585: Taqueria Ramirez Is New York’s Favorite Taco

28:06It was more like I just throw a steak into the grill or the pan and like it's ready in five minutes, you know. but I guess it was also during the pandemic that I started to get a little more, I guess, homesick in a sense of like remembering what was the actual tacos that I used to love eating in Mexico and this was obviously this older style of, you know, food process that involves long, long periods of like the suadero that needs to be cooked in four hours or the pastoral that takes 15 hours to be, you know, like ready and start cutting the meat. So I never really got into that. And I was honestly a little bit like, oh, am I really going to get into it?

28:53That sort of like internal question of like, you know, because I never did it before. But the time, you know, like during the pandemic, just you have a lot of time, right? And you have so much things that you want to do. during that time. And it's also, there was this sort of feeling that, this fuck it feeling that let's just do it, you know? So YouTube was also a big influence, to be honest, because I was homesick. So I started to watch all these videos of street food in Mexico and that connected me one morning. And I was with Tania and I was like, you know what? this is what we need to do. We need to bring these sort of tacos that are the ones that I actually grew up eating.

29:47And those are the ones that I really miss. Yeah. And so I just started like that. I started watching tons of videos and remembering watching that guy, you know, prepping his street taco stand. And I was like, yeah, I think I can do it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm trying to picture like the first time that you bought a trompo to do al pastor and like layered all of the meat onto that. Like to me, that's like obviously you wouldn't just do that in the photo studio for four people because that's like making food at scale. It takes so long. How did you feel when you were figuring that out? Were you nervous? That was crazy because we were almost ready to open.

30:34So this is after six months that we renovated the space that the Tequeria is. And even at that point, I was never even touched Pastor before. Since that point, it was all about Suadero and the Churis. Yeah, we have been doing all those things since we got the list of the space till we opened. we were doing tastings with the choricera. We bought one literally from Amazon, like a small. And we were just inviting friends over, trying different cuts of meat to see what worked best. Everybody was like, this is great. But then, yeah, like you... But the pastor was the piece of the cake. It was a last minute decision.

31:16Yeah. And I was like, you know what? We need to have the pastor. I was like, you are you sure? The very much first self-opening that we had there, I was like, I'm going to do the pastora. And I did it. There's photos of it. We didn't even have the proper tools, so I had to actually hold this sort of blade that you put all the meat into. I need to hold it all the time, and with the other hand just start to stack in the meat one by one. And it was very cute. Very, very naive. but also awesome in the whole sense of, you know, having the, just that first experience moment, it's priceless. Yeah. I feel like sometimes you post videos on the Chakri Ramirez Instagram.

32:10It's like a sped up of the, like, Al Pastor's spit being layered with everything on it. It's very calming to watch, actually. No, I feel like the people that do it, they're so focused on it, you know. Meditation. Literally, like, try to perfect it every time. Like, okay, no, this is going more towards the right. So it's just kind of like, it takes around two hours, but it's just so fun to watch, you know. I remember when I was learning how to do it with, later on, who became one of our first taqueros there also. His name is Bernardino. And I told him, like, you need to think about yourself as, like, if you are a sculptor.

32:52A sculptor artist. You know, and this is your piece. And so you need to, you know, step back and like look at it and, you know, change size and like see how it feels and like go back inside and work on it, you know. And he really knew. I mean, he connected with what I was telling because he mastered it very much. He was great. Yeah. And I think tacos are such an art form. And even the fact of it being a sculpture, like there are people who specialize in certain mediums of art. And I think they're probably taqueros who like they make al pastor and that's what they do. That is the whole art form.

33:28Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Something that I really like about the Tacorio Ramirez location is how you like built ways into it that people have to eat your tacos in the way that you want them to. Like the fact that you don't offer paper plates, it's the reusable plates so that people can't walk away and eat their taco later because tacos don't hold up very well. And then I even saw that you had to build like slots into the trash can so that people can't throw out the place. How did you decide to build that into the taqueria and what kind of response have you gotten? So we definitely wanted people to experience the best way to eat the food.

