Is New York a Taco Town? Yes!!!

Plus: What to get at Tacos 1986, the NYT review of Chez Fifi, and Amy Sherald's cancelled Smithsonian exhibit

Jul 26, 2025

This Monday evening, I’ll publish a long, paywalled guide to New York City taquerias — with a bunch of new reviews tucked inside. But today, please enjoy this free essay about the city’s electric Taco Zeitgeist

New York’s booming taco scene, explained

New York’s taco scene is suddenly on fire.

But here’s what’s also true: Our larger Mexican food community has been on the rise for quite some time.

Not everyone realizes this. Back in 2023, the otherwise brilliant Pedro Pascal had some ill-informed comments about New York’s Mexican restaurants. Yet around that time, small molinos and tortillerias — like For All Things Good and Sobre Masa — were already upping our city’s masa game. And ambitious restaurants were pressing their tortillas in house.

There was also Taqueria Ramirez, attracting long lines for suadero tacos fished out of bubbling vats of lard. Enrique Olvera’s Atla, in turn, was drawing chic celebrity crowds for its fish alla talla and vegetable-forward dishes. And fine dining spots like Cosme and Corima (est. 2024) pushed creative and financial boundaries on what diners expected from Mexican fare — with raw toro over beans, or lobster al pastor.

This year, however, something else changed. As a spate of taco-centric spots started opening up — almost out of nowhere — there was a shift in our larger culinary zeitgeist.

In May, Cosme co-founder Santiago Perez opened up Santo in the old La Esquina takeout space. I dropped by for an early visit, and there was no line for the steak trompo tacos. But when I went back again — still within a week of its debut — folks were queuing up down the block. I distinctly remember a bro in a luxury hoodie crushing a few tacos while chatting about his biotech fund. As one does.

And earlier in July, I read that the couple behind a beloved Brooklyn wine bar was opening Dolores, a small Mexico City-inspired cafe with lots of tacos. When I swung by on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m., the quoted wait for a table was two hours — which is honestly what you’d expect if you showed up at Four Horsemen at primetime on a weekend. Not bad.

And about a month ago, Cuerno, a steakhouse chain from Mexico, opened an 8,000 square foot, bi-level outpost near Rockefeller Center. Not only was it packed over two visits, it was already hosting private events filled with guys in white collared shirts. Check out this finance bro bait, these $65 banana tequila cocktails. But hey, at least everyone was eating extra beefy steak tacos, chopped up tableside by a dude in a roving cart.

All three venues opened within two months of one other. Actually, let’s make that four venues, if you count the well-regarded Tacos 1986 that debuted in the West Village last week.

The new taqueria boom even produced this (correct) headline for Luke Fortney’s (excellent) column in the New York Times: “And Just Like That … New York City Has Great Tacos.”

Still, this story goes beyond the food.

The mere fervor over folks waiting hours to order $8 chile relleno tacos in Bed-Stuy suggests something bigger is at play. It speaks to a broader acceptance of Mexico’s diverse foodways by all sorts of hungry people — including the city’s cool kids and other well-heeled eaters (ugh!). And maybe this is also all part of a larger backlash against Trump’s immigration policies? Or a yearning for a city — CDMX — that many flocked to during the pandemic? Maybe!

Either way, these cantinas, cafes, fine dining spots, and taquerias are simply where people want to be eating right now.

Our Mexican restaurant scene, once a punchline, is booming in such a powerful way that I half expect to see the tagline “Mexico City-inspired” printed all over the menus at the next hip French brasserie in Soho. So be it.

Lots of folks are excited about Mexican food in New York right now.

I’m one of them.

P.S. As always, shout out to Alex Stupak’s late, great Empellon Cocina, a venue that was way ahead of its time, and a venue where so many amazing chefs once worked.

This Stupid Week!!! | Trump’s cronies ruined the Amy Sherald exhibit

It’s Saturday, 26 July 2025, and New York on Friday was too hot for whatever melty soft serve your posh restaurant was selling. Sorry. It was the type of heat that made me want to do an edible in front of my bodega’s cold drink case until my hemoglobin reached the temperature of a Snickers Ice Cream Bar.

Incidentally, my bodega now carries THC beverages, and if you like that sort of thing, you can read my coverage of Flyers and Cann right here.

So!

The Stupidest Thing to Happen This Week involves the Trumpian bureaucrats screwing around with museum exhibits in Washington.

Amy Sherald, the artist behind the official portrait of Michelle Obama, canceled her “American Sublime” show at The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery because of censorship.

Sherald said she was told the museum was considering omitting her painting of a transgender Statue of Liberty “to avoid provoking President Trump,” Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times reported.

Lindsey Halligan, a special assistant to Trump, said that “The Statue of Liberty is not an abstract canvas for political expression — it is a revered and solemn symbol of freedom, inspiration, and national unity that defines the American spirit,” per the NYT. Sherald, meanwhile, said in a letter to The Smithsonian that “at a time when transgender people are being legislated against silenced, and endangered across our nation, silence is not an option,” according to the Times.

“American Sublime” continues to run through 10 August at The Whitney, and over three or four visits I’ve never felt that museum pulsate with so much energy. Sherald’s fantastical and sometimes surreal portraits of everyday Black folk have multitudes to say about race, violence, and the vulnerable children living in all of us.

