A different starting point
Most taquerías start with fat. A scoop of lard in the comal. A splash of vegetable oil in the pan. A finishing drizzle of something rendered or refined. It's how a lot of Mexican kitchens have always cooked — and there's nothing wrong with tradition.
But Liliana, Crown's owner, made a different choice from the day she started planning this kitchen: no lard, and as little added oil as possible.
Not because she wanted to make "healthy tacos." Because she wanted to make food she felt good feeding her own family — and good feeding yours.
What "no lard" actually means here
Lard isn't the enemy in small amounts, and Liliana respects how it's used in traditional cooking. But in a daily-volume restaurant — where the same fat gets reused, reheated, and absorbed into everything that touches it — she didn't want it in her kitchen.
That means:
- No lard in the meats.
- No lard in the beans (most refried beans you've eaten at restaurants are cooked in it).
- No lard in the tortillas (our flour tortillas use a small amount of a cleaner fat; our corn tortillas are nixtamal-based and traditionally fat-free).
- No reheated, reused fryer oil sitting at the line.
What replaces it
This is the part most kitchens won't bother with, because it's harder: you have to actually cook flavor in, not pour it on.
Liliana's techniques:
- The meat's own juices. Slow-cooking beef cheek, barbacoa-seasoned beef, and al pastor releases enough natural fat and gelatin to baste themselves. We capture and reuse those juices to finish, glaze, or warm — instead of reaching for added oil.
- Toasted and rehydrated chiles instead of chile-flavored oils. Guajillo, ancho, chipotle, árbol — toasted dry, soaked, blended into pastes. Flavor without grease.
- Aromatics built deep. Onion, garlic, cumin, clove, bay, oregano — bloomed in small amounts of olive oil or simply in the meat's own rendered fat, not in a pool of vegetable oil.
- Acid as a finisher. Fresh lime, vinegar, citrus zest — they make food taste bigger without adding fat or salt.
- Fresh herbs and raw vegetables on top. Cilantro, white onion, radish, cabbage — the bright, crunchy layer that most fast-casual taquerías skip.
- Refried beans cooked in their own broth with aromatics, finished with a light olive oil instead of lard.
Why this matters for catering
If you're feeding 50 people at an office lunch, you don't want them sluggish at 2 p.m. If you're feeding 200 at a wedding, you don't want guests feeling weighed down at the dance floor. And if you're a family that eats Crown weekly, you want food that fits into a real life — not a cheat day.
Liliana's approach is a quiet, practical kind of health-conscious. No medical claims, no diet labels, no marketing language about "clean eating." Just a kitchen that doesn't hide behind fat to deliver flavor.
What we're not
We're not a "low-fat" restaurant. We're not vegan, keto, or paleo. We're a taco shop that takes the time to build flavor honestly.
If you're sensitive to oils, allergic to specific ingredients, or cooking around a medical need, ask us — Liliana is in the kitchen most days and is happy to walk you through any dish.
Taste the difference
The easiest way to understand the philosophy is to eat it. Order anything off the menu at the Hurst counter, then compare it the next day to a taco from anywhere else. You'll notice it in how you feel two hours later.
That's the whole point.