as a fire department in 2017. Wow. And they closed in 2017 and built a new location.

And this building has been sent empty since then. And so when we came to Manlius, we said, you know, what are you doing with that building? And they're like, well, it's kind of just empty. And so we were able to acquire the building, keep all the, the original, you know, the exposed brick and stuff and these, you know, these big windows, which are not to the fire department. Yeah. And really keep that, that feeling of reusing the building. It's a huge footprint for us, too. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, I love you. You can see that. And those were obviously the doors where the trucks would be, right? Yes. Yep. Those are the old bade,

doors. It's fair to say we're sitting where the, where the fire trucks would sit. Yes. Where they would be parked back in the day. What an incredible use of this space. And, How is it being received so far by the people of Manlius? What are they thinking about this place? Amazing. It's amazing. The support, everybody that we reached out to is so excited. You know, they're just, they can't wait for us to get open and be part of it and come in and see it.

I think, you know, so welcoming the community and not just manliest. Everywhere in Syracuse, everyone I talk to and they're like, when are you opening it, what's going to happen? Like, can't wait to come. You know, it's just, it's going to be, I think it's come more of a destination experience to come out and enjoy it. So with that question, when can we expect to get our tacos and beer? You know, that is the question. That's the question I get all day every day. I can tell you it will be before Thanksgiving.

Okay. Obviously, we're having our Thanksgiving party, but I can't release the date quite yet. But if you visit our website at manliness canteena.com or follow us on any of our social media channels, Manlias canina, as soon as we confirm the date and we're ready to go, it will be blasted all through.

there and everybody will know. And I'm just guessing here, but anytime you have a project like this, usually there's some official things and stuff like that that's always up in the air that, and I'm going to guess maybe that's part of what's going to. I got to talk about this, this cup that's in front of us. So I've seen this thing. Tell me if you've ever seen this thing. Do you ever watch this show Bar Rescue, right?

John Taffer, he's shown this thing where he puts it in the bar. They put the, they slam the cup down and it fills with beer. Yes. They have this here. But Jessica, if you could tell us, it goes beyond that, I didn't even realize. Yeah. There's like a, I don't know, a giveaway, a prize at the bottom. So we have a really cool feature at a bar called Bottoms Up.

So we'll have five beers on draft, including a local one prison city. And so how it works is you take one of these very unique cups. You put it down on this like magnet and it pushes the magnet up. It fills it from the bottom up. And then when you're done, you get to keep. keep the magnet and they're collectable, and there's a whole bunch of different designs. So it was kind of a guess on which one you're gonna get.

So hopefully, you know, people come out and they're like, oh, I didn't get the way I want, let me order another beer. That's it. But it's really fun. It's a unique way to do it, and it's fun to watch them kind of fill from the bottom. Are there magnets that are gonna be more rare than others? I don't know, I guess you'll have to come and see.

That's a good question. That's quite an opportunity. To me, it reminds me of the old, you know, the prize at the bottom of the cereal box. Yeah, yeah. Except here you get beer. You get beer. I mean.

So that's a positive. We also have, for those who are not beer but lovers, we're going to have a very unique twisted freezes. So a lot of people are familiar with our fritia freezes. We're going to have expanded flavors. So we're going to have five different flavors of freezes. And so you can get those topped with either a shot of tequila, rum, or vodka, your choice. So it makes the boozy freezes, which are very good. And we're also going to carry a mountain dew.

It's like a hard mountain dew and a can. So for those of you who want to try that. And we also have all yourselves, those are your truilies, your high noons, a bunch of beer and cans and bottles and wine. Wow. If you wouldn't mind just a little behind the curtain. What is it like your organization has always run these traditional restaurants? Alcohol is a little bit of a different world, right?

What's that been like for you guys to sort of adapt to that? Well, it's a huge learning curve. Yeah. We're very lucky that our team, our management team is phenomenal. Yeah. We've been doing a lot of training. We're going to have some of our senior management from, like Rochester and Albanyans, are going to come in to support the team as well.

