Goodbye, Old Friend (Great Bend Taco)

If walls could talk, I wonder what kind of stories the Great Bend Taco (formerly Taco Hut) would tell. That place has been around for more years than I have been alive, and today they closed the doors.

I was born in Great Bend, Kansas and lived in the same house until I was fifteen. Back then, most of my visits to Taco Hut were with one or both of my sisters.  I always ordered the same thing, a cheese smothered sancho. The cheese was perfectly melted and bubbly from the steamer, every single time. Nothing could match that taste.

Taco Hut was unique, as the location adjoined with Pizza Hut and one could simply walk through an inside door to get from one restaurant to the other. My parents and I frequented the Pizza Hut often as well,  with their red and white checkered tablecloths and red candleholders on each table. My parents usually ordered pasta (cavatini), and I can distinctly remember how fantastic their pizzas were back then. Wash it down with a Pepsi in one of their bumpy red plastic glasses, and the meal was perfection! When Sicilian Pan Pizza (now simply pan pizza) made it’s debut, things could not have been any better! Oh goodness, I digress…back to Taco Hut. 

We moved away from Great Bend almost 41 years ago, but have made trips back at least once a year to visit relatives. The ONE thing we always did was pay a visit to Taco Hut.  As I’ve gotten older I do realize it wasn’t really the food that brought me back time and time again. It was the place itself, completely unchanged by time. Everything looked and smelled  exactly the same as it did in my childhood. Although the adjoining Pizza Hut had been gone for many years, Taco Hut was still there to greet me. Even when the name changed to Great Bend Taco, it remained the same.

My brother, sisters, and even cousins also made it a point to visit Taco Hut when they passed through town. We were last there in October. . I heard that the owner recently passed away, and that is the reason for the closure. Maybe someone else will re-open it, but will they keep it the same? I highly doubt it. I know that old menu board has seen better days, but so have we. 

So, for now…goodbye old friend. Thank you for a lifetime of memories and for extending my childhood just a little longer. I will definitely miss you.