Tacos, Tamales and Tortas Trail invites everyone to taste Harvard’s many takes on Mexican food

Jaki Berggren considers Harvard’s Los Jalapeño Brothers one of her favorite – and possibly her absolute favorite – Mexican restaurant in all of McHenry County.

Harvard City Administrator Lou Leone often takes new city employees to lunch at the Mexican place just down the street, La Trinidad Restaurant. He raved about the shrimp tacos and the hot sauce there.

Harvard, Leone said, is the most diverse town in McHenry County, with more than half of its 9,400 residents being of Latino origin. That also means the town has some fantastic Mexican restaurants, he said.

To help residents in Harvard and beyond get to know what those eateries have to offer, Naturally McHenry County has created the Tacos, Tamales & Tortas Trail, said Berggren, executive director of the visitors bureau. Diners are asked to download the Naturally McHenry County app. If they eat and check in at all seven restaurants on the trail over the course of a year, they will receive a bottle of Unhallowed Hot Sauce. The company is based in the county.

The TTT Trail – the shorthand organizers are using for the experience – joins the Craft Beverage Trail and the Coffee and Tea Trail, both designed to get residents and visitors to check out businesses throughout the county.

The TTT Trail officials kicks off Monday, Sept. 16, which is Mexican Independence Day. Check here for more details on the Harvard Tacos, Tamales and Tortas Trail: harvardttttrail.com.

The idea for a Mexican restaurant trail came from sitting down with Harvard officials and asking “what can we do to help ... bring visitors from outside the county, as well as residents, to do something fun?” Berggren said.

We want more people to come here and see what makes us unique.”

—  Lou Leone, Harvard city administrator

The city joined the visitors bureau only a year ago, said Donovan Day, Harvard’s community development director. The city had paid for a program that analyzed foot traffic based on cellphone data, but the state then began offering a free version. That meant funding was available for more programming.

“The original idea was a taco tour,” Leone said, but that was expanded to include tamales and tortas because they are staples on most menus. The restaurants “were 100% on board and excited about the opportunity to get new customers in the restaurants, and that Naturally McHenry [County] and the city were thinking of them.”

Working with the visitors bureau is a change for Harvard.

“It is all a part of our changing culture here at the city. We want more people to come here and see what makes us unique,” Leone said.

People may think of Milk Days or the city’s mascot, Harmilda the Cow, when they think about Harvard. That’s why they used Harmilda’s image with a sombrero as the TTT Trail’s logo, Leone said.

It also is a reminder that there is more to Harvard than just milk, he said.

“We have always had a diverse community,” Leone said, adding that the first Latino families moved to the area more than 50 years ago. “They have been a part of the fabric and the culture that we are trying to show.”

Once visitors download the Naturally McHenry County app, they can use it to check in at any of the promotional trail locations. They have been popular, marketing manager Kristine Austin said. Since the first beverage trail started, 12,000 people have checked in on the app, and 450 have completed the challenges and gotten a T-shirt for doing so.

Those who come out to Harvard to check out the restaurants also can use the app to find shopping and events happening nearby, Austin said.