La Esquina

[Bond Girl]

In the NYT style section, there's an article? featuring a restaurant hidden beneath a taco stand in Nolita. No signs, no PR. No published reservation number. Guess the secrets out.

[allie]

Yeah, this place seems to be getting alot of buzz. I've read that their fish tacos are very good, so I'm anxious to try these at some point if they continue to get good reviews. Gothamist wrote about their experience this week as well:

Gothamist visits La Esquina

[Bux]

It's vaguely our nabe and we've been grabbing a couple of tacos at the tacqueria on nights we don't want to cook. We asked about beer and they said "around the corner at the Cafe." Tacos at the Cafe are little bit more expensive, but they serve beer and liquor and have tables and chairs as well as metal forks. At the Cafe one of the women connected with the place came over to our table, spent some time chatting with us and asking our opinion about what we had eaten and told us to try the Restaurant opening in the basement. The Cafe menu is a bit more extended than that of the taqueria and the Restaurant is supposed to offer an even fuller menu. I've enjoyed what we've had, which is tacos in the tacqueria and a sandwich in the Cafe. Depending on your outlook, the food is inauthentic, or creative nueva cocina.

My reservations, in spite of liking the food so far and the solicitous charm of those who work there, is that the owners have more bar scene experience than restaurant experience. I would say it's a neighborhood place, not a destination place, but the number of people arriving by taxi make me wonder. I would also say that if you see two people there who look like everyone else's parents, it's likely to be my wife and I.

[herbacidal]

My reservations, in spite of liking the food so far and the solicitous charm of those who work there, is that the owners have more bar scene experience than restaurant experience. I would say it's a neighborhood place, not a destination place, but the number of people arriving by taxi make me wonder. I would also say that if you see two people there who look like everyone else's parents, it's likely to be my wife and I.

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So, that's a roundabout way of saying the crowd's primarily hipsters and Sex and the City-type folk, 22-35?

[WillieLee]

I threw my b-day party in the basement last week. The space is great "Latino shiek" would describe it best. The food was great, though overpriced, but somtimes you pay for ambiance. DB has a burger after all........

[Nathan]

So, that's a roundabout way of saying the crowd's primarily hipsters and Sex and the City-type folk, 22-35?

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NY's more complicated than that. I wouldn't call it a hipster hangout -- "hipsters" are more limited-edition t-shirt wearing types from Billyburg (and the LES); Sex and the City types are mainly from Jersey or LI....or the UES, which now to think about it...are showing up at LE....and will be in droves now that it's been written up. (and once it's written up in Time Out -- forget about it...then it'll simply be all B&T for a month or two...until they forget about it).

[Bond Girl]

The fish taco is indeed very good. Having visited with Bux and Mrs. B, I rather think that the taco stand is a neat little place to eat.

[Bux]

The other night, for the first time, they served two soft corn tortillas with each taco instead of the single tortilla they'd been serving. It made the whole thing so much easier to eat especially as their tacos tend to be jucier than others I've had in Manahattan. What makes is so much not a destination place, but nevertheless so appealing to me, is that there's a only narrow shelf inside that serves as a counter on which to eat, but the sidewalk is wide and there's not much street traffic that's not headed for the tacqueria, cafe or restaurant and there are a bunch of people standing around in the street eating tacos when it's crowded. It's kind of like something you'd expect to find at the beach, but not in Manhatttan.

[Sneakeater]

I tried the downstairs restaurant. I didn't much like it -- but a lot of that might have been attributable to how pissed off I was at their pretentions.

When I called for a reservation, they asked me my name before telling me whether a table was available. After hearing (and not recognizing) my name, they told me nothing was available before 10:30 p.m. on the day I wanted, but asked for my number so they could call me that day if there were any "cancellations" during what most of us consider dining hours.* Having been through this drill with the JGV juggernaut, I knew that meant that a table would be available when I wanted one. And lo and behold, the day I wanted, one was.

Now, to be fair to the La Esquina people, when I was seated, at least the place was packed. That is almost never the case when JGV Enterprises puts me through this charade.

The thrill of eating in the downstairs restaurant is that you go through a metal door marked "Employees Only -- No Admittance", down a flight of stairs, through the kitchen, and then -- wow! -- you're in this dark, "exotic" restaurant. It's hard not to view the upstairs taco stand as a front, to make the restaurant seem more esoteric. It's such an obvious, contrived fake that you -- or at least I -- naturally feel resentful.

