KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Friday is Cinco de Mayo. To celebrate, Visit Kansas City, Kansas, is officially launching a second round of the KCK Taco Trail.
“I would come into Kansas City and go to between three and five places and have between two and four tacos at each place,” said Scott Reed, taco enthusiast.
Reed successfully completed the Taco Trail during its initial launch in 2020. He frequently drove from Lawrence to KCK, stopping by all 55 original taquerias with a year. He made sure to take notes of each crunch and savory bite.
"In my little nerdy notebook, I had the names of all the places I had, had all the addresses, I wrote down notes about the places I went with and the tacos I’ve had," Scott said.
He is one of 95 people to complete the entire trail. Visit KCK says 78% of those people were from outside KCK. Throughout the campaign, 1600 prizes were given away, and people from nearly every state checked in.
Visit KCK says a Forbes article claiming KCK was the Taco Capital of the country helped set the path for its taco scene.
"Yes, they are going around and having tacos, but they're also learning about other businesses in Kansas City, Kansas, they're also learning about other parts,” said Celeste Lupercio, director of marketing and community engagement for Visit KCK.
Round two of the Taco Trail is beefing up the challenge by including 60 shops scattered throughout KCK, giving people until April 15, 2024, to complete the challenge.
"You get to experience authentic tacos from people who have immigrated to KC,” Lupercio said. "Our attempt was to put everyone on the trail that we could find because we wanted to support them.”
Even though he’s completed the trail, Reed says KCK's taco scene is drawing him back for round two.
"I feel like there's a lot of passion and a lot of great ingredients — they have great meats that are going into these tacos,” he said.
To take part in the action, go to Visit KCK’s website and download the mobile app.
Prizes are awarded based on a new point system, including a taco-scented candle and a grand prize.
