Unless you grew up in the Inland Empire or you’re a California history nerd like me, you’ve probably never heard of Baker’s. However, this fast-food chain and its founder, Neal Baker, played both small and big roles in the development of some of the biggest fast-food chains we all know today. Move over Kevin Bacon, this is the “Six Degrees of Neal Baker.”
Born on March 27th 1924 in Illinois, Neal Baker grew up in Muscoy near San Bernardino and graduated from San Bernardino High School in 1942. Soon after he went into the construction business and one of his first jobs was helping 2 brothers with their restaurant. Those brothers? Richard and Maurice McDonald, the founders of McDonald’s, who revolutionized the fast-food industry. Baker helped them build their restaurant after they moved the building from Monrovia to San Bernardino, but before they revamped the building and created the “Speedee Service System.”
In 1946 Neal and his brothers built a family home out of adobe bricks they made themselves and soon after they opened an adobe brickyard in Riverside County. Baker hired his high school best friend, Glen Bell, to haul the bricks for 5 cents a brick.
Bell and Baker would often hang out in the McDonald’s parking lot, marveling at the crowds of people buying hamburgers from the McDonald’s brothers. One of those times Bell told Baker, “I’m going to start a hamburger stand…and you’re going to help me build [it].”
Baker helped Bell build a hamburger stand across from Mitla Cafe,at the corner of 6th Street and Mount Vernon Avenue in San Bernardino in 1948. This is where Bell took the idea for “hardshell tacos;” from Mitla’s “tacos dorados con carne molida” but that’s a story for another day.
This hamburger stand was the first in a series of fast-food restaurants that would eventually become Taco Bell.
Baker decided that he too wanted to try his hand in the fast-food business and found an empty lot on Highland Avenue in San Bernardino and opened Baker’s Burgers in 1952. Neal built the entire building himself and his wife Carol, who had a successful interior design business, put the finishing touches inside the restaurant.
In 1953, they added a second location in Rialto on Foothill Blvd, which still stands today. Seeing the success that his friend Bell was having with Mexican fast-food, Baker decided to add it to his menu in 1955 and innovated the “Twin Kitchen” concept, two cuisines in one location.
One window of the restaurant for Mexican food and one window for hamburgers. If somebody wanted a taco and a hamburger, they would have to wait in line twice. Shortly after, the restaurant thankfully changed that system.
While operating his chain, Baker employed 2 people who would go on to found their own fast food chains.
Ed Hackbarth worked part time for Baker before going on to manage the Barstow location of Bell’s Burgers. Hackbarth would eventually strike out on his own and start “Casa del Taco” in Yermo, which would eventually become the Del Taco chain. Hackberth would go on to add Richard “Dick” Naugle as a partner and Naugle would to go to found the Naugles fast food chain.
John Galardi had been hired by Bell to run his commissary, but when a consultant advised Bell to cut Galardi’s pay by half, he gave his notice and got hired by Baker to work at Baker’s Burgers in Los Angeles. Galardi would go on to found the hot dog chain Der Wienerschnitzel.
I’m telling you, the 6 degrees of Neal Baker are pretty incredible.
Despite having such a successful chain, Neal Baker did not expand as greatly as his fellow San Bernardino fast food peers. He briefly opened locations outside of the Inland Empire, but was content to have Baker’s remain a regional chain. He was also claustrophobic, which prevented him from flying and solidified his decision to keep the locations close to home.
Baker was also keen on innovating and keeping his chain family-friendly, often running specials to entice family’s to visit. One of those specials was one of the earliest “Taco Tuesday” promotions in 1976.
Baker’s was also one of the first chains to add vegetarian options to their menu. In response to the largely vegetarian population of Loma Linda, a menu with an array of non-meat dishes was made available at that location. The “Loma Linda Kitchen” menu, as Baker called it, proved to be so popular that it was eventually made available at all locations.
Despite only having 39 locations concentrated in the Inland Empire, Baker’s continues to thrive by adhering to their old school way of doing things; they don’t have a central commissary; all of the restaurants shred their own cheese, slice their tomatoes, and hand scoop their shakes.
They have also always been deeply involved in giving back to their community. Baker’s has participated in many philanthropic causes, including raising over $3 million dollars for Easterseals of Southern California and donating the land that now houses the Baker Family Learning Center.
Neal Baker passed away in 2008 and his beloved wife Carol in 2017, but their legacy lives on. The impact Baker’s had on the fast food industry can’t be understated and it deserves to be recognized as equally as the other fast food titans to have been born in the Inland Empire.
References:
“Founder of the Baker’s Drive-Thru Restaurants” by Valerie J. Nelson, The L.A. Times Jan 10, 2024.
“Neal T. Baker Dies at Home in Redlands” by Staff, The Redlands Daily Facts. June 2, 2008.
“Southern California has Given the World So Much. And Fast Food Too” by Patt Morrison, The L.A. Times. April 5, 2022.
“How Inland Entrepreneurs Helped Launch the Fast Food Industry” by Richard K. De Atley, The Press-Enterprise. January 12, 2015.
“How Fast Food History was Made at These 12 Southern California Sites” by Fielding Buck, The Orange County Register. March 20, 2020.
“Q&A Bakers Drive Thru at Home in Region” by Tiffany Ray, The Press Enterprise. May 31, 2011.
“Carol Baker, Philanthropist and Former President of Baker’s Drive-Thru, Has Died” by Kristina Hernandez, The Redlands Daily Facts. June 7, 2017.
“Made in California” by George Geary pg. 175-178, pg. 229, and 237.
“Taco Titan: The Glen Bell Story” by Debra Lee Baldwin pg. 46, 60, 70, 76, and 88.