— By Kristin Hiller — As the nation emerges on the other side of the pandemic, the retail and restaurant industries are tasked with adapting their store designs and business models to match consumer behavioral shifts. Shoppers and diners alike want to make purchases easily with multiple options for ordering and pickup. Border Foods, one of the largest privately held Taco Bell franchisees in America, enlisted the services of Minneapolis-based design consultancy Vertical Works Inc. in 2020 to create a new restaurant design. The result was Defy, a two-story …
Brooklyn Park, Minn. — Taco Bell is building a restaurant with a new drive-thru concept in Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. Construction is underway on the 3,000-square-foot, two-story restaurant. Completion is scheduled for summer 2022. Known as Defy, the new restaurant concept was developed in partnership with Minneapolis-based Vertical Works Inc., a design company that works with quick-serve restaurants, retailers and healthcare tenants. In 2020, Border Foods, one of the largest privately held Taco Bell franchisees in America, enlisted Vertical Works to create a new restaurant design. With Defy, …