34:12That's how it's in Mexico. It's not like you stand around. Maybe you don't have a seat, but you can just stand and eat the taco and just finish in five minutes. Yeah, it doesn't take very long. And we wanted people to understand that. Like, no, it's not like you're going to get home, sit down, turn on the TV, and then eat your taco. No, it's just like quick. It is how it's supposed to be, you know. So it took a while, obviously, us communicating that verbally in that moment. People were like, we were joking. like no why is not to go no I mean the food is just not going to be good and I think it also helped a lot to centralize the vibe in the space you know like it was not like this come and go or like this personalization of my body in this room with all these people you know it helped a lot to start creating that And culture that I think we're part of in that space.

35:19Yeah, I think it also just means that you're not on your phone, like watching something, eating the taco. I think if you're eating a good taco, you physically can't do that. Like you focus on what you're doing, then there's very quick turnover. So you have a lot of people that can go into this space, even if there's a long line. People aren't hanging out for that long. They're eating and then maybe they chat, but they're probably just getting and going. Yeah, we definitely have improved all that system with time. Now I'm so impressed. Like Saturdays I'm there is the busiest day of the week and people are literally you can come in, order your taco.

35:55They see it. And when they finish ordering the taco, someone is already standing up. So there's always kind of like a rotation of people. And it's just so quick. I think it just takes a little longer to wait online. But once you're there, it's just quick and people know, you know, like, okay, I finished. I think I need to give room to someone else, you know. Yeah. It's interesting also. I feel like Greenpoint, that part of Greenpoint has almost like become a taco neighborhood or a Mexican food neighborhood because like Sumarino is up the block also. And Ese Taco further down, it's kind of like you could do a taco crawl and go to a bunch of places in one day.

36:34Yeah. Yeah. We actually love that. We wanted people to start calling Greenpoint Little Mexico. Hold on. Because it started Little Japan, I think. I don't know if you've heard of that, of Greenpoint. Oh, really? Because a bunch of places started to open. But I think it's kind of like leveled up right now. It's both, yeah. You could call it like Green Punto or something like that. So how did you decide to open a second restaurant and how did you kind of focus on Carnitas Ramirez as what the focus would be? Mm-hmm. It took a while to come up with that. I guess when we opened, we were just working so much.

37:15And then after the first year, we started considering expanding. A bunch of people started approaching, like, I have this space. I have this money. So we definitely started hearing options, offers, everything. But then also we kind of stepped back. We're like, okay, we finally have the system rolling. Let's enjoy this for a little bit longer, you know, just... Before getting into another... More. And, yeah, we then started looking again. That was last year. Took a while also to find a spot. I remember we literally probably been looking for spots for over a year until we find that spot in the East Village.

38:02And we were back then still with the mindset of just opening a 2.0 version of Greenpoint. But during the period, something switched. I mean, like, we also started to contemplate in the idea of what if we have partners in this one? And we sort of like easy off the process. and share responsibilities with someone else too. And that's where Yvonne and Kari came into play. And when we talked to them, it just felt pretty fresh, I guess, again, to me, to start talking about it. And at some point, we were so, I guess, rethinking over all the project that we came to this other thing of like, what if we do something different?

39:03Like, what if we focus on something, you know, like that we think that the city is still missing? And the carnitas came into, you know? And I think it was Ivan who said for the first time in a sense of like, yeah, carnitas Ramirez way. Fuck, you know? And I was like, yes. Actually, yes, that sounds great. Let's do it. So, yeah, I mean, I feel like we wanted to have a new experience with them. It would be so much different if we were just sort of like replicate what we know and what we do on a different location. It will be great as a business and all that, but it will not have the same impact for us in our process of, you know, this sort of like rediscovering our lives in this food world.

