Tacos and Beer and Much, Much More
Nestled in the rolling hills of Silverado, California lies rustically beautiful Lake View Park. Driving through one of the rare, undeveloped areas of Orange County, you could miss the turn off if not for the many volunteers along the way directing visitors to the Sabroso Brew Ha Ha Craft Beer and Taco Festival which took over much of the park on April 30th. Offering a variety of activities including craft beer and hard cider tasting, $3 tacos, live music, lucha libre and a taco contest, the sold-out event drew a unique crowd. A woman in a full-length gown joined urbanites, suburbanites and bikers to create a parade as colorful as the canopies covering the booths of vendors and participants.
What has become an annual event will contribute funds to Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Orange County this year. Funds will help recruit, train and match mentors to children in need of a positive role model.
As large as this event was, it would be impossible to talk about everyone who helped make the event so successful. As our focus is food, this will partially limit the direction we take, but even there, the number of food trucks and restaurants who were represented would fill several pages. What you’ll see instead is a sampling of the participants broken down into two categories: Food trucks and restaurants. That way, you’ll get a feel for the chefs, owners and menus of a few of the participants.
Food Trucks
Sol-Agave sent one of their gourmet food trucks to the event, but they are so much more. Executive Chef Manny Velasco oversees both the food truck kitchens and an upscale Mexican Organic restaurant of the same name. He supports the farm to table movement, using locally grown, organic ingredients in his dishes which feature a choice of meats and house-made sauces. Their Beer and Taco Festival menu included Taco Agave, organic Carnitas and crab taquitos, just to name a few.
The Lime Truck, the brain child of Daniel Shemtab is a multi-award winner including first place in Season 2 of The Great Food Truck Race. With an emphasis on California cuisine, which, these days can mean almost anything goes, they offer customized menus for events from casual to formal. They offered a Sweet n Spicy Steak Taco, Potato Taco, short rib taco and adobe taco (made with pork belly) for their hungry guests.
The Viking Truck was founded by Executive Chef, Luis Flores. The menu is built around sausages and larger portions. In keeping with the theme, his dishes bear strong, Viking-themed names. Here are a couple of examples to tickle your tastebunds. The Ragnar contains smoked bratwurst, red cabbage slaw, beer cheese and mustard aioli. The Jenner is comprised of a sausage trio, tomatillo salsa, avocado mash, cotija cheese, garlic cream and cilantro. The meal wold not be complete without Dragon Eggs; tater tots, dark ale chili, sour cream, sriracha and viking ketchup.
Porko Rico BBQ was the judges’ choice for first place in the taco competition. Also owned by Luis Flores, it features a pirate theme and BBQ with a Caribbean twist. Chef Flores’ influence is easy to spot in his Voodoo tacos made with spicy jerk chicken or his Skull Island tacos made with Smoked pulled pork. The California Pirate fries bear a striking resemblance to the Viking Truck’s Dragon Eggs. French fries are topped with carne asada, avocado cream sauce and pickled red onion. Visitor’s to Porko Rico BBQ certainly won’t leave hungry!
Falasophy, the judges’ second place pick is a vegetarian falafel-hummus bar. Their offerings were a unique twist on the traditional taco. Instead of the typical meat or fish, their tacos contained falafel or eggplant, and even one made with tahini and pineapple.
Restaurants
Several restaurants joined the taco competition from booths set up along the parks running trail. Each added their own unique twist to an event filled with non-traditional tacos.
Stadium Brewing Company is the collaboration of Brewmaster Greg Schneider and Executive Chef Octavio Montoya who divides his time between the restaurant and teaching classes at Laguna Beach School of Culinary Arts. The two have created a rare combination of micro brewery, fine dining restaurant and sports bar. With food that can best be described as multicultural fusion, their menu offers a variety suitable for almost any palate and features gluten-free options and wine pairings for many of the dishes. Their competition entry featured Cajun shrimp, coleslaw and Creole aioli. They are also the reigning People’s Choice winner from 2015.
Pour Vida Latin Flavor, Executive Chef Jimmy Martinez offers his guests both hand-crafted tacos and fresh-pressed juices. He brought his salmon taco on a squid ink tortilla as well as a pork, plantain and black bean taco to the event along with an assortment of salsas.
Working Class Kitchen has created their own personal niche. Owner Michael Dene and Executive Chef David Coleman who are also responsible for Michael’s on Naples, Michael’s Pizzeria, and Chianina (named for the world’s oldest breed of cattle) partner with ranchers who follow humane and sustainable practices. Functioning as a whole animal butcher as well as a deli and sandwich shop, Working Class Kitchen also supplies it’s sister restaurants with meat. Not only are they proponents and practitioners of using every part of the animal with nothing going to waste, they also promote respect for the animals who give their lives for our sustenance. In addition, they support local farmers and artisans, taking an active part in their success. In keeping with their nose to tail philosophy, Working Class Kitchen offered a beef tongue pastrami taco and a chorizo sausage taco to festival guests.
Plan Early for Your Chance to Taste Next Year’s Offerings
If this year’s event is any indication, chefs will keep looking for new ways to present the humble taco in ways that will tempt, tantalize and tease our palates. If these selections have your mouth watering for a unique and delicious taco, you might want to watch for Sabroso Brew Ha Ha 2017. But get your tickets early. They sell out fast!
