Picanha Steak Tacos, FTW!!!
Santo Taco 2.0 and Soledad Taqueria: What to order, including vegetarian options!
Here’s one more column before we get to some longer stuff next week. Honestly, I just couldn’t ignore how good these two taquerias were — and I didn’t want to introduce them in a year-end list! But first…
Four quick things!
One: Emily Wilson will relaunch her acclaimed newsletter, The Angel, early next year. But this week, the author responds to a prompt from Matt Rodbard and writes about 25 New York restaurants over 25 discrete years. Do read the whole thing for a lovely tour of establishments from the millennium onward — including entries on Mercer Kitchen, Bridges, and Pastis — my favorite McNally spot after the late Pravda!
Two: Something that Los Angeles Times critic Bill Addison and I have in common is that we’ve both taken pains to keep our faces off of social media for the past two decades. But so the story goes that I gave up that effort earlier this fall when I joined the NYT as a freelance contributing critic. And this past week, Addison, who’s a friend and a former Eater colleague, removed his cloak of anonymity as well.
Read the critic’s thoughtful essay, or let him explain everything on video! A key line: “But the AI era is something different. To be faceless, unconsciously or not, implies absence of humanity. When we can’t always know what’s real, or what will be real, nothing becomes more important than human connection.”
Three: I’ve always enjoyed Alex Stupak’s musings about restaurants and cooking; we all remember his essay on why he didn’t (initially) serve tacos at his seminal Empellon Cocina! And so it’s nice to see Stupak writing away again, but this time on Substack! His new newsletter is called The Sweet Release!
For his debut edition, Stupak writes about seeing something that looks like his signature salsa preparation at….someone else’s restaurant! He actually ends up chatting with a Philadelphia chef about the incident; click through for how things play out!
Four: Online grocery behemoth Instacart is getting attention for the wrong reason this week. Here’s why: People are paying different prices for the same stuff, at the same stores, at the same time, according to a study by Groundwork Collective, Consumer Reports, and More Perfect Union. One big takeaway: The dynamic pricing policies could end up translating into “a cost swing of about $1,200 per year” for a family of four. Barf!
Santo Taco 2.0: What to order at the new location!
Plus: the case for ribeye and picanha steak tacos at Soledad on the Upper East Side