40:04And especially with two partners that I felt it also helped to them a lot to just like get into something new and fresh rather than something that was already there and established. Yeah, I feel like you don't really strike me as people that want to just do the same thing all over again. At least not yet. Maybe you'll do like a Miami location later. Maybe, yeah. So when you were kind of focusing on doing all these different cuts of carnitas, were there any that you were especially excited about putting on the menu, maybe because they're harder to find here in New York? Yeah, I think for me, I discovered a bunch of things too by opening carnitas.

40:45You know, obviously in different areas of Mexico, it's focused on different things, no? So I'm from the north. It's not a big thing, you know, carnitas. It will be kind of like here that you hear carnitas and you get pork butt or, you know, just one choice, let's say. The meatiest part. Uh-huh. And discovering, for me, you know, hearing nana, that is uterus, I was like, wait, what? So for me, the whole thing was exciting, to be honest. It was just, you, I remember, you wanted to focus on bringing cesadillas, no? The brains. And the whole head in general for me was very, what I was really drive to like get my hands into it.

41:39When we got our first full head, I was like, oh, you know, and knowing that so many different parts and textures and flavors are there. It's like the more, the richest part of the animal in that sense of like, you know, all these differences that are just so close to each other, but they're just so different. So different. Yeah, as now, the ear or the jowl or the cheek, they just taste so different. So definitely that for me was the whole head was my favorite part in that process. When we introduced gorditas too, I was like, oh, yes, because that's one of the things that I would, in Mexico, just have as a breakfast, you know, a lot of the times, weekends, all weekends, you know, gorditas de chicharrón.

42:27yeah I love a gordita and it's interesting that you guys have like only tacos basically at Taqueria Ramirez but at Carnitas Ramirez I guess maybe because it doesn't have taco in the name like you're able to do gorditas and tortas and things like that was that fun for you to get to expand like a canvas you were putting the meat on yeah yeah it's very very exciting for me I guess the The only, like, yeah, guy that we had is like, yeah, it just has to have pork. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the pork is like the centerpiece of this restaurant. So as long as we keep that, we can, you know, still have fun and try different things.

43:06And yeah, I was very happy when we were like, gorditas, yes, absolutely. And tortas, they're much more from the north. They're actually, they're a different name. Yeah. We call it lonche. over there. And it's a thing, that lonche de carnitas, that's also I grew with so much. So I remember when we were talking about the menu, I was like, let's do lonche, let's do the tortas. But then when we started, it was just like, no, we don't have enough room to store these. We don't have the griddle, because it's just so, it's just, you know, I don't know, it's big though, but we're like, we're not going to have room to warm bread.

43:50etc. So that's when at some point we realized that weekdays we could do that. So that's why we only operate for lunch, like as a lunch special, you know, just come try the torta. Oh, this makes sense because you were talking about tortas earlier and I didn't see them when I was there. And I was like, how did I miss this? But I guess it's only on the weekdays. Only on the weekdays. Where are you sourcing the bread from? It's Mi Barrio. So it's just a big Mexican distributor. Yeah. And they source it from a bakery. It's local as well. Nice. But yeah, it's Mexico. It's called Telera. So actually, where I'm from, it's very different.

44:31The bread is very specific from the region. But this one is, I mean, we tried different ones, and this was definitely the best that we find. Yeah. So yeah, shout out to Mi Barrio. Yeah. How does it work for you guys with the two restaurants, knowing that you have partners at Carnitas, but, you know, still trying to run both of them? Do you split your time equally across the two or how does it kind of look for you these days? Yeah, I mean, actually, we just had the full experience because Yvonne and Carrie were out of town for 10 days. So, yeah, we kind of had to split literally half and half. It was a lot of work.

45:13Your two kids, yeah. But thankfully, with them, we have much less work, to be honest. So it's, we are, I mean, weekends I'm in Taqueria, a couple days, Friday and Saturday. And then in East Village, I'm on Sunday. You are Saturday in Carnitas, Friday in Taqueria. So basically, we're still much more time in Greenpoint. And that comes only because we also have Yvonne and Kari definitely taking care of carnitas together. And so that I will say we're probably 25 % time-wise involving carnitas, probably 70 % maybe in Greenpoint. Yeah, that makes sense. Like on the line. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I love being— It's an easy back and forth, though.

