The votes have been tallied, and there is now an answer to the question: “Who has the best tacos in Perry?”

At Monday night’s first ever “Tacopalooza” event hosted at the Des Moines Area Community College VanKirk Career Academy, over 300 people sampled the offerings of El Sabor, El Tren, and Taqueria Villa. Afterwards they were able to vote on which of the three they liked best, with a focus on the steak tacos. Director of the Perry DMACC center and event organizer Eddie Diaz tallied the votes, and on Wednesday he revealed the winner was El Tren. However, Diaz says this is far from over, as the other two competitors and any other local taco vendors who want in on the action can try to unseat El Tren in the spring. “We’re hoping to do it again in May, focusing on pork tacos. And then next fall we’ll do it again on steak, and eventually (add) music. And it’ll grow up to become something big, I hope!”

As the victors, El Tren received a custom “Golden Taco” trophy welded by DMACC adjunct instructor Jim VonBehren. Regardless of the competition, Diaz says the vendors enjoyed a lot of success at the event, with each nearly selling out of their inventory. He adds, “Tacopalooza” started as a simple dinner for a staff meeting, and eventually snowballed to include the whole community.