ST. LOUIS (KSDK) - St. Louisans love a lot of things. The Cardinals. The splendor of the Gateway Arch. The roaring waters of the Mississippi River. Asking people where they went to high school. Culinary delicacies like gooey butter cake, Italian food on the Hill, Gus' Pretzels, Budweiser and the provel cheese that adorns an Imo's Pizza.
But there is only one thing that, without fail, St. Louisans love to tweet about: Taco Bell.
Let me take a step back. My name is Allison Sylte, and I am a web producer here at KSDK. Every day, I arrive at our editorial meeting with a sheet of paper listing all of the things that are trending in St. Louis to present to our team of producers, reporters and news managers. Often, these items reflect the news of the day, be it #STLCards or other significant things happening around the world.
Sometimes they're goofy, like #MyWeirdFamily or #TBT. But there is one thing that is ever present on the list: Taco Bell (sometimes Starbucks makes a cameo, as you can see in the screengrab below, but Taco Bell is truly omnipresent). It does not appear that Taco Bell is promoted, at least, not every time it's trending...which is EVERY DAY.
I am from Colorado. Surprisingly, Taco Bell did not perpetually trend in Denver as it does in St. Louis, which is surprising because...well... [insert Colorado stereotype here].
Below, you can find proof of the St. Louis Twitter Taco Bell trend.
For those of you unfamiliar with our modern day fast food landscape, Taco Bell is defined by Urban Dictionary as a "slow, delicious death." Others probably know it as the reasonably-priced fast food restaurant that serves delicacies like a Doritos Loco Tacos and the Crunchwrap Supreme until 2 a.m. or later (and has now introduced a breakfast item called the "waffle taco").
The business is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands Inc., which also franchises A&W Restaurants, KFC, Long John Silver's and Pizza Hut, according to the Taco Bell website. There were 4,651 franchise locations in the U.S. in 2013 – and there are roughly 10 within a fairly close proximity to KSDK.com headquarters.
But this doesn't explain why Taco Bell is trending every single day, and I would like to know. Tweet @AllisonSylte and complete this sentence: "I tweet about @TacoBell because..." I will include the best answers in this article.
In the meantime, please enjoy the below photo gallery of Taco Bell-related photos:
