Mas Fresco, Por Favor
It is a story as old as time. Once upon a time, Marisela and Ruben Alvarez moved from Mazatlan, Mexico, to Mesa, Arizona, to start a new life in the United States. When they first moved to the Phoenix Valley, they had absolutely no intention of opening a restaurant; in fact, Ruben Alvarez started his own painting company while Marisela stayed home taking care of their three children. Though Marisela was always known as an amazing cook when it came to Mexican food, she did it simply for the joy of feeding her family and close friends.
It is no secret, Latinos love a good fiesta, or party as you might call it, and a party deserves great food, and that is exactly what the Alvarez family did – provide great Mexican food and carne al carbon to their guests. The Alvarez family would prepare for hours beforehand for any gathering they would have at their home. Marisela and Ruben would marinade the carne asada (steak) and pollo asada (chicken) hours beforehand, while also making fresh salsas and sides for their guests, like her signature refried beans as well as Mexican rice.
Marisela and Ruben did not immediately invite the whole neighborhood to their fiestas, but those living nearby would smell the carne al carbon cooking on their grill and swing by, wondering what delicious Mexican food they were cooking up. Loving community and gatherings, the Alvarez family invited more people to join, and eventually came across the idea of selling these amazing tacos al carbon.
Soon, there would be a line out the backyard door, around the corner, and down the neighborhood sidewalks of Mesa, Arizona, with people so happily and patiently waiting to get a taste of that signature Mesquite wood grilled meat. Every day but Sunday, the Alvarez family would prepare food all day long to serve all their customers for dinner, grilling up meats and warming up fresh tortillas to make the best tacos the East Valley could savor.
Eventually, word would get out around town about these amazing carne asada and pollo asada tacos, to the point where the Alvarez couple would be asked to cater events. One specific event that Marisela and Ruben were asked to work would introduce them to their future business partners, and from there you could say the rest is history – with six locations across the East Valley and one opening in the West Valley by the end of 2025, there has truly been a legacy built of what has come from these grilled in the backyard tacos.
Though the restaurant count has kept growing, as well as the items on the menu, the food quality has never been compromised, the owners as well as all the Backyard Taco employees, work around the clock to ensure only the best and freshest ingredients are used to create any Backyard Taco entree item – from the meats that are brought in, to the vegetables and spices, only the best is brought in to ensure that all of our guests always have the most Mexcellent experience possible.
Let’s Taco’bout The Meats
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At Backyard Taco we believe in providing the best quality meats that we can get our hands on, so having all of our various cuts of meat come in fresh and not frozen is absolutely a no brainer but we take it a step further than that – we cut every single slice of meat ourselves, ensuring we get rid of the most fat that we can and giving you the most bang for your buck.
You may wonder how we’re able to do this for six different locations, ensuring that we have enough meat to go around, and well it’s pretty simple, we have a carneceria room in one of our Backyard Taco locations. Inside of our Mesa South location you will find a large room with a variety of butcher machines inside. Every single day that we are open you will find our crew in the carneceria working hard – literally starting at the crack of dawn, to make sure fresh meats are delivered to all of our six east valley locations before we open.
Our team spends hours in the butcher room cutting the meat. The thinnest cut is the carne asada steak, a bit thicker for the al pastor pork, and finally, the birria, our famous shredded beef cut into rather thick chunks, simmered for at least six hours before being shredded and served to our hungry customers. The only meat not cut in our carneceria room is the chicken, which is cut inside every store by our prep teams. They remove the fat, cut it into perfect pieces, and grill it atop our Mesquite wood grill.
Before these various meats hit the grill or the pot, they must be marinated in a variety of seasonings designed to enhance the flavor of every meat. From achiote and citrus used for the pollo asada chicken to guajillo and ancho chilies used to flavor our birria, we spend hours each day layering our meats in these marinades to soak in at least overnight before being cooked.
We take our meats very seriously, because we know that’s what you’re coming to Backyard Taco for – to try some of the best Mesquite flavored meat in the Phoenix Valley. But of course the meat would be nothing without the seasonings along with the rest of the Mexican food here at Backyard Taco, so you better believe we take our seasonings just as seriously.
Always Fresh, Locally Sourced Vegetables
Any time you walk into one of our Backyard Taco locations, you get the opportunity to indulge in what we would like to think is the best and freshest salsa bar in the Phoenix Valley. We choose to only work with vendors who solely source from the closest and freshest farms.
You see it in the freshly sliced radishes, cucumbers, and limes, ready and waiting to be munched on or used to top one of our delicious Mexican entrees. Depending on the layout of the store and the day, you might even see employees slicing the limes or the cucumbers as the days go on to make sure they are at the peak of freshness for you to enjoy.
And one thing that may or may not surprise you is that we take freshness just that seriously, but we have one vendor alone, solely just for all the tomatoes that we use! Knowing how many of our menu items require tomatoes, we have worked with the same vendor for about a decade now, delivering cases of tomatoes weekly to each and every Backyard Taco location in the valley. Those tomatoes you see roasting on top of our Mesquite, al carbon grill, more than likely came into our restaurants the same day, to then be roasted and blended together with other fresh ingredients and seasonings to bring you the best Mexican food in the Phoenix valley.
Mexican Food Spice It Up The Right Way
Mas sabor por favor, or more flavor please, is how we feel about everything that comes out of each and every Backyard Taco restaurant and beyond. By getting the best meat cuts and the freshest vegetables we can get our hands on, we keep quality high with all the spices we use in the restaurants.
From the freshly ground pepper to the thyme, cumin, and oregano, we choose only the best to go into all of our recipes. Whether it be for the marinades that we use to spice up our pollo asada, with the Achiote coming to us straight from Mexico, we spare no expense in bringing you the freshest quality ingredients that we can.
For the majority of our items as well, the “spice” comes from actual spicy things, like the variety of chilies that we have delivered to our restaurants on a weekly basis. Depending on the savory meat or the salsa, we have a variety of jalapenos, serranos, guajillos, ancho chilies, and more—used every day in different ways in the restaurant.
Whether the chilies are roasted and then blended into a marinade or chopped and mixed into one of our famously fresh salsas that you get to grab as little or as much of as you would like, they’re the best and freshest salsas that you will find in the Phoenix Valley. The heat level may vary, but the quality never will.
No Freezers, No Microwaves, No Canned Anything
We’ll say it time and again, walk into our restaurants, take a look in the kitchen, and you will see the difference. You will find no microwaves, no freezer, and the only canned item you will see is condensed milk because, well, that’s how it is supposed to be transported. We want everything as fresh as possible and take no shortcuts.
No shortcuts might mean hiring food preparation employees from open to close because there is so much to be done, but it is just worth it. From making beans and rice as needed throughout the day, to prepping for the extra salsa needs on a busy Taco Tuesday or a bigger Mexican catering order. Our team works day in and day out to give the best, freshest food that you can find.
The grill stays lit, the salsa bar stays stocked, and there is always something being done behind the walls of our Backyard Taco cocinas. These kitchens are full of the freshest, highest quality ingredients that our employees put a lot of love and work into to bring you what we call Mexcellence – and we can assure you, Ruben and Marisela Alvarez would have it no other way.
Dr. Tyler loves tacos! He is one of the owners of Backyard Taco, and can sometimes be found moonlighting there at night or on the weekends.
Dr. Tyler Robison is an alum of Mesa’s Mountain View High School. He graduted from Brigham Young University before being accepted to the “Top Ten-nationally ranked” University of Louisville in Kentucky, where he earned his Doctorate in Dental Medicine and a Master’s Degree in Oral Biology. He graduated with honors in the top ten percent of his class. Dr. Robison continued at the University of the Pacific in San Francisco, where he received a second master’s degree in dental science and his orthodontic certification.
Dr. Tyler enjoys serving in his community. He is a provider for the Smile Back Foundation, which offers scholarships for free dental treatment to underprivileged East Valley students. He is also a Major in the U.S. Army Reserve and served during Operation Enduring Freedom in 2008.
Dr. Tyler Robison’s favorite pastimes include spending time with his family on the lake, at the beach, or on the slopes. He is an avid and crazy snowboarder! He has three incredible sons and one sweet daughter: Caden, Jace, Crew, and Bliss.
