Taco Bar Catering in the Inland Empire
For 40 to 300 people. The filling is brisket.
Most taco catering around here is asada grilled to order in front of you. That’s a good thing and there are people who do it well.
This isn’t that. Our taco bar runs on brisket and pulled pork off the same live fire we run for our barbecue, cooked low and slow until it’s done rather than to a clock. You get a taco line that moves fast, and meat that tastes like it was worth the wait.
Send us your date and your headcount and you’ll have a real quote back inside 24 hours.
★ 4.8 on Google · 40 to 300 guests · Live fire, based in Jurupa Valley
Why a taco bar instead of a plated spread
Because of the line.
A plated barbecue spread is the right call when the event is the point and people are sitting down to it. A taco bar is the right call when you’ve got a hundred and fifty people and a window, and the whole thing lives or dies on how fast that line moves. People build their own plate, they take what they want, nobody waits on a server, and the second wave gets the same food as the first.
It also solves the thing that always comes up two days before an event. Somebody’s vegetarian, somebody can’t do pork, somebody’s gluten free. On a taco bar that’s not a separate order and a separate invoice line. It’s the same line, and they build around it themselves. And it costs less per head than the plated spread without us touching the quality of the meat.
Who we set this up for
Company events
All-hands lunches, appreciation days, warehouse floor meals, holiday parties. Anywhere a break window doesn’t move and the food has to fit inside it. If you’re booking for a business, our corporate catering in Riverside page covers the logistics in more detail.
Graduations and big family events
We start at 40 guests, so this is the graduation party where the whole extended family shows up, not a dinner for twelve.
Church and community events
Volunteer appreciation, fundraisers, anything where you’re feeding a hall.
Weddings and receptions
Usually as a late-night or second-service option alongside the main meal, sometimes as the whole thing.
Schools and campuses
Staff appreciation, athletics banquets, end-of-year events.
Taco bar, plated spread, or both
The taco bar isn’t a different menu. It’s a different way of serving the same fire.
The plated barbecue spread
Brisket, pork belly, beef ribs, spare ribs, beef sausage and pulled pork, rubbed with a six-spice South Texas blend and cooked low over live fire. Served with mac and cheese, Tex-Mex Spanish rice and honey apple cornbread. This is the spread for the event that needs to feel like an occasion. The full menu is on our BBQ catering page.
The taco bar
The same brisket and pulled pork, pulled and served on tortillas with onion, cilantro and our green chile salsa. It moves a line faster than a plated spread, flexes around dietary needs without a separate order, and brings the cost per head down without touching the quality of the meat.
Run one, run the other, or run both at the same event. Over about a hundred and fifty people, both is usually the right call. The plates take care of the people who came for brisket. The bar keeps everyone else moving.
How this works
1. Send us the date, the headcount, and where it is
Use the form or call. That’s enough to get started.
2. We come back inside 24 hours
With a quote written for your group and a straight answer on whether your site works for cooking on location.
3. We show up early, set up, serve, and clean up
You get the space back the way you found it.
What’s on the bar
The meat
Brisket and pulled pork, both off the live fire, both rubbed with the same six-spice South Texas blend we use on everything.
The build
Tortillas, onion, cilantro, and our green chile salsa, which we make ourselves and which is the thing people ask about afterward.
On the side
Tex-Mex Spanish rice, and the mac and cheese, because people ask for it whether or not it belongs on a taco bar.
More than tacos
The same meat goes into burritos, bowls and nachos. Tell us what the room looks like and we’ll tell you what makes sense.
Questions people ask about taco bars
How many people do you cater for?
We set up taco bars for 40 to 300 guests across the Inland Empire. Forty is the floor, because a live-fire setup doesn’t price well below that. Over 300, give us a call and we’ll tell you honestly whether we can do it right.
What do I need to provide for a taco bar for 100 guests?
If we’re catering it, nothing. We bring the meat, the tortillas, the salsa, the toppings, the serving line, the chafing, and the people to run it, and we take the trash with us. What we need from you is a spot to set up and the exact time you want the line open.
Can you set up the taco bar at our office or venue?
Yes. The trailer travels and it’s a real live-fire rig. We need a spot outside with room to work and clearance from the building. If the site can’t take it, we cook at the commissary and bring everything hot in insulated pans. Send us a photo of where you were thinking and we’ll tell you straight away.
Can you handle vegetarian and gluten free?
Tell us what you’re working around. A taco bar handles most of it on its own, because people build their own plate off the same line, and anything it doesn’t cover we’ll sort out ahead of time.
What areas do you serve?
We’re based in Jurupa Valley and cater across Riverside County and the western Inland Empire, out to Corona, Eastvale, Ontario, Moreno Valley, Norco and Temecula.
Why the meat is different
Noah’s mother is from Brownsville, Texas. His father is from Colima, Mexico. He cooks both sides of that, which is why the barbecue and the Tex-Mex sit on the same menu at New Life BBQ instead of being two businesses.
The practical version: the taco filling isn’t a separate thing we make for taco jobs. It’s the same brisket and pulled pork we’d serve on a plate, off the same fire, cooked the same way. It just gets served differently.
Tell us how many people
Date, headcount, and where you are. That’s enough to get a real quote back inside 24 hours from an actual person.
40 to 300 guests, across the Inland Empire.