La Huerta Market in St. Charles to kick off Cinco De Mayo with community event
St. Charles business owners are collaborating on a community tasting event outside La Huerta Catering Grill and Market on April 28 in preparation for Cinco De Mayo.
Residents are invited to come sample offerings from the market and its vendors, and stock up on supplies for their own holiday celebrations from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside La Huerta at 580 S. Randall Road.
The free tasting event will feature free samples of homemade foods, drinks and much more. Guests will be able to sample a variety of La Huerta’s catering items including steak, adobo pork, homemade chorizo tacos, rice, elotes, and tamales.
The event also will showcase charcuterie boards from local shop Campbell Creations and several food vendors from Mexico including Jarritos, various tequila distilleries and other imported snacks.
The event was organized by local business owners Josie Marquez of La Huerta and Shawn Campbell of Campbell Creations, who have become close friends. Marques said she and Campbell are bound together by their appreciation for family-owned businesses and their desire to help and support each other.
Campbell Creations is a local hand-crafted charcuterie board shop. Campbell’s husband creates the boards and she runs the shop at 803 S. 5th Ave.
Campbell said the event will be a precursor to community Cinco De Mayo celebrations, as well as a showcase event for the collaborating women-owned businesses.
“In these times when it’s getting tough for small businesses, working together and supporting each other is key,” Campbell said.
Marquez said she and Campbell have been trying to find a way to work together for some time, and decided a free community event would be a good way for people to get to know both of their businesses and try some new things.
Campbell will be at the event selling her boards as well as showcasing Cinco de Mayo-inspired spreads of meats and cheeses that can be found in the market, to inspire those hosting their own holiday parties.
“I just like working together with honest good-hearted people who put their whole heart into what they do and how they run their business,” Marquez said. “Family-owned businesses are very close to my heart. Nobody really understands you like someone who runs a family-owned business.”
La Huerta is a family-owned and operated business, and is one of nine markets in Illinois owned by the Marquez family. Her parents opened the first La Huerta in Addison in 1981, and the St. Charles location has been open for 18 years.
Marques said the kids, siblings and cousins, would help out and train at the different locations, and eventually the stores were passed down. Marquez’s parents now are retired but still love to come in and help out at the stores, working the registers or talking with customers.
La Huerta specializes in niche Mexican groceries, with a wide variety of homemade foods, fresh meats and imported goods like Mexican snacks, tequilas and hot sauces.
“If you can’t find a hot sauce in St. Charles, it’s because we don’t have it,” Marquez said.
La Huerta makes all of their catering items in house, including a variety of guacamoles and salsas, baked goods like Mexican sweet breads and pastries, and all kinds of food items like tamales and tacos made fresh with meat and produce that come straight from their market.
Marquez said this will be the first community event they have hosted, and they decided to do it a week before Cinco De Mayo because the holiday is always their busiest day of the year with dozens of catering orders.