Try this tasty trail to explore Kansas City, Kansas, history and culture
The smartest thing we did on a recent road trip to Kansas City, Kansas, was bring home a package of fresh tortillas from Carniceria y Tortilleria San Antonio.
The dumbest thing we did was bring home only one package of fresh tortillas.
To be fair, we didn’t know how delicious they would be and how the tortillas would work their way into every trip to the kitchen our first few days back home. There were only so many meals we could pack into a weekend road trip to Kansas City, so rather than feast at the full service Mexican market we stopped in for provisions on Sunday morning as we explored the new KCK Taco Trail.
Organized by the Visit Kansas City, Kansas, marketing organization, the KCK Taco Trail launched in October 2020 to map more than 50 stops composed mostly of mom and pop Mexican restaurants and taquerias along with a few barbecue, burger and chicken joints that also serve tacos. If you’re like me, you’ve been through KCK more than you’ve been to KCK and most of my stops have been in the Village West area, home to Legends Outlets, Great Wolf Lodge and Kansas Speedway among other attractions.
KCK has about 150,000 residents, making it the third largest city in the state and the third largest city in the Kansas City metropolitan area. There is no ethnic majority among its population and next year it’ll celebrate 150 years since its 1886 incorporation. That all adds up to plenty of culture and history to explore if you venture into the city’s neighborhoods, which is exactly what we did on the KCK Taco Trail.
You can sign up for a free mobile Taco Trail pass at kcktacotrail.com and track your progress by checking in wherever you stop. The trail is ongoing but if you’re interested in the prizes Visit Kansas City, Kansas, is offering, you have until Oct. 31.
Get a decal for five check-ins, a jar of salsa from local Spicin Foods for 15 restaurants, a T-shirt for 30 and a championship flag and your name on the Taco Trail Wall of Fame for checking in to all stops on the trail (there were six posted as we went to press: https://www.visitkansascityks.com/tacotrail/wall-of-fame/).
If you’re really short on time, head to Central Avenue where there are at least seven restaurants on the trail and you’d be able to quickly check in to five. Over two days, we were able to capture five at a slightly more leisurely pace.
Use the website to search by region of town (Downtown, Midtown, South, Village West), by food type (authentic, Tex-Mex, other – such as barbecue and grilled chicken) and even by taco toppings. There are maps and participating restaurant listings and descriptions. The website also has articles
We started with lunch on Saturday downtown at El Menudazo KC for beef birria tacos made using owner Lionel Lucero’s father’s recipe. The slow-cooked meat is scooped into two corn tortillas that have a layer of cheese between them, and the taco is cooked on a griddle just before serving. You order at the counter and the tacos are a la carte. They come with a bowl of toppings including onion, cilantro and fresh lime, and you’ll want to order a side of the dipping broth.
We ended our stay in KCK with lunch on Sunday at Taqueria Mexico #4, a sit-down restaurant in the south side of the city where railroads attracted workers migrating from Mexico with their families in the early 1900s. From the large menu, I sampled the al pastor (pork), asada (steak) and pollo deshebrado (shredded chicken) with a trio of street tacos; the seasoned pork was easily the winner of the three.
In between those meals, we squeezed in visits to Bonito Michoacan, which operates a full market and bakery and offers an extensive salsa bar for those who eat in their cafeteria-style taqueria; Paleterías Tropicana, which serves traditional Mexican lunch and dinner food items but is best known for its ice cream and paletas using fruits and Mexican flavors; and, of course, our stop for tortillas at Carniceria y Tortilleria San Antonio, whose lunch counter already had a line at 10 a.m.
We made one other stop on the Taco Trail but they only serve tacos on Tuesday. We were there on a Saturday night so we had to settle for ribs at Slap’s BBQ in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood. The restaurant operated by championship barbecue competitors had been on my must-try list for a while, and the ribs were as tasty as advertised. Slap’s (stands for Squeals Like A Pig) also served some of the best sides we’ve had at a barbecue restaurant. They are on the trail for their Taco Tuesday, when they offer tacos filled with burnt ends, sauteed peppers and onions, cilantro and special sauce.
The trail got us into the city’s neighborhoods, where we found museums and art to explore more of the local history and culture. The Avenue of Murals, eight colorful works in a four-block-long corridor along Minnesota Avenue, and farther south in KCK’s Argentine neighborhood we found the block-long Anthology of Argentine mural that traces the history of the area from the Hopewell Indians to today.
KCK’s Taco Trail is the first in a series that Visit Kansas City Kansas has planned. Next they are planning to launch the KCK Heritage Trail to promote historical sites and share the stories of immigrants who have made Kansas City their home.
Among some of those sites you can visit now:
Strawberry Hill Museum and Cultural Center preserves the history of the eastern Europeans who immigrated to KCK and called the Strawberry Hill area home.
Quindaro Underground Railroad Museum preserves the history of the town Quindaro that was a free port of entry and a safe stop along the Underground Railroad. It was recently named a National Commemorative Site.
Grinter Place Historic Site is one of the oldest farmhouses in the state. It was the home of Moses Grinter and Annie Marshall, a Lenape (Delaware) Indian. They operated the first ferry across the Kansas River and had a trading post that exchanged goods for cash and fur from the Delaware.