I’ve by no means dated within the app period. As a substitute, I met folks the old-school approach: on the pc, specifically by means of the OkCupid web site, the place I glided by the username “tacobellforever.”
On Tinder, you decide somebody first by their title, age, and photos (proper?). However on OkCupid, your username led. And to me “tacobellforever” made the appropriate first impression: I used to be enjoyable (a Baja Blast, even) and I discovered pleasure in low-brow issues. Anybody who noticed themself as above this may self-select out. Additionally, I used to be a scholar with little cash and no faux ID; my choices have been restricted. “You’ve got a brand new message from tacobellforever” — folks would really like that!
So when Jon, username redacted, slid into my inbox, it was pure that the dialog drifted to Taco Bell. My desire for the quesarito made me a Taco Bell maximalist, on the hunt for the subsequent and greatest. Jon, in the meantime, was a self-described “Taco Bell fundamentalist,” preferring the frugal, no-nonsense potato smooth taco. (If an affinity for Taco Bell says one thing about you as an individual, so does your Taco Bell order.)
Jon was bummed, he wrote, that there wasn’t a Taco Bell close by. On the time, Boston, the place we each lived, famously didn’t dwell más. (Does it now? It does no less than have extra Taco Bells than it did then.) After I broke the information that there was a location tucked right into a mall meals court docket in Cambridge, it grew to become clear that as a substitute of assembly for espresso, we needed to get Taco Bell. On a chilly evening in 2013, we met up: I ordered my typical, he ordered his.
A 12 months later, we celebrated our anniversary on the identical mall meals court docket, the identical Taco Bell. Over time, now we have put away numerous Taco Bell potatoes collectively, sucked down so many shared Baja Blasts, and have usually flashed the “marry me” Hearth Sauce packets at one another — at first as a joke, then finally significantly. Ten years after that first date, once we’d moved to a unique and extra Taco Bell-rich metropolis and had determined, why not get married?, Jon acquired down on one knee, the place else however exterior a Taco Bell.
But this factor that I as soon as thought made Jon and I so foolish and particular is, it seems, not precisely distinctive. I discovered that the Taco Bell the place we met closed through Reddit. One of many feedback even learn, “My spouse and I had our first date right here in 2013.” Did I simply discover Jon’s alt? Studying the consumer historical past made it clear that this was a very completely different couple, who occurred to have met in the identical place on the identical time.
Once I lately interviewed {couples} about their date evening habits, two of them introduced up Taco Bell with none prompting on my finish. “Our first date was at Taco Bell,” one individual even famous. Taco Bell weddings are apparently of sufficient curiosity that the corporate affords them as a ready-to-go Las Vegas “expertise.” And other people have, it appears, certainly used these “marry me” sauce packets significantly. What precisely is it about Taco Bell?
I requested Jon why we met at Taco Bell and never, say, at a McDonald’s. “Taco Bell is pleasant,” he mentioned, including that it’s each scrumptious and somewhat cheesy. I’ve by no means actually had affection for McDonald’s, however even when I did, I can’t think about having made my username “mcdonaldsforever,” nor eager to heart a dialog round McDonald’s. That might really feel too earnest by some means: McDonald’s simply isn’t very humorous, nor does it point out something attention-grabbing, I feel, about one’s style.
There’s a purpose, in spite of everything, that Taco Bell has earned its personal literary journal, the independently run Taco Bell Quarterly, whereas there is no such thing as a lovingly joking analog referred to as McDonald’s Month-to-month. (The primary query in Quarterly’s submission pointers: “Is that this a joke?” It’s not; there have been seven volumes to date.)
Taco Bell, in contrast to many different chains, has at all times felt somewhat ironic and in by itself joke. Possibly that is by advantage of its meals, which has by no means been about authenticity however irreverence, the chain inventing its personal ridiculous taxonomy of mash-ups (Mexican pizza, quesarito). Taco Bell isn’t “actual” Mexican meals, nevertheless it has at all times, no less than in my lifetime, been understanding about this: A Cheez-It tostada lands at Taco Bell, as a result of its viewers is stoners and foolish folks. Possibly including to the chain’s cheeky vibe is the truth that for therefore lengthy, it was promoted by a speaking chihuahua.
Both approach, Taco Bell has at all times felt just like the shitpost choice. To recommend it because the assembly level for a date feels much less like being low cost, as I’d really feel if a suitor steered Chick-fil-A or Burger King, and extra like sussing out another person’s style and whether or not they too are additionally somewhat goofy and enjoyable and never self-serious. They will just like the intellectual however they’re humble sufficient to just accept that generally, nothing hits like gooey, processed cheese. Taco Bell is the Haha, however what if? selection. To like Taco Bell is to additionally pay attention to all of the methods perhaps you shouldn’t love Taco Bell. And but, we are able to’t assist what we love.
Occasions change. The quesarito is not formally on the menu board. The mall the place we met changed its chain-filled meals court docket with a meals corridor of upscaled choices. We don’t eat Taco Bell as a lot anymore. However Jon and me, that’s endlessly.