There’s not much of a food scene in the Inland Empire, but the region, and the city of San Bernardino specifically, is at the center of the development of that quintessentially American icon, the fast food restaurant franchise.

There’s a good article by Jerry Daley, “Fast Food’s Ground Zero,” in the current, March 2009, issue of Inland Empire Magazine, unfortunately not online,  which touches on the well-known story of how Ray Kroc, a milkshake equipment salesman, was so impressed by the McDonald’s brothers’ hamburger stand in San Bernardino that he approached them about opening more.

The intersection of 14th and E streets in San Bernardino is no different than any other major crossing in the Inland Empire. But to fast food aficionados, it is nothing less than “ground chuck zero.”

But the focus of the article is Glen Bell, who returned to his home in San Bernardino after World War II and, like Ray Kroc, was inspired by the success of the McDonald’s stand to open his own restaurant, Bell’s Drive-In, with his best friend Neal Baker.  They added hard-shelled tacos to the hamburger menu in the 1950s and Bell’s Drive-In became Taco Bell in 1954.  Neal Baker then set out on his own, with Bell’s support, also in San Bernardino, and established what came to be the 34 stores of Baker’s Drive-Thru restaurants, what the article calls “a mainstay of the Inland Empire fast food scene.”  (I’ve never eaten at Baker’s, being an In-N-Out Burger fan myself, but I will have to check it out soon.)  Glen Bell then convinced one of his employees, Ed Backbarth, to move to Barstow and open up another taco stand, Casa Del Taco, which eventually — and supposedly without acrimony — became the Del Taco chain.  Likewise, the founder of the hot dog chain Weinerschnitzel supposedly also worked for Glen Bell.

Other large fast food chains started nearby; Carl’s Jr. in San Diego, Jack-in-the-Box in Anaheim, In-N-Out Burger in Baldwin Park, and Tommy’s in Los Angeles.  But only San Bernardino spawned McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Del Taco, and countless smaller fast food chains that, like Baker’s Drive-Thru, Farmer Boy’s, Fatburger or Gus Jr.’s, are local or regional favorites.