William Garcia knows his regulars' orders as soon as they walk up to his window. The owner of /*El Taco Nazo*/ says that's what kept his customers coming back for more.
"The love, the love we put into it, we take our time," said Garcia. "We've been in business 22 years, we know what we're doing."
Garcia spends his days traveling between construction sites in Fresno, sometimes catering, but a massive event like this -- bringing thousands of taco fans to one place, is a first. Organizer /*Mike Osegueda*/ with the /*Fresno Beehive*/ says that's the point of the Throwdown.
Osegueda said, "You don't always know where they're at, how to get there, when they're open hopefully it's introducing people to new places, showing them where these places are and building relationships for the future."
Osegueda invited taco titans from Visalia, Sanger, Fowler, Fresno and Madera to go head to head. They will all be parked inside the gates of Chukchansi Park, and fans can sample some or all of them and vote on their favorite.
One of Osegueda's personal favorites -- /*La Elegante*/, has been serving at the corner of Muscat and Maple for nearly 27 years. Customers go out of their way to sample their fare.
"We from Chicago so he brought us over here to try the tacos."
Which goes to show, even in this age of social networking. Word of mouth can't be beat. And that had taco lovers lining up early at the Grizzlies box office.
Julie Duenes said, "I think it's going to be a lot of fun. My last name is Duenes. Tacos are what we do. So. Laughs."
If you want to attend, you need to buy a ticket to the Grizzlies game, because the Taco Truck Throwdown is happening inside the gates. You can buy individual tacos for $1.50 or buy a taco package depending on how many you'll want to eat.
