Irvine-based Taco Bell unveiled in Orange County on Wednesday its next generation of stores – each of which embraces one of four distinct designs that scrap the fast-food industry’s one-size-fits-all mantra.

The redesigned restaurants in Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Tustin and Brea feature patios with fireplaces, communal dining tables made of reclaimed wood, exhibition kitchens, dome lighting, chalkboard menu specials and midcentury modern lounge chairs.

Restaurants in Tustin and Santa Ana also feature cushioned booth seating, hacienda-style light fixtures and tables with outlets for charging electronic devices.

“It’s like I fell asleep and woke up in 2020. It’s so modern,” 23-year-old Austin Henriquez said while eating a Double Decker taco at the Santa Ana eatery.

His friend David Gomez said he tried out one of the sofa benches but opted for a table instead. “I didn’t want to fall asleep.”

Though Henriquez and others called the changes inviting, some were turned off by the warmer tones.

“It looks like a hospital,” said Vince Simonelli, 34 of Huntington Beach. “It feels cold and isolated.”

Company spokesman Rob Poetsch said Taco Bell restaurants try to create “a unique, distinctive experience for our guests.”

Of the 2,000 restaurants the chain plans to open by 2022, 200 will be in urban locations. New restaurants will adopt one of the four designs: California Sol, Modern Explorer, Heritage and Urban Edge. Franchisees can choose one of the looks when their stores are up for a remodel.

Taco Bell declined to provide the cost of each design; however, Poetsch said the capital investment “is at parity with existing Taco Bell builds.”

Taco Bell’s Mexican-inspired fast-food offerings are the same at the remodeled stores, which is not the case at the chain’s other urban concept, Cantina.

Taco Bell said a third Cantina restaurant is slated to open later this fall in Las Vegas. The 24-hour, two-story Las Vegas Strip location, across from the sleek Cosmopolitan hotel, is the chain’s first restaurant along the congested thoroughfare.

The chain introduced the concept last year in Chicago and San Francisco. Taco Bell Cantinas serve shareable dishes, beer, wine, sangria and liquor-infused slushie drinks dubbed Twisted Freezes. Eight flavors will be available in Las Vegas.

Alcohol choices include rum, tequila and vodka.

In Las Vegas, the restaurant will feature an outdoor patio for alfresco dining.

Brian Niccol, chief executive at Taco Bell, said earlier this year that urban market expansion is a key focus for Taco Bell.

There are no plans to bring a Cantina to Orange County. Taco Bell said Atlanta is being explored as the next urban development, as well as New York; Boston; Ohio; Berkeley; Austin, Texas; and Fayetteville, Ark.

The design changes at Taco Bell come as the chain continues to perform well amid overall stagnation in the restaurant industry.

Foot traffic has flatlined in the industry, according to market research company NPD Group.

In a “flat market, it’s a battle” for share, and those that win are operators who focus on their customers’ needs and deliver on them, NPD restaurant analyst Bonnie Riggs said.

For the third quarter, which ended Sept. 3, Taco Bell same-store sales, a key indicator of a restaurant’s financial health, increased 3 percent.

“Half the U.S. population eats Taco Bell once a month,” Yum CEO Greg Creed told CNBC during an interview Wednesday morning. The average customer visits every 11 days.

At an investor conference staged earlier this week, the chain discussed menu items in the works.

The Naked Chicken Chalupa, a taco with a shell made out of spicy fried chicken, “will be a major Taco Bell product launch early on in 2017,” Nomura analyst Mark Kalinowski said in a briefing note Tuesday.

He said other menu items in the pipeline include crispy chicken chips, a 99-cent queso (cheese) beef burrito, a $1 loaded taco burrito, double-stacked tacos and something called a Quesalupa 2.0.

Contact the writer: nluna@scng.com