On Sunday, May 23, the Scottish Rite Event Center will be overrun with the sights and smells of sizzling tacos from 10 vendors with the inaugural Long Beach Taco Festival.
Though the lineup of vendors is still being nailed down, so far, the festival will feature tacos from Mini Birrieria, Bryan’s Birrieria, Savage Tacos Truck and Junkies LBC.
In addition to their standard fare of traditional street tacos, quesadillas, mulitas and burritos, Mini Birrieria and Bryan’s Birrieria will be battling it out for the best birria recipe. To the uninitiated, birria is a slow cooked meat stew traditionally made from goat meat, but also beef or mutton. It’s tender, rich and unarguably delicious.
Savage Tacos’s menu is a multicultural affair with traditional Mexican-style tacos and burritos as well as Korean and Jamaican inspired fare. Their Asian wonton and jerk chicken tacos are a spectacular nod to Asian and Caribbean flavors cradled in soft tortillas.
For the plant-based eater, vegan taco pop-up Junkies LBC will be slinging five varieties of meat-free tacos—green, birria style wet tacos, street tacos, “two-story” tacos and a “deltacobell” soft taco.
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More restaurants and vendors will be announced leading up to the festival.
Entertainment for the six-hour event (noon-6 p.m.) will feature performances by Boyle Heights-based Spaghetti Cumbia, Los Angeles’ Cara Borracho, funk DJ and producer King Steady Beat, groove-infused cumbia band Los Surlys, and genre-blending Long Beach DJ Tiki Rumbero.
The festival is brought to you by lifestyle website Long Beach Living in collaboration with Roxanne’s Bar.
Tickets range from $20 to $60. A $20 ticket buys entry and one complimentary taco. $40 includes entry, one complimentary taco and beer. And a $60 VIP ticket includes entry, one complimentary taco, beer, a Paleta and specialty access to the VIP bar. Click here to purchase tickets.
To ensure the safety of attendees, the event organizers require all guests have their temperatures taken upon entry.
The Scottish Rite Event Center is at 855 Elm Ave.
Editors Note: Guests will not be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result in order to attend the event as previously reported, only temperature checks will be required upon entry.