Hah no deep frying lone Jack! I'm sure everybody would love it though. Your thoughts are about what I was thinking and I really appreciate you commenting on all this.

This website is helpful:

http://www.ellenskitchen.com/bigpots/

My first thought was around 10-12 pounds since there is also chicken. And since sometimes beef is kind of expensive, and you might find pork cheaper... you could do pork carnitas. Refries are easy to add to the list. And a couple bags of tortilla chips for the folks that prefer to do salad style instead of in a shell. A bowl of sliced green onions too.

So many good ideas. Thank you so much! I can't not do hamburger, That's what most people here would consider a taco bar staple. This isn't really Mexican at all. It's just sort of tasty.

I will have several salsas, sour cream, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, maybe a green salsa, chunky homemade guacamole...

Maybe add a shaker of seasoning marked - Hot Spicy Stuff. The mix would be chipotle powder, ground cumin, Mexican oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper. I also add some dried cilantro but maybe you'll have fresh as part of your taco bar.

OOh yes, some hot stuff!

Heh, a handy taco bar calculator for you :)

https://www.omnicalculator.com/food/taco-bar

And a suggestion- get some cheap condiment bottles from the dollar store for your liquidy stuff like sour cream and salsas. Helps keep it tidy, and no utensil crossovers on accident.

If you don't already have your cold keeping planned yet. A small cooler or inflatable ice bar can be great for keeping your cold stuff cold. I've used this kind of ice bar before: https://www.menards.com/main/outdoors/outdoor-recreation/coolers-ice-packs/inflatable-serving-bar/00381/p-1488352834948.htm

Beesneeds, that's hysterical! That, that there's a taco bar calculator out there. Cool!

Rule of thumb is usually a quater pound of roast beef per person for any kind of banquet. The calculator says a tad more than 2/5 lb. per for taco bar, which sounds right to me for ground beef. Since you're counting on generous portions and leftovers, even though there will be alternatives, I'd go with that, or even a half pound—if you think they'll load up the tacos with trimmings. In California, half the taco would be vegetables, but perhaps that's not so with your crowd. Lonejack’s experience may be more relevant.

From my own experience (not the calculator):

How big is the lettuce? If you've talking a tight, heavy, bowling ball sized iceburg, and people who like it, three is probably more than enough. If you mean loose little heads with no more heft than a softball, you might need ten.

Sour cream, they'll eat it all up unless you have so much they don't eat any, no matter the amount. I'd go with two of the big food service tubs (5 lbs.?), hide one, but reassure people who hesitate that there's more. If they're more modest, you can probably do with one...

Figure three tortillas/shells (5”) per person, plus some extra for spills and such, kids usually eat one and some adults might edge toward five, but a standard plate is three. Unless you have a bunch of brawy men who eat ten?

Two food service sized (#10?) cans of beans should be enough.

Sounds like fun! We have a community dinner coming up, but I'm not sure most of the older folks will attend...

Hmmm, hmmm, I have decided to have servers for the first go round and then after everyone is served they can help themselves.

I bought 50, 10" soft tortillas and 30 hard shell and 3 bags of tortilla chips (some blue), 12 lbs 85/15 hamburger, 2 32ounce sour creams, 8 cans of black beans and 8 ears of corn. Franks hot sauce, giant bag of rice, little cans of hot chilies. mild and medium Pace chunky salsa. There is a budget- as good as possible, cheap!

Still have to buy avocado, cheese, tomato and lettuce.

I'll reread all comments later and make adjustments. busy for awhile

I'd have at least another 30 count box of hard shells handy as a backup.

Nobody can plan this:

50 people, a few kids.

One head of lettuce would have been plenty.

30 romas, 15 would have been enough

20 hard shells would have been an abundance, and idk about flour, we had a lot leftover.

4 big bags of chips got gobbled.

12 avocados to make chunky guac, they ate it all. It made a trifle bowl 3/4 filled.

The meat, 12 lbs hamburger 85/15 and the chicken 15 lb of breast grilled and sliced, was good but still had 1/3 leftover. That was ok for all the helpers to take home leftovers.

1, 32 ounce carton of sour cream would have been enough. I had 3 cartons.

Everything else I had lots of leftovers but that's ok. We had plenty of food!

I'm glad that it turned out well and everyone had more than enough. Large gatherings always make it hard to gauge food. When we have even 15-20 people at our lake cabin we always end up with way too much food and have to take some of the beer out of the fridges to store the leftovers. Oh the horrors!

Sounds like overall a bit more leftover than you wanted hut no one went hungry. I’d consider that a success!

It sounds like they filled up on chips and guacamole. Something to think of for the future is that your group likes finger food. There are two kinds of crowds, IME, the noshers who will swarm like locusts around dips, hors d’ouerve, sticks and nibbles, and the fill me uppers who will go through a buffet, get a full plate, and sit until it's all gone, letting go-backers bring the more of something, or going for more when the first plate is done, and there are the after-you-my-dear-Alphonse crowd, who want more but don’t take it for various reasons. Then there's the low expectations crowd who eat before, being unsure of what they'll be served, and just nibble to be polite. Sometimes the same people turn into a different crowd on a different day. I apologise for thinking you needed so much more. We always hold some back before the full-platers just plow through the good stuff and leave the chatters to scramble for what they can get—they're grateful when we put out fresh after most have food. I hope they're still talking about how nice it was.

It was successful and we had plenty of food. People knew we had plenty so they didn't feel rushed or anxious so it was all good. The servers were happy with leftovers too.