For W’s recent Beanie Boo Birthday Party (see a blog about that party here) we decided to have one of his favorites, tacos. I knew with the group who would be there that we would need lots of different options to suit everyone’s tastes so I decided we should do a build your own taco bar to make things easier. This type of set up works well for larger parties or when you may need to meet lots of different dietary needs or tastes as each person going through the line can build their plate exactly how they like it. This also simplifies prep as you don’t need to make a lot of specific dishes, just prep everything ahead of time. Below we will go through the basics of planning the toppings you will offer, any extras to consider, and how best to present it all.
Planning Your Toppings
Most of you can easily name your family’s go to taco fixings, but if you are hosting other families or friends, you will probably want to consider what they may like to have. I would never have black olives, but my Godfather cannot exist without them. My mother would never have a tomato in her house if she had her way, but we love them. My brother and his wife do not eat a lot of carbs, so lettuce and veggies were important to have for them. I would suggest starting out by writing a list of what your family likes and then compare it to a list of any dietary needs and preferences you know about ahead of time. If you personally like super plain tacos, you can always take a look at the menu of your local Mexican restaurant and see what they offer as toppings. I also like to take a look at Pinterest and see what other people include in case I have forgotten something. You can see generally how we laid things out as well as when I discuss the tips below for how to serve everything, but one thing I did not take a picture of was the meat. We precooked it and then put it in a crock pot plugged in on a separate counter to keep warm throughout the party. This meant we didn’t need to cook anything the day of, just put the meat in the bowl and plug in the crock pot. I love using crock pots whenever possible for parties for this very reason! These are the main items we chose to include: hard corn tortillas, soft flour tortillas, blue corn chips, lettuce, cheese, bell peppers, black olives, green chilies, tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, and beef taco meat (other items will be listed in the next section.)
Extras To Think About
So you may have noticed we didn’t cover any sauces or extras in the last section, and that’s because I think they deserve special consideration. Just like with the different toppings, you will need to consider your groups needs and preferences. I like to offer a lot of different types of sauces for savory food bars as it allows even more customization and makes the whole process feel even more special. For a taco bar the obvious sauces to consider are: salsa, taco sauce, sour cream, guacamole, hot sauce, and limes. Feel free to bring any special varieties or even make some of these from scratch. Just make sure to have items from across the spice spectrum as you will likely have a variety of spice preferences. I also want to mention that we chose some of W’s favorite fruit to offer as a side as well. That way, if someone isn’t a huge fan of tacos, they still have something to eat that they may like better.
Serving Dishes and Signage
Next we need to cover serving dish tips and signage. If you look at earlier pictures, you will see we used enormous bowls for the cheese and lettuce which are the same size as the bowl holding the bag of chips. However, we did not get ridiculous amounts of them to serve, instead, we used a second smaller bowl upside down in the bottom of the large bowl, to make it appear the bowl was full. This is a trick people often use for candy bars and it works just as well here. Just make sure you don’t use it for something that has a lot of juice, because that would be very messy. We also use the set of white bowls pictured above which my Mom and I found at a party store that are washable but lightweight and easy to store and for basically all parties. They are meant to be used by caterers to be thrown away I think, but we found if you hand wash them they work really well as reusable party supplies. You can also use your own bowls, but for most bars you will end up using a good number of them. Now for signage, you may not need it for all parties if everyone is familiar with the different toppings you supply, but if there is any question, you will likely prefer to have small signs to help keep the line moving and allow you to focus on keeping everything stocked rather than answering questions of, “What is this?” I think they are also a great option if you just want to incorporate your theme a bit into your bar. This time I used gift tags I found on clearance at the local craft store with little clips from the dollar store. But in the past I have used printable templates I have either found online or purchased on Etsy, cut out shapes of cardstock, label stickers, and even place cards. They do not need to be super elaborate, just easy to read and matched to your theme preferably.
Lettuce Taco ‘Bout It
Sorry, had to put that title there for Hubby. In the end it was a great party and everyone loved to food. From the selections on everyone’s plates, I could tell we were right to go the build your own route rather that have something more premade. I hope that I have helped you understand the general process of setting up a taco bar and that you feel empowered to add your own twists and honor your preferences. Almost everything can be prepped ahead of time and set out right before it is time to eat so this works great for larger parties or like the Beanie Boo party this was for, are super involved for the activity side of things. Let me know in the comments below how you plan to set up your taco bar!