What’s particularly shameful about Trump’s censorship is that The Smithsonian is free….whereas a day at The Whitney can hit $90 for an adult family of three. An expensive museum visit, like a fancy dinner reservation, requires both cash and intent.

But in our nation’s capital, so many folks of so many different stripes simply stroll into The Smithsonian’s buildings because they’re there. That’s why I’m so sad to think that a curious teenager traveling to Washington won’t be able to feel the rush of seeing themselves in Sherald’s art.

Just the same, it drives me mad that an impromptu visitor won’t get to see their own views of the world unexpectedly challenged by Sherald’s artworks. Instead, our autocratic-leaning administration prefers to deport our tired, poor, huddled masses while (somehow) admonishing artists over the meaning of the Statue of Liberty — all in the name of remaking our country in the image of a Bitter Orange Man.

It’s all so very, utterly stupid.

You can read my essay about Amy Sherald and pink ice cream right here.

Let’s try the vegan mushroom Tacos at 1986!

The grand opening of Tacos 1986 on Thursday

Late at night in December 2018, Eater’s Matt Kang took me to a little street cart in LA’s Koreatown. It was called Tacos 1986 and it served what I thought was a very good mushroom taco. Bill Addison of the Los Angeles Times agreed, waxing poetic about the same dish in his own review:

My favorite taco filling — the one that eventually might be included among the essentials of the Los Angeles taco lexicon — is the hongos, or mushrooms. They’re as glossy and coiled as snails, leaving inky trails across a tortilla.

Gorgeous!

Well, the Tijuana-inspired taqueria has since established a small empire on the West Coast. And as of last week, it now has a standing room-only outpost on the East Coast — in Manhattan’s West Village. Co-founder Jorge “Joy” Alvarez-Tostado was there on opening night, and I’m happy to report that the mushroom tacos are as good as I remember. They come wrapped in soft corn tortillas and they pack a deeply nutty flavor that goes beyond run-of-the-mill mushrooms.

Where does all this flavor come from? Genevieve Ko of the LAT wrote before the pandemic that the 1986 chefs sear the hongos until they’re crisp, before soaking them in a salsa macha vinaigrette. But that shouldn’t stop you from adding a little bit of extra macha (from the condiment bar) yourself! 1 Cornelia Street, West Village

Eater NY is on Substack!

Please give a warm welcome to my good friends at Eater NY, who now run a Substack!!! These are smart folks who know a ton about the city’s dining scene, and Eater is where I worked as a critic, alongside Robert Sietsema, for nearly a decade!

Why aren’t cookbooks covered like the movies?

Matt Rodbard is a noted podcast host (Taste!), writer (check out his Substack), and cookbook author. Indeed, it’s on that last subject that he has something particularly interesting to say this week. Rodbard, in his Food Time column, correctly wonders why there isn’t more intense coverage of the cookbook industry, beyond fall and spring previews. A key line:

Why is so little energy given to covering an industry that makes these books—an industry that, according to Marketplace, sells 20 million copies annually in the United States alone?

Please read Rodbard’s essay in full!!!

Robert Sietsema on fries!!!

Late last week, critic Robert Sietsema dedicated a few paragraphs to BKK, a Bangkok street food spot on the Northern border of Hell’s Kitchen. I’m quite keen to try it, and Siestema seems to like the hot dog, a Chiang Mai sausage on a brioche roll. Sounds tasty! But here’s a few words about the frites that come with:

I might complain about the price ($18), except it comes with some wonderful fries — half are the usual french fries, but the other half are made of shredded scallions, which are quite wonderful on their own. Restaurateurs looking for low carb alternative french fries take note!

You can also read Sietsema’s interview with Hell Gate right here.

Here’s an early report on Williamsburg newcomer I Cavallini

Eater’s Nadia Chaudhury finds a lot to like, including the gnocchi sardi, at the Italian hotspot by chef Nick Curtola, James Murphy, and the Four Horsemen crew.

Should you eat at Chez Fifi? Maybe!

Ligaya Mishan issues a one-star review to Chez Fifi, an Upper East Side French restaurant by brothers David and Joshua Foulquier. Why haven’t I written about that spot yet? Because I haven’t been able to get in, lol.

Mishan meditates on the Upper East Side’s wealth, the question of an exclusive neighborhood restaurant, and the notion of “unnecessary luxuries foisted on otherwise agreeable dishes.” But damn, that steak au poivre with flamed cognac and cream looks good! In any case, Mishan gives us an excellent read.

Here’s a long list of New York’s top bakeries

Mahira Rivers — a former Michelin inspector who writes quite a bit about desserts, sweets, and viennoiserie — has published her guide to the city’s top bakeries. Do pay careful intention to the intro, as she meditates upon modern uses of “best” in food writing. Here are a two smart lines on that subject that I identify with strongly:

So, instead, here is a list filtered through my own vision of the city, my own judgement of what is good and therefore worthy of your time. And while there is a fine line between being an authority and having an opinion, that line exists, and I have the receipts (literal and not) to prove it.

Right on.

Yes, I wanted to include my taco essay in the long taco guide, but….it was too long!!! I figured that at least once, lol, I should try getting to the actual guide in a more expeditious fashion, to allow for quicker scrolling!

See you on Monday night with that taco guide.

Fingers crossed!

Ryan!!!

Update: The taco guide indeed debuted on Monday Night!