Contributed by Restonian, Local Blogger
Before there was an ersatz downtown, fanciful concrete bollards, parking validation, or even woonerf, there was Reston's arguably greatest contribution to suburban planning: the McTacoHut.
The combination of McDonald's, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, each with ample parking, seemed to tempt the fates with its excessive hubris (and cholesterol). Its location on Roger Bacon Drive served as proof that Reston's early planners actually did have a sense of humor (for further proof, consider the "sunken living room").
DRB-friendly rules confined the Golden Arches within a modest stucco box. The other two eateries didn't even have roadside signs, making them exclusive spots known only to the earth-toned hoi polloi. Even so, the McTacoHut would supplant early Reston fast food gems like Burger Chef and Jack in the Box, which proved incapable of competing with the temptations of three different kinds of carbohydrate-laden products.
And McTacoHut made headlines! A 1970s issue of The Reston Industrial Landsales Newsletter, a real publication that rivaled the The New York Times and The Washington Post in circulation among aficionados of industrial land sales, profiled what it called Reston's "fast food park," as if scarfing down doughy breadsticks is as healthy as a leisurely stroll, noting that our Pizza Hut was the second-highest grossing location in all of Northern Virginia.
Sadly, McTacoHut is no more. The McDonald's "modernized" its look, replacing the original building with an earth-toned box. Very Reston, come to think of it. Pizza Hut departed next, leaving us with the original architecture, a bougie pizza place, and the less dignified McTacoPup moniker. And now, with the Taco Bell reduced to rubble as part of a renovation, who knows what will rise in its place -- except that we know it will use soda dispensers to inject tortillas with meat.
But we digress. Every time you're on some interstate zipping through West Spittle, Nowhere, and you see a combination KFC/Taco Bell, you can thank the McTacoHut, or not, the end.
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