Our Favorite Bites From Tacolandia 2023

Mondays are tough, but this series isn’t. Social Sightings is a quick taste of recent food tidbits that goes down as easy as your first cup of coffee, and should whet your appetite for the week ahead.

On Saturday, August 19, taco-loving revelers gathered in Civic Center Park for Westword‘s annual Tacolandia celebration. Not even a little rainstorm could dampen the enthusiasm that over thirty local food businesses brought to the party.

Last year, Chile con Quesadilla had pulled up in its pink truck and was a crowd favorite. Since then, it’s opened a brick- and-mortar location in Brighton at 227 North Main Street. The team was back at Tacolandia with a pink tent for 2023 and was once again a standout, serving up some seriously impressive brisket tacos loaded with creamy mac and cheese.

In the VIP area, El Tamarindo was the place to go for anyone looking to feel the burn. Its tacos were being served with a choice of three salsas, two of which brought a whole lot of heat, especially if you also added a roasted jalapeño, too. The restaurant, located at 7700 East Colfax Avenue, specializes in food from Central America, with a menu that includes pupusas, tajadas (fried plantains) and a shrimp cocktail that landed it on our list of must-stops along RTD bus route 6.

McDevitt Taco Supply, which started in Boulder as a cart in 2011, opened a brick-and-mortar there in 2017 and added an outpost in Denver on the rooftop of the VÄ«b Best Western in RiNo last year, has a mission statement that begins, “We are not traditional. We aren’t authentic.” True to that sentiment, it used the Vietnamese banh mi sandwich as inspiration for its Tacolandia contribution, which was stacked with pork belly, pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, mint, basil, green onion, jalapeño and chile lime mayo.

In April, chef Oscar Padilla, who won an episode of the Food Network’s Chopped this year, debuted his Argentinian concept Gaucho Parrilla inside Arvada’s Freedom Street Social food hall. At Tacolandia, it served up a deeply flavored taco filled with a less common ingredient: blood sausage. The rich meat got a boost of freshness from the herb-filled chimichurri sauce on top, making for a well-balanced bite.

La Cocina de Lucho, which operates both a food truck and a brick-and-mortar on Havana Street in Aurora, serves a menu that also highlights Argentinian fare. Instead of tacos (which are on its regular menu), it handed out bite-sized portions of its choripán sandwich, loaded with flavorful Argentinian pork sausage.

Because we can never get enough tacos, we recently served up our 2023 list of the ten best taco joints in the metro area. Whether you’re craving classic street tacos, Cali-style fish tacos or birria, we’ve got you covered; check out the full list.

And if you missed out on the Tacolandia festivities, be sure to nab your tickets for Feast, which returns to the McNichols Building in Civic Center Park on September 28 and features unlimited bites from many of the best restaurants in the city, including Adobo, Safta, Daughter Thai, Roaming Buffalo, Somebody People and more.