The food is uneven. The grilled corn is delicious -- but have you ever had a bad rendition of that dish? Bux described the tacos -- what I had were small appetizer-sized taquitos, in my case filled with the Yucatecan pork dish pilbul -- as being pleasently "juicy", but I'd call them too wet. The pork ribs I had as an entree were frankly disappointing. I found the glaze simply too cloying, and the ribs themselves a bit dry.

The tequila list is impressive.

Service is very friendly (surprisingly), although overstressed and not very professional.

I'm not going to fall into the trap of saying, "why go to a place like this when you can go to Tulcinga del Valle on Tenth Ave. or the taco counter behind the deli a block north of it?" I remember what Bond Girl said about 66, that you need places of all kinds of cuisines that are nice enough to go to on dates and that women appreciate places without scarily disgusting bathrooms.** So I get that a place like La Esquina's basement restaurant fills a different need than those other, far superior places.

But I will ask why you'd go to the La Esquina when you could get a much better meal at Centrico in Tribeca. Centrico is nowhere near as "cool" as La Esquina -- if you're the kind of person who's impressed by going through a door marked "no admittance" down a staircase through a kitchen into a fake-distressed dining space -- but the food is immeasurably better. And (unlike, say, Maya) Centrico isn't at all uptown and stuffy.

So, to me, La Esquina's street-level taco stand is fake (although it may be pretty good) and the restaurant is obnoxiously fake. The cafe seems nice enough, but the rest of the enterprise just pisses me off.

It is very convenient to Room 4 Dessert, though.

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* Ironically -- and this is what gets me into all the JGV outposts with no problem at all -- I'm usually more than happy to eat at 10:30 p.m. Just not the night in question at La Esquina (or some nights at the JGV places).

** OTOH, I have to say -- without going into Bruniesque detail -- that La Esquina has the single worst men's room that I have ever encountered at any upscale restaurant in New York. It's not dirty or anything -- just uncomfortably tiny and amazingly badly laid out.

Edited January 24, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[docsconz]

I was very much unimpressed with the tacos at the corner taco stand when I was there in December. I don't even remember the two kinds I had. I agree they are too wet, but they also lacked flavor.

[Bux]

. . . .

When I called for a reservation, they asked me my name before telling me whether a table was available.  After hearing (and not recognizing) my name, they told me nothing was available before 10:30 p.m. on the day I wanted,

. . . .

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Of course it's all supposition, but my adivce is to give your name, in a manner that implies they're supposed to know who you are, when calling for a reservation.

[Sneakeater]

My understanding, from people within the JGV organization (and my supposition is that this place, owned by nightclub operators, works the same way), is that they have a list of "acceptable" people (not just, or even mostly, known customers -- it's mainly supposed trendsetters or people who can pull them in) that they check when they get reservations requests. Primetime tables are held for those people (at least during the period the restaurant is establishing itself).

Of course, they also have the "secret" reservations number -- and if you don't use it, you've got a strike against you to begin with.

Edited January 24, 2006 by Sneakeater (log)

[Nathan]

I'm sure they still check your name with the secret number....I make my Balthazar reservations through their "secret number" and they always ask me for my name first.

I've used it often enough that they usually have something available so I imagine that being a frequent customer gets you somewhere.

[Nathan]

of course, there's nothing to stop you from using someone else's name when making your reservation....especially if it could also plausibly be your own.

[cru]

In the NYT style section, there's an article? featuring a restaurant hidden beneath a taco stand in Nolita.  No signs, no PR. No published reservation number.  Guess the secrets out.

←

another highly publicized secret bar. you'd be wrong if you guessed their not paying for PR.

[Sneakeater]

Could anybody possibly make that wrong guess? This place seems like PR central.

[gaf]

Low Down New York City Entry #87 La Esquina

The demimonde of New York was abuzz. A buzz. A hidden restaurant had opened in a rundown basement, and the best thing was . . . you could not make reservations. You had to be known or know the right someone. Some publicist deserves a Oscar. Who wouldn't salivate to dine in a club that wouldn't have them as a member? To enter La Esquina, "The Corner," located a stone's throw from SoHo in Nolita (North of Little Italy), one passes through a guarded door, reading "Employees Only," leading to a walk through the busy kitchen and into an underground scene.

In due course, the phone number was publicized, and La Esquina now counterfeits its own image. Still, if it does not serve Mexican cuisine that is either distinguished or authentic, the basement is a blast. As has been described, here is Latin chic or, perhaps, sheik. We sat across from a tile rendition of a erotic pano, an image based on cloth drawn by Hispanic prisoners. The painfully loud music and shadowy bar captured the Downtown ethos as filtered through Veracruz. We ate in a dungeon of fantasy, whitewashed brick walls and faded arches. Even if conversