100 types of happiness in tortillas
It’s time for Taco Tour, one of the high points of Manchester’s food calendar and the unofficial opening of the food festival season. For four hours on Thursday, May 8, downtown Manchester will host thousands of taco enthusiasts. More than 100 Manchester restaurants, food trucks and businesses will serve their own spins on tacos for $3 each.
Cole Riel from the Greater Manchester Chamber is the organizer of this year’s Taco Tour.
“This is one of the larger food festivals,” Riel said. “When I look at other taco events, it’s funny. Sometimes they’ll be like, ‘Yeah, we have 10 different taco vendors!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s cute. Yeah, we’ll have over 100 different options for folks to choose from.”
The tour even has its own Grand Marshall. Max Clayton, born and raised in Manchester and now a performer in several Broadway musicals, will help kick off this year’s event, according to a Chamber press release.
Riel said that as the Taco Tour has grown it has come to represent a good cross-section of Manchester’s restaurants.
“When we took the event over after the first year,” he said, “we just knew, OK, if this many people are going to come, there needs to be enough options to keep the line moving, to keep everyone happy. For the most part, that growth is just in more and more downtown businesses supporting the event. I was really happy to get the call from the Crown Tavern and Hanover Street Chop House, who are participating this year for the first time since Covid. Then we have some new friends like Dishon Bakery and Moka Pot. It’s a good mix of folks who’ve been here and now their business is just a little bit more stable and they’re able to participate in the event, and folks who have moved into downtown are just really excited to be involved.”
Riel said the fact that Taco Tour takes place in a limited area for a limited amount of time sets it apart from other big food events.
“A lot of times, [food businesses] will go to a food expo or something like that,” he said. “They’re driving to Boston and then they’re paying for the table, they’re sampling product, and then they’re hoping to get some sort of clients out of that. Here, we’re taking the vast majority of attendees right to the door of each restaurant. They’re paying $3 to have the taco that night. A restaurant will see a thousand, two thousand, sometimes three thousand customers eating their food in a four-hour period. And that’s kind of hard to replicate anywhere.”
Chyna Potts is an internet food influencer known as Auntie Eats First on Instagram and TikTok. She is a diehard Taco Tour enthusiast. She is looking forward to all the tacos this year, but especially ones with an Italian twist.
“I love a good Italian rendition,” she said. “So, Piccola [Italia] was one of my favorites from last year; they did a chicken Parm and a chicken Caesar taco, and those were next level.”
For Potts, one of the make-or-break features of any type of taco is the shell. For instance, “Piccola Italia just used a typical tortilla last year,” she said. “They didn’t switch up anything. A lot of [Taco Tour restaurants] pay homage to a typical taco, but if we’re talking maybe one of the sushi joints, they might do it on a wonton wrapper or something of that nature. They do sushi tacos, but almost everybody pretty much pays homage to a typical taco. Sometimes they’ll feature chicken tikka masala, or something like that, but it’s still going to always be wrapped in that typical taco form.”
Given her choice of crunchy taco shells, corn tortillas or flour tortillas, Potts said there is very little contest. “I’m a soft-shell chalupa girl,” she said. “The only time I eat anything like a hard shell is when I’m eating nachos. I love a good soft shell. I love a good all-American taco. I mean that’s just always going to be me.”
Taco Tour 2025
This year’s Taco Tour will take place on Thursday, May 8, from 4 to 8 p.m. on Elm Street in Manchester. Elm Street will be blocked off for pedestrian traffic from Bridge Street to Granite Street (near the SNHU Arena). Some businesses will also serve tacos on side streets off Elm Street. Visit tacotourmanchester.com/info.
Here is a sampling of what you will find at this year’s Taco Tour:
Annapurna Curry and Sekuwa House will serve a vegetable and chicken taco
Alley Cat Pizza plans to offer slices of pizza “with taco stuff on it.”
Boards & Brews is tentatively planning on serving pork tacos with apple and pineapple salsas.
Firefly Bistro, perennial winner of the Tour’s Best Taco award, will serve its proven winner cheesy chicken tacos on flour tortillas topped with crema and crispy tortilla strips.
Republic Brewing will serve falafel tacos, which will be vegan-friendly.
The Hop Knot will offer “walking tacos” with cowboy caviar, beer cheese and jalapeño honey.
The Potato Concept will serve “mashed po-tacos” and vegan taco chili.
The Terracotta Room will have taco-themed merchandise on hand.
The Sleazy Vegan will offer a Jamaican jerked taco with mango/jalapeño salsa.]
Featured photo: Previous Taco Tours. Photos courtesy of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce.