Taco Bell opens in village of Lansing 

A new Taco Bell location has arrived in Lansing.

The Mexican cuisine-inspired fast food chain has been operating a new restaurant at 2301 N. Triphammer Rd. since Christmas Eve, bringing its popular chalupas, crunchwraps, tacos, burritos and gorditas, to the delight of local residents. 

“It is going phenomenal,” said Jessica Woodburn, director of marketing at Hospitality Restaurant Group, regarding the new location’s recent opening. Hospitality is a local franchisee, based in Syracuse, that operates dozens of locations across Syracuse, Cortland, Utica, Rochester, Tompkins County, Batavia and Canandaigua.

“The reception of the community has been phenomenal,” Woodburn added.

The Triphammer Road location marks the second Taco Bell restaurant in Tompkins County. The new restaurant features a state-of-the-art fast food kitchen, a dining area that can seat around 30 people and drive-thru infrastructure for quick, on-the-go ordering. 

So far, the restaurant has hired about 25 employees to serve what Woodburn said is a very steady and promising customer base.

“We’re still hiring,” she said. Woodburn said that interested parties can apply at https://www.tacobell.com/careers.  

“I think any time you open a brand-new restaurant, the people that get to work there are super excited because everything is new, so everything’s working great,” she said. “Everything is shiny and it is going great. Sales have been going great.”

What goes into choosing a location for a new Taco Bell?

Woodburn said Hospitality has been looking at the Triphammer Road location for about two years.

“When we decide, or whenever we are looking at building a new Taco Bell restaurant, the plans start about two years prior to that time,” Woodburn said. “That’s how long it takes to find a location, get all the approvals from the towns and from corporate.”

The company looks at a variety of factors before settling on a location. 

“We are looking for a highly trafficked area, where we have other fast food restaurants that are doing well, and an area that has a lot of other retail areas,” Woodburn said.

The Triphammer Road location, Woodburn noted, checked a majority of those boxes.

“This particular location was interesting to us because we own the one down in Ithaca,” she said. “It’s very congested down in the town, and that store is a high-volume restaurant for us, so we wanted to help alleviate some of the traffic and tap into the new trade area.”

The proximity to Triphammer Mall, Woodburn said, was alluring.

“It is a separate retail development up there, as opposed to down in the city. So I think there’s people that would prefer to not drive down there, and they can now stay up [in Lansing]and get their Taco Bell. It is a good business decision for us.”

On whether or not the success of the Triphammer Road location could bring about new locations elsewhere in Tompkins County, Woodburn said that the group is keeping an eye out for new business opportunities.

“We’re always looking to see where we can build a new restaurant that’s going to do right by the people that live there and serve a need that’s not currently fulfilled,” Woodburn said. “That is what we are looking at right now. I don’t believe there is any other talk of other locations planned in [Tompkins] County, but that doesn’t mean that in future years, if there is a new market that starts growing, that we wouldn’t look at this area again.”

The group plans to do an eventual ribbon-cutting ceremony, which was postponed due to inclement weather to start the year.

“We’re open every day from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m.,” Woodburn noted. “Breakfast starts at 7 a.m., and then the full menu starts at 9 a.m.” 

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter): @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

Fifth- and sixth-graders are invited to join Aidan Cobb, a teacher at Lansing Central School District and a poet from Connecticut, for a collaborative poetry and art workshop. The event will take place Feb. 8 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at the Lansing Community Library. 

“Please join us as we explore the connections between poetry and visual art with a chance to create your own!” reads a post on the library’s website. “Dive into interactive discussions of figurative language and poetic devices. Write your own poetry with accompanying artwork, and participate in a collective art display! This workshop offers children a unique opportunity to express themselves and share their creativity with others in a fun and hands-on way.”