46:13Yeah, it's so breezy. It's crossing the bridge. It's quite nice, too. That was one of the things. Yeah, we wanted to, when we were looking in Manhattan, we were like, okay, well, let's make our lives easier because you don't want to be going to. We always try to, yeah, look into that, like, okay, well, but let's make it easy. Yeah, for us. Of things that we can, yeah. Yeah. For sure. I was doing some research before having you on, and I read that you have this like saint trilogy of tacos, which is suadero, carnitas, and barbacoa. Yeah. Are you going to open a barbacoa spa eventually? That's a dream.

46:51That's a dream. I think about it every weekend. That's my, I mean, it's one of those things that, yeah, like I still miss so much. And every time that I go back to Mexico, I can't be there without doing that. And yeah, that's always been part of the dream, the trilogy. Yeah. And then after that, just chill. Well, we'll see. Well, I think Barbacoa seems like maybe one of the most difficult ones to do just from a space capacity, right? Yeah, and also involves a lot of different technical aspects that we'll have to figure out in New York in a sense of, because you need to cook it on an open air. Yeah.

47:39And. In the ground. And it's also supposed to be in the ground, which could be also not necessarily in ground, but, you know, you can also make some sort of like a high. Oven. Yeah, level up and then still go down, but not necessarily in ground. You've been in the YouTube on this. Yes, a lot. But, yeah, it's beautiful. It's some sort of like a night shift cooking because it cooks overnight. And I'm not, I used to be a night person. Like, work at night was my thing, but not anymore. but maybe that's some sort of connection still there so I I I like that some sort of like calmness at night and like focusing doing something and well everybody's asleep yeah and to have that that some sort of like surprise and during the morning it's it's magical yes yeah I'm picturing like a, I don't know, maybe it's like upstate or at the Rockaways in the summer.

48:51It's like you have your part time barbacoa relaxation venture. I love that. And weekend only. You just planted the seed. Sorry, you have too much to do. But I love barbacoa. I feel like I don't eat it that often. I know. Yeah, I mean, there's just a few people too. It's a lot to explore, I feel like, in New York still with this Kung Fu. Yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. I feel like I'm from L.A. and people always ask me about the New York City Mexican food scene. So YouTube obviously being Mexican, I feel like there must be a lot of discourse about that. Do you feel like the Mexican food in New York has evolved like over the amount of time that you've lived here?

49:31Yeah. Yeah. Especially, I mean, obviously it's not like since when we opened, but since pandemic, I feel like there definitely was a shift in the Mexican food appreciation and, you know, focus on the traditional instead of trying to cater to, you know, the market, the American market. I feel like, yeah, maybe it helped that people were going back and forth more easily in Mexico, you know, just living there during the pandemic and just bringing back those experiences and being like, oh, yeah, finally, there's something like that in New York. Yeah. All of the New Yorkers that are obsessed with going to Mexico City.

50:14That must be really weird to see as somebody who's from Mexico City. Yeah. It is weird. It's weird. Sometimes I'm jealous also. Yeah, because you have your restaurants here. Yeah, because I'm not up to date anymore of, you know, new things going on there, what's going on, what's happened, where are the places to go. So when I when someone, you know, talk to me about that, I'm like, it's a it's a weird feeling. But we were recently, Tanya and I, we were recently in Mexico and we were talking about this sort of gentrification phenomenon happening there. And I was thinking, like, what's going to be the future of this?

51:03I was trying to imagine this in like 20 years if people who is moving there, that means they're going to have to maybe find a local job or like they're going to start having family there. So it's obviously going to be people that are going to be more rooted into the culture, but also that also will mean that there will be more diversity or more cultural, like, you know. spectrums to be around with. And I like that. I feel like that's part of the reason why I love New York. And then seeing that in Mexico, gentrification can go, you know, it could be black and white. But I see that bright side in that sense of like, yeah, what would happen if all these people just decide to just literally just like live here the rest of their lives?

