The drag performers lined their way through the crowd of 40 party people who were just this side of tipsy at the Mexican restaurant in Chicago last Sunday.
This was not a standard drag event. The microphone in the lead queen's hand was a Grande Toasted Breakfast Burrito. The M.C. was a Mexican American performer who wore a frilly, skintight dress with a logo on the belly at a taco Bell Cantina down the block from Wrigley Field.
The drag king Tenderoni, the queens Miss Toto and Aunty Chan, and Kay Sedia were in a show that lasted 45 minutes. The sound of a bong was followed by a drinking game.
She was at the party to celebrate her 19th birthday. She declared her first drag show to bebreathtaking.
She said she was at a loss for words.
It's hard to imagine a gayer way to spend an afternoon at a fast food joint. The most mainstream marriage of drag and dining has arrived in time for June's Pride celebrations.
It has taken drag over a border that it hasn't been before, to an exciting new place of accessibility, said Mr. Jeffreys, who teaches theater studies at N.Y.U. He hadn't been to one of the chain's brunches.
Corporate fast-food chains are trying to grab the attention of L.G.B.T.Q. consumers. Burger King said it would donate 40 cents from every order of its King sandwich to the Human Rights Campaign in June, after naming the out rapper as its chief impact officer last year.
The political landscape may be changing. The creation of drag queen story hours for children at public libraries has caused protests and some cancellation. The governor of Florida signed a bill that revoked Disney World's special tax status after the company spoke out against the bill.
Corporations are challenged to decide how to support a group of consumers without alienating conservative customers. Several companies that have voiced concern about recent legislation in other states are not included in the list of companies that are taking its drag to Florida.
Fast-food brands are embracing this year's Pride season. The It Gets Better Project will get a grant from the Taco Bell Foundation, as well as percentages of their proceeds from June.
The current political fights over gay and trans issues don't reflect what consumers think, according to a professor at the University of Miami. She said that Gen Z requires it when it comes to queer acceptance.
Dr. Oakenfull said that drag queens are no longer a risk and that corporations are not feeling heat because they use drag as a marketing tool.
Some negative comments were generated when a photo from Las Vegas was posted on social media. The show's breakfast salsa has been the only complaint so far.
The tour began in Las Vegas on May 1 and will stop in New York City on June 12 and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on June 26. The events are free and limited to customers ages 18 and older and are being held at the Cantina locations.
All of the reservations were taken up quickly by members of the brand's rewards program.
Robert Fisher, a senior production designer at Taco Bell, said the drag brunch idea surfaced a year ago within Live Más Pride, Taco Bell's L.G.B.T.Q. employee resource group and made its way to the company.
Mr. Fisher said his managers understood that if a drag brunch hosted by taco bell was going to feel legit, the company had to act as if it had been invited to be part of the L.G.B.T.
The company hired local drag artists to perform with Oscar in each city and signed her as the tour's drag hostess. Taco Bell wouldn't say how much the tour cost or how much the talent was paid. The performers have taken care to keep their language clean.
Mr. Quintero said that he has a lot of people on social media who are across the political and religious spectrum.
The relationship between drag and dining goes back to the mid-20th century when drag shows were in bars and restaurants. According to Mr. Jeffreys, drag brunches began in the early 1990s during the second decade of the AIDS crisis. In the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., there is a restaurant called Perry's, which has hosted a drag brunch since 1991.
Drag brunches are an essential weekend outing in many cities, a draw for birthday parties. There are new ways in which food and drag intersect, from meal-delivery services to sausage-making parties.
The commercial torpedo that finally sinks a subverted art form is taco bell's brunch.
Some feel that the ship has been there for a long time. Harry James Hanson, a co-author of the new book "legends of drag", said that drag is now in the mainstream.
Mr. Hanson said that drag queens are cultural ambassadors.
Maybe that is what is happening at taco bell drag is being introduced to audiences who might not otherwise go to a drag show if the invitation weren't from taco bell.
The first person in line for the second of two Chicago shows was a 25-year-old straight father who runs a taco Bell fan site.
He said after the show that he would return if the fast-food chain hosted another drag show.
The company is fine with people not being as happy with its shows. The global chief brand officer of taco bell said that drag brunch is not about politics or backlash.
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