Bedford woke up Wednesday to the smell of grilled tacos and the sight of a line stretching around a brand-new drive-thru at 3060 John Williams Boulevard — Indiana's very first Del Taco. The first 100 customers walked away with two free tacos every week for a year and a commemorative T-shirt, a launch-day giveaway that capped off months of anticipation in the small southern Indiana city.
The grand opening followed a members-only ribbon-cutting and VIP preview held two days earlier by the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce, which required an RSVP for the private event, according to the Southern Indiana Business Report. As Fox 59 reports, the new restaurant serves up the chain's staple menu of tacos, burritos, quesadillas, burgers and fries, giving Bedford residents a new dining option.
Before Wednesday, Del Taco's nearest restaurants sat in Michigan and Ohio, per Fox 59's reporting, meaning Bedford residents previously had to cross state lines for a taste of the chain founded in 1964. Now the company describes itself as the nation's second-largest Mexican quick-serve chain, and Bedford is where that identity officially crosses into Indiana territory.
A Bigger Plan Than One Storefront
The Indiana expansion is tied to a 10-unit development agreement announced in February 2025 to bring Del Taco into Indiana, according to Business Wire. Fox 59 lists Avon, Bloomington, Columbus, Greenwood and Plainfield among the additional sites identified for the chain's Indiana rollout, with Bedford serving as the first domino to fall.
SLK Holdings is led by franchise partner Cole Sinclair, whose team brings a background in real estate development and finance, according to the same Business Wire release. Building out that footprint isn't cheap: a March 2024 franchise disclosure document filed with the Indiana Secretary of State's office shows that opening a single Del Taco requires a total investment ranging from $813,700 to $1.9 million, including initial franchise fees, the Indianapolis Business Journal reported.
Corporate Turmoil Behind the Tacos
Bedford's grand opening lands amid a turbulent stretch for Del Taco's parent company. By October 2025, Jack in the Box had completed the sale of Del Taco Holdings Inc. to multi-brand operator Yadav Enterprises Inc. for $115 million, according to Nation's Restaurant News. Jack in the Box had purchased Del Taco for $575 million in 2021. The sale was part of Jack in the Box's “Jack on Track” plan to pay down corporate debt.
Yadav Enterprises wasted little time reshuffling leadership, appointing a new chief transformation officer and chief marketing officer in January to turn around a brand that had logged several same-store sales declines, Restaurant Dive reported. Same-store sales had fallen 3.9 percent during the fiscal fourth quarter that preceded the leadership overhaul.
Restaurant Dive's later reporting described financial distress involving one Colorado franchisee. Even so, Del Taco still operates roughly 550 to 600 locations across 17 to 18 states, leaving it a distant second in scale behind Taco Bell's more than 8,000 U.S. restaurants — a comparison the Indianapolis Business Journal has drawn in its coverage of the Indiana expansion.
A Fresh Start in the Midwest
None of that corporate churn was on display in Bedford Wednesday, where the new store's giveaway drew the kind of buzz reserved for something genuinely new in town. The Bedford opening also highlights the role of groups like SLK Holdings in markets such as southern Indiana.
Del Taco enters Indiana as a national chain with a sizable existing footprint. For Bedford, the fact that a national chain finally chose to set up shop matters more than any corporate distinction — with nine more Indiana locations reportedly still to come.