52:03and start having families here and so on. And I think that'll be great. Yeah. I think it's interesting to see, like, people who are New Yorkers who have moved to Mexico City that are now opening restaurants who, like, are not Mexican. Like, I think if people are going to Mexico City who are from, like, New York or anywhere and they're not Mexican and they really love Mexican culture and they want to experience it and, like, put their money towards it, I think that's great. I think it's when people go to places that are, like, not rooted in the community that are not from there. And then they're just kind of like creating a version.

52:36There's always like natural wine bars and things that I feel like you look around the room, you could be in LA, you could be in New York, you could be in London, you could be anywhere. And what's the point of doing that in Mexico City if you're going to Mexico City? Sure. Yeah, totally. I feel like I want to talk to more of my friends in Mexico. How do they feel in a sense, you know, of also do that make you, you know, acknowledge or like how does it make you feel as a Mexican or like did it make you feel back to your own roots or like that I don't know, but I need to, I'm definitely interested in talking with them about that.

53:17And I also feel like it's, the city is so big. I mean, we obviously talk about this phenomena, but most of it is a green neighborhood. Probably not even the 10 % of the city. It's like Condesa, Roma, maybe like Polanco. Or San Rafael. But that's it. But that's literally 5 % of the city. Yeah. When I go to Mexico City, I like going to like Centro or like other neighborhoods or places that just feel like you know exactly where you are. And it's not like it could be somewhere else. Exactly. Yeah. And there's a charm, I guess, in Roma Condesa about that. It's also like you know exactly where you are.

53:58Yeah. But yeah, I feel that there's still plenty of room for different things in there. And plenty of room for good tacos here in New York also. Yes, exactly. From February 20th to March 7th, dive into Canada's biggest culinary festival, Montreal en Lumière. An exclusive partnership with the McCord Stewart Museum and its exhibition, On the Menu Montreal, a restaurant story. the 2026 festival invites food lovers on a flavorful journey through time. Montreal's top restaurateurs will reimagine 65 years of the city's iconic astronomy, crafting inventive, nostalgia-inspired dishes with a modern twist.

54:43Prepare your palate. World-renowned chefs, including several Michelin-starred talents, will team up with over 80 of Montreal's finest local chefs to create unforgettable, one-of-a-kind menus. The full program is available at MontrealOnLumiere.com, presented by Lotto Quebec in collaboration with National Bank. Today's episode is brought to you by ButcherBox. As a food writer, I can be a little skeptical about subscription cooking boxes you hear about on podcasts. There's big talk about cooking simplicity, but you're usually left with disappointment after smashing that promo code. Now, Clayton, have you ever tried one of those subscription boxes?

55:21Yeah, Matt, my friend gave me a code for that one that has all the chopped vegetables in little baggies. I felt like a drug dealer trying to cook dinner. Yeah, man, I have so been there. ButcherBox is a true exception. I was sent a box of premium beef and pork and was blown away by the quality and variety. There was 100 % grass-fed pasteurized ribeye, tri-tip, and ground sirloin for my favorite at-home smash burger recipe. George Motes, you better watch your back. For pork, they sent me a beautiful center-cut pork loin for slow roasting. I was super impressed, and I haven't even talked about the ribs, which I cooked in my Instant Pot.

55:59There was a rub of salt, white pepper, and togarashi, and I pressure-cooked with water and apple cider vinegar. It was incredible. These ButcherBox ribs are amazing. For nearly a decade, ButcherBox has led the industry with meat and seafood that's antibiotic-free. As an exclusive offer, our listeners can get free protein in every box for a year plus$20 off your first box when you go to butcherbox.com slash taste. Visit butcherbox.com slash taste to get this limited time offer and free shipping always. That's butcherbox.com slash taste. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. I want to play a little lightning round with you guys to close.