It's going to be a learning curve. Yeah. I guarantee there's going to be some pains, a few opening date when we first open. We're expecting high volumes of traffic. Yeah. So I think, you know, we're going to work through all that. You'll see myself and other of the senior team behind the bar doing our bottom. bottom is up and supporting the team here.

That's great. It'll be a big joint effort for the next few weeks. Is there, you know, obviously with the traditional items that comes from the national organization, the recipes and everything, do they provide as much guidance on the canteen on the kind of the bar side or is it more kind of free to the local? It's they divide guidelines. Yeah. Right?

They say, you know, here's what you can do and what you can do and then they kind of leave it up to us what we're going to carry. You know, we want to make sure it's popular with the lower. with locals and that's why we have the, you know, the prison city. Absolutely. And we want to make sure that we're matching local taste. So, yeah, they leave that up to us. That's great. So Taco Bell being such a large brand, even though you guys are local, what was the

inspiration to make an experience-based location? Yeah, so this is something, so when the canteena concept rolled out a few years ago for Taco Bell, it's something that's always been kind of on our radar. And I think what happened was when we saw this location, this, this old firehouse, and then in Malia, which is such a great community, we're like, wait, this might be the best opportunity to, if we're gonna do a canina,

let's do a canteena in this old firehouse. Yeah. And really give it some personality. So I think it all kind of worked together and came together and we're like, yep, let's do it. Gotcha. Awesome. Yeah, that's a great question.

Aleph, what's your favorite Taco Bell menu item? Oh, CrunchRap. Yeah. CrunchRap Supreme. It's a classic. Big old Baja blast or freeze the depending on the day. Yeah.

But, you know, I'm really excited for an experience here. Yeah. Because even though it's, you know, national or whatever you want to call it, it's local. It is. It's super local. Super local. I mean, the owners literally live in Syracuse. So, like, I say that over and over again.

It's something I think people really struggle with because, I mean, the company started back in the 80s with one guy who bought one Taco Bell who mortgaged his house and his parents mortgage their house. Wow. You know, to get into it. And it was like, and then he got a second one and then a third one. and now we're at 113. And that's, you know, that's like the American dream, right?

And the owner of the company now, Matt, he lives in Bowensville. He started when he was a 16 or a team member at a store at Albany. Wow. And just continued to work his way up and was offered a partnership in the company, you know, 10 years ago. And, you know, how he's a partner in this amazing company. So, and it's really cool because, and I might be biased because I've been around in hospitality over 20 years. But this company is so cool, so unique. A lot of our senior management team started like that, started as team members,

and just continue to grow and grow. And, you know, it's, it makes a difference. There's, you know, I remember when I was a kid, working one of my first jobs as a teenager, working at a fast food place. And we used to joke about that going, you know, as a CEO, he's never learned how to make this. Oh, no. You know, do they know how to do that? And clearly they do here.

Oh, yes. That's huge. And he'll jump on the line, and he'll be here opening day. You'll see him. He'll look very stressed. And might be sweaty a little bit. He'll be right around. Look, that's real.

That's a real in-it owner, and I love to hear that. Yeah. To speak to some of the experiences and things, if folks don't necessarily realize, we're actually sort of sitting on a stage right now. Yes. And the idea there is you're going to have all kinds of live musical acts and all kinds of things, right? So our events calendar just went live this morning on manlyas cantina.com. Wow.

We have some amazing people booked. Kaley Hale. I knew I was going to forget it as soon as you asked me all the names. Mark Nini, I think you pronounce it. Chris Wheel, he does magic. Oh, yeah. Like I said, write Mike Syracuse, his events books. Awesome.

We have trivia. We just know the trivia guide today. The first one will be on December 8th. It was just a Monday. And then we have music bingo. Wow. Another gentleman, his name is Bobby Pace. He'll be out doing music bingo on Thursday nights.

Wow. Friday and Saturdays will have live music. Yeah, so definitely check out the events calendar. And that's awesome. And we'll be updating it constantly. That's awesome. That's awesome. You've got some outdoor space.

You've got some big, big area where you'll be able to have these events. Just about how many folks will this hold altogether? Yeah, we can see between 80 and 90 seats. And then, you know, that doesn't include the standing room too. So when it's full, it's going to be really full. And that doesn't include the patio either. And speaking of the patio, you mentioned, obviously we're opening in Syracuse and November. Sure.

But in the summer, we'll have like carnival and yard games and stuff outside. So that will be something to look forward to in the warmer months. That's phenomenal. So I don't know if we touched on this, but is there, and you might not be able to release this yet, but is there going to be different menu items that are a little bit, you know, higher-end canteen a version compared to the regular Taco Bell? That's a great question. No, all the menu, the actual Taco Bell menu, is exactly as it is at every other ones.

You're going to be able come in and order whatever your normal favorite menu items are. Cool. Gotcha. Yeah. And I also wanted to point out, too, is that we're still hiring. If you want a job, like, we hire at 16 all the way up. We're looking for all ships here in the Manliest canteen. And actually all of our Taco Bells, but especially here to get us up and running.

We have amazing benefits. We have an amazing scholarship program called the Live Month Scholarship Program. Last year, with our franchise organization alone, we had 19 employees win it. It's a national scholarship for employees. But we had 19 of our own. I think it was like over $230,000. they won. You can win between 5,000 and 25,000 a year for four years. We had an employees who just graduated after winning it for four years. She won $10,000 a year and graduated in college

with no debt because of that. And we have, I mean, it's really incredible. And the scholarship itself is based on what your passion. It's not based on financial need or sports or GPAs. It's based on, you know, you have to answer three questions. And it's like, okay, what are your passions? And then that's how they, they change. And it's really cool. That's incredible. Yeah. And one other thing, if you don't mind me mentioned,

no, please. Our charity record is the Boys and Girls Club. So when you go through the drive-through and they ask you to round up, that's where the money is going. And that all goes back to the Syracuse area Boys and Growth Club. Oh, that's great. This past year, we donated over $90,000 to the Boys and Growth Club. We were the laudor, just a donator sponsor this past year.

And I'm sure. And is that all from the rounding up? Yeah, that's all for rounding up in Pacal. That's all the change that you don't even want back. Right. Especially now you can get pennies, right? Come on, you throw them in the car, they bounce around. They can go to the boys and girls' club.

Yeah, and it all stays local. That's incredible. And that's just in Syracuse. All of our different markets, it was over $700,000. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. So a quick question about the drive-thru.

How are you guys going to handle alcoholic beverages with the drive-thru? That's a great question. You cannot order an alcoholic beverage. in the drive-through. Just like any other bar, any alcohol beverage you order has to be consumed here in the restaurant, so you can't take it to go or through the drive-through. You can go down south and they have the drive-thru

battery. Those are cool, right? They get away with that by handing you the drink and the straw separately. And that's their loophole is they don't put the straw in the cup. So they're not giving it to you to drink, it's to take home, of course. Right.

Anyway, but that is a great question. Yeah, no, because I feel like there's probably going to be a, you know, there might be a few people, hey, I just came for a drink through the drive-thru, and then you got to send them home because they don't know. Yeah, I'm sure people are going to ask, but I think most people understand that, you know, that's near-Flete law is not our law. Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. So, you come on in and sit down and have a drink and be safe and make sure you get that Uber

home. I think you mentioned earlier, you'll likely be available on some of the delivery things as well for people in the area, too? Yep, so DoorDash, Grubhubhub, Uber Eats, will all be our partners, so anybody who wants to order from delivery, can definitely do that through their apps. But I'm going to give you a little insider tip. Okay. If you download the TacoBowel app, you can order through the Taco Bell app for delivery

and you won't get charged, you up charges that the delivery partner is charge on the menu items. Gotcha. But it's still delivered by DoorDash. I see. So a little tip there. That is a great tip. Make sure you download the Taco Bell app and order through the app and you get more discounts. I, uh, this is not a planned plug, but I have done that myself.

And I will tell you there's also some like coupons and deals you'll find in that that you don't find in the regular app. So don't overpay for your tacos. Yeah. Use the app. And I think we could tag down anything or anything. Use the app. Yeah. Yeah.

I love that. I love that. Alex, as a guy in real estate, when you see a place like this, a project like this, how do you feel that has the impact? You know, as you're selling these other properties and things in Mainlist that are for lease, does this help you? Well, this, to me, is very heartwarming, the story of the building. I love it. You know, going to an old fire station, being able to see the structure of the building still here. Yeah.

