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Taco Tour Manchester Showcases Creative Cuisine
The beloved annual festival pushes the taco’s form to extraordinary heights
BY CALEB JAGODA / PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX KUMPH
New Hampshire isn’t known for its tacos. And why would it be? According to population estimates from the U.S. Census, the Granite State is 92.6% white, and only 4.6% Hispanic or Latino. Why, then, does our Queen City claim to host “the world’s largest taco tour”?
Maybe because tacos are now as ubiquitous in the U.S. as pizza and, like that import from Italy, have traveled far and wide from their humble roots in Mexico.
Taco Tour Manchester began in 2011 under the name “Hippo de Mayo Taco Challenge,” as a business promotion via alt-weekly newspaper The Hippo. A handful of local restaurants served tacos pop-up style on Elm Street — nothing crazy, just a fun event encouraging folks to visit downtown. In only a few short years, though, things would heat up. By 2018, the event was gaining a reputation as Manchester’s most boisterous annual happening, with the city shutting down its main strip to traffic and tens of thousands of attendees showing up.
In 2020, the pandemic put taco festivities on hold, and then the Greater Manchester Chamber brought them back in 2022 under the new name, “Taco Tour Manchester.” It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, though; 25,000 attendees combined with a quickly-thrown-together plan produced hours-long lines and prematurely sold-out vendors.
All of this brings us to the 2023 Taco Tour: With one dry run under their belt, the chamber had an entire year to carefully plan, plot and scheme the perfect taco tundra. Would they bring taco glory back to New Hampshire?
Tacos gone wild
While it’s now coined a taco tour, calling it a taco challenge may be more fitting. The 2023 Manchester Taco Tour saw 98 vendors in attendance; given our state’s demographics, it’s not exactly a plausible feat to host 98 authentic Mexican joints, all based in New Hampshire, slinging handmade tacos.
Instead, all of these Granite State restaurants donned their thinking caps and got to experimenting in test kitchens. The result? Dessert tacos, falafel tacos, sushi tacos, chicken parmesan and Caesar salad tacos (combined, in one taco!), alligator tacos — these were just a few of the options served at the 2023 Manchester Taco Tour.
The tour’s official director, Cole Riel, compares attending the event to visiting Disney Land: To ensure maximum efficiency, one must spread a map, plan a route and go in with surefire objectives. Otherwise, a sea of possibilities (and a near-literal sea of attendees) might wash you far, far away from any semblance of taco satisfaction. That wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.
I arrived early on Manchester’s Elm Street, about an hour before the tour’s 4 p.m. start time. My crew and I — photographer Alex Kumph, accompanied by his younger brother, good-time-guy Colby — watched vendors set up in the eerily-deserted downtown, heavy rainclouds blooming overhead. We ducked into The Pint Publik House on Elm Street to grab a brew and plan our route.
As luck would have it, a visiting Dos Equis rep had visited the bar and left an open tab of $200 (talk about a good omen). Greasing the wheels with a few amber ales, we concocted our gameplan. I can’t speak for the other fellas, but one enduring thought swirled in my mind as I picked my must-hit spots: What is the taco capable of? Who’s willing to push that form to its absolute limit? I was certain there’d be a few great authentic Mexican tacos — but we’re in New Hampshire, after all, not SoCal. I wanted to bear witness to the possibilities of the taco’s form.
Like all good plans, ours fell to the wayside once the heat of action took over. We did stick to our tenets, though, and even developed an on-the-fly tactic to hit side streets for less-busy lines and underrated gems. It was something of a blur — bodies covered in fabric taco gear whizzing by, an amalgam of scents reaching up into your nostrils, split-second decisions deciding your taco fate.
At one point a firefighter, hoisting a makeshift cardboard sign, persuaded us to trek off the beaten path to the station for smoked pork and purple cabbage tacos. In the next breath, we were downing black raspberry tequila shots from a street vendor. Much to do, much to consume, go-go-go.
This ended up being a serious exercise in gluttony. But here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be. You can dip down to Elm, have a couple tacos, spend less than $10 (most vendors sell their tacos for $3 a piece), and go on your merry way.
When all was said and done, I had consumed nine tacos, several beers, a couple of tequila shots, and a whole lotta energy from the buzzing crowd.
With the event being a Cinco de Mayo celebration, the day had a palpable energy to it; folks were excited just to soak in the spring warmth and spend time outside.
The rain held off, and nobody seemed frustrated waiting their turn for tacos. Even the longest lines breezed by in 15 minutes. Having an entire year to plan the Taco Tour clearly paid off for the chamber.
Top tour tacos
There’s still one burning question left: What’s the best taco at the Manchester Taco Tour?
How do you compare Kisaki Japanese Cuisine’s sushi taco — featuring spicy crab lettuce and a tempura seaweed shell — with Bearded Baking Co.’s Mexican hot chocolate dessert taco?
The best taco I sampled was One Happy Clam’s grilled shrimp taco, with crunchy slaw and garlic avocado sauce, followed by Traveling Foodie’s Southern-style pulled pork taco, topped with mac n’ cheese, slaw, sour cream and barbecue sauce.
Repeat champion Firefly American Bistro & Bar won the official “Best Taco” designation, though, decided by a popularity contest voting poll, with their Chewbacca chicken and cheese taco.
My biggest regret is missing out on bluAqua Restrobar’s alligator and andouille sausage taco, which won the “Most Creative Taco” award. But there’s always next time, and isn’t that what’s beautiful about all of this? We get to come together, year after year, to celebrate the multitudes of Manchester cuisine — a severely underrated food city, probably the most diverse in the Granite State — and throw everything together into one Elm Streetsized taco, to be enjoyed a tortilla-handful at a time.
Go to Taco Tour Manchester. Rejoice in the very form and many possibilities of the taco.
Taco Tour Manchester is Thursday, May 2, from 4 to 8 p.m. in downtown Manchester. Visit tacotourmanchester.com for more information.
