Taco Bell has opened a prototype restaurant in Commerce City that features upscale touches that the chain hopes will serve as its blueprint for future stores.

In the daytime, the Taco Bell might look like any other.

Its mission-style adobe architecture, however, has been replaced by an exterior of aluminum-slat walls, stacked rock accents and bright LED lighting that accents the building’s purple background. Inside, bright tabletops, white pendant LED lighting and contemporary artwork give the 54-seat restaurant a more hip feel. Free Wi-Fi also will be available for dine-in customers.

“It’s a sleeker-looking building,” said Jeff Geller, executive vice president for Alvarado Cos., owners of 90 Taco Bell franchises in Colorado, New Mexico and California along with about 50 other Yum Brands stores (Pizza Hut, KFC) and Long John Silver’s.

“As wonderful as this building looks during the day,” Geller said, “at nighttime it shines like a beacon of purple light.”

The prototype serves the same food as other Taco Bells, including its Cantina Bell menu created by celebrity chef Lorena Garcia. The menu has largely been interpreted by analysts as an attempt by the chain to compete more directly with upmarket competitors such as Chipotle and Qdoba.

Don Roberts, director of concept development for Irvine, Calif.-based Taco Bell, said Wednesday that customers like the fast-food chain’s recent menu additions, and the new building design is a reflection of that “positive energy.”

“Our approach is to give our customers the best experience possible,” he said.

David Kincheloe, president of National Restaurant Consultants in Denver, said the new menu and building design mean Taco Bell is “taking direct aim at Chipotle and Qdoba.”

Those fast-casual restaurants “probably are eating into Taco Bell’s business a little bit,” Kincheloe said, “and they’re trying to find a way to combat that.”

Taco Bell isn’t the only fast-food chain to experiment with new store design in an effort to boost its business. McDonald’s several years ago launched a similar effort that added plasma-screen TVs and more-comfortable chairs to its restaurants.

Located at 15450 E. 104th Ave., just east of Chambers Road, the protoype restaurant has been embraced by neighbors. Except for a Taco Bell at Denver International Airport, there isn’t another Taco Bell within 10 miles.

Geller talked Taco Bell into the project partly so franchisees could see the store during the company’s national sales conference next week in Colorado Springs.

“If all goes well, this store will be the first of many more to feature the new look,” he said.

John Mossman: 303-954-1479, jmossman@denverpost.com