56:43so I'm going to make you play some favorites probably. Okay. Okay. Wow. Your favorite ice cream flavor? Mine is cherry chocolate. Actually mine. A green point spot that you think deserves more hype. Do you know the name of that? Yeah, we were thinking about this place actually. U Omacase is a Peruvian guy doing this awesome Omacase experience. I feel like, I don't know if he wants it to be a little hidden because it is the place, but it's great. It's a great experience. It looks like an apartment. You're entering into a ground level apartment. Oh, I love that. But it's a whole restaurant. BYOB.

57:32BYOB. Love that too. No, that's a lot of fun. It's a good place. It's called U Omacase. Yu o Makase. Oh, yeah. A favorite spot for Mexican food in New York that's not your own? Yeah, that's a hard one. You could say a couple. Tana and I, we have a lot of history there, but we love this place in Chelsea Market. Actually, from Los Tacos Número Uno, but it's called Mariscos. Yeah, Los Mariscos. Yeah, we used to... We always sit by the bar. If we don't sit by the bar, we wait until we're like in the bar. Yeah, but yeah, I guess when we were in the studio, yeah, it's just like, let's go grab the ale and go all the way to Chelsea Market just to get mariscos.

58:20Obviously, this was before Submarino. Yeah. So, yeah, but it's still, it hits, you know, when we go. It still hits. I have so much good memories there. And they have this amazing cubetazos, this beer. Beer buckets. That sounds so good. I love mariscos. And I think I went to Submarino because I saw you guys mention it in a interview or something. But I think that's a style of Mexican food that is really common in LA. So I grew up eating it a lot. And it's much harder to find here in New York. And I'm very excited because I saw that they're opening a new location. And it's in Clinton Hill, which is my neighborhood.

58:55Oh, nice. I actually screamed at the top of my lungs. You know when you walk around your neighborhood and you're fantasized about what would open in that place? I think I literally said that. Oh, that's awesome. I feel like it was obviously not for me, but I personally am really going to benefit from this. Okay. Your go-to taco order. Pastor Suadero. Pastor y Campechano.

59:24And carnitas, it would be barriga and costilla. That's my... Yeah. Taco de huevo con salchicha. That's just the home one. My breakfast taco. That's your off menu order at the restaurant. Yeah. Your, like, go-to bodega snack. Doritos. Yeah. We don't do it very often, but... What flavor? Ah, just the classic. The nacho. What is it? The red one. Yeah. And I wish they were as spicy as they are in Mexico, but yeah, they're the best. Do you ever like add the hot sauce in the bag? 100%, yeah. Yeah. But then Tina, for sure. Always. Okay, finally, a fictional food scene, like from a movie or a book that you wish you could eat in real life.

1:00:19I was actually thinking of this one I don't know the name of the movie in English but it's La Dama y el Vagabundo the dogs when they eat spaghetti oh Lady and the Tramp say it in Spanish a little more slowly Dama y el Vagabundo oh yeah okay Lady and the Vagabond Lady and the Tramp that is spaghetti I always say oh that looks good this is why it comes to my mind right now There's a scene in this Mortal Kombat movie from the 90s, I think, the very original one, that when they, you know, all the fighters arrive to the tournament and they have one night to, you know, like get to know each other. And the next day, you know, the fight starts and they have this amazing dinner.

1:01:11but you know this huge table full of like like a banquet yeah lobsters you know meat olives and like grapes it looks really good it looks really good and I remember Kano the guy has like the asshole he's eating and the way he's eating that scene it's pretty good I was like yeah I wish I was that guy this is definitely the first time that Mortal Kombat has been mentioned on the podcast but I hope it's not the last thank you both so much for coming on the show this was so fun thank you so much

1:02:00this is Taste is hosted and produced by Matt Rodbard and me Eliza Abarbanel the show is edited by lead producer Clayton Gumbert and supervised by Pat Stango, director of media production and development at Penguin Random House. Thanks to Shalia Harris and the production team at Penguin Random House. Theme music by Steve Rydell, logo and guest illustrations by Ellie Skrzat. Visit Taste online at tastecooking.com and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to keep updated on all cool things in the world of taste.