Keeping that character. It's awesome. I mean, you even got the exposed brick. It's just, it's great. And it's super exciting to see a company getting so involved with the community. Because you don't see, you know, local, you only see really local businesses doing that. Yeah. But then when it comes to something like a Taco Bell, it's awesome to see, you know,

live music, stuff like that, it's going to be great. It's going to be great. It's going to be amazing. And obviously, at Hospitalia, Syracuse, if you go to our website, which is HRG Food.com, you'll see how much we really aren't involved in our communities. There's a little league field behind us last year when we knew we were coming. We did a big sponsorship with them. We met with the town of Manlius Recreation Department yesterday.

We're going to be involved in with their parade, their Swan Fest, all kinds of things. That's so great. So, yeah, we try to get involved as much as we can. Jessica, this is just the coolest place. It's so cool. And Manlius. No knock to anything else in Manlias. Right.

Except the swans. The swans are so cool. They're the kings of this place. Thank you so much for showing us and taking the time. I know you're in the middle of this is probably the busiest time other than when you open, trying to get ready to open. Yeah, you can probably hear all the destruction in the background. We're still got people installing our futista machines. We got electricians here.

We got all kinds of people here working today. Hey, that's how it goes. that you're pulling out all the stops to get this place going. So I got one last question for you. How did it, how did the zoning work with converting this from a fire station to, you know, a food space? Yeah, that is a great question. So I can't, I don't really know all the details of that. It's not really my wheelhouse.

But I will say that the town was fantastic to work with. From the time that we presented the concept of the canteen into the whole zoning and permitting process, it was a breeze. And they were on board and made it happen for us. That's awesome. We know that towns can be pretty tough. Some towns are not, we did not encounter that here. That's wonderful. A welcoming community is a night and day difference for the success of any place.

It is, yep. It's glad to have it. What a beautiful place. And you've made it look absolutely gorgeous. We'll cut to some shots from the outside so folks can see if they haven't already. And also, you're not going to be able to miss it. You are just a hair off at the main street, you can see it from the main street.

I don't think anybody's going to have any trouble finding yet. Yep. Ample parking. It's just doing everything right. You know what? I did want to mention something really quick. Sure. So the canteena concept, while not new to the brand, new to us, we're the very first canteena in the U.S. that has a drive-through. What? So a lot, or second, sorry, the second one.

So it's new, it's just a new concept in generally have a drive-thru. A lot of the cantinas are like in beach communities or college communities where it's more of a walking thing. So for us to have a drive-thru, it's super cool for the canteen. I love it. I love it. Jessica, thank you so much. Thank you so much for joining us as well, buddy. It's great to have you in. Absolutely. And show this awesome place off. We're going to have, if you're staying tuned,

we've got a bunch of different clips of this place. So if you watch this interview when you like it, stay tuned to our other socials. Follow Alec on all of his as well. He'll have some different ones from all different angles. And this is just awesome. And we will be back when the events happen as well because yes we'll definitely come for opening day I got it I got to get my my magnet and my burrito and everything all in one spot I love this this is so cool I just want to play with this all day on well you could take that home with you now you touched it see here's the here's the here's the problem I feel like I'm gonna get one of these two drinks and I'm gonna start playing with it while I got the beer

in the car I'm gonna show you something my coworker here Danielle went to get something so bottoms up obviously is an astronaut they do it all over so they gave us these really cool little signs to put out and I'm gonna show you this sign because you know people are going to do it, especially after they've had a couple. But here's a sign that we get to put out. Oh, dear. It says, if you poke, you'll get soaked, okay? So don't poke the magnet on the bottom unless you want your beer all over your lap.

Yeah. So we'll have those signs, but I'm still sure it will happen. I mean, somebody will only do that once. Yeah. Right? Maybe. This is great. The mainliest can Tina, Taco Bell, Alec, Jessica.

I'm Matt, Danny. Intern Truman's back there, having the absolute time of his life. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thank you. It's a gentle cruising. You start to see the village,

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