Ghetto Tacos grateful for “Best Bite in Town” experience

If there is one thing people of the four-state area are proud of, it’s the local cuisine.

That level of pride reaches new heights when others in the country take notice. 

On Friday, the whole country was able to witness just what the City of Joplin has to offer the culinary scene when it was featured on Food Network’s Best Bite in Town.

Guy Fieri’s crew made up of Noah Cappe and chefs Aarti Sequeria and Joe Sasto visited Joplin to find the Best Bite in Town. The group patroned Ghetto Tacos, Han the Sushi Man, Blackstone Gastropub, Finn’s, Hungry Monkey and Big R’s BBQ in search of the best dish in Joplin. 

The Best Bite in Town crew sampled a pair of dishes from each establishment. 

Three of the restaurants were chosen with one of dishes sampled earlier in the show as representation for a competition for judges handpicked by Fieri—Blackstone Gastropub, Han the Sushi Man and Ghetto Tacos.

The winning dish was Ghetto Tacos’ Carnitas Mulitas, which was gifted a $5,000 prize as well as $5,000 being donated to a local charity of choice.

“To me, it is just so humbling to be able to be a part of that show and receive that award,” Marcos Renteria said. “It was special. It’s an incredible feeling and you could tell my hard work and my love that I put into this really has paid off. It holds a really special place in my heart.

“It shows how people appreciate the love you put into your food. We do everything from scratch, like our salsas, our guacamole and our pico de gallo—it’s all from scratch. To be in that position, it was just so humbling of an experience. We really love what we do. … We will forever be grateful for the experience and we just want to grow from here.”

Since the show aired less than a week ago, Renteria said the impact was felt immediately.

“It’s been overwhelming,” he said. “I didn’t expect it to happen so quickly, but we talked about what will happen when the show airs. We had to be ready because it was going to be really busy. 

“We can already see it. Yesterday, I was on 22nd and Main Street and we had people who were traveling from Arizona to New York who stopped and grabbed some of our food. That is special for me to be able to see that. It is an amazing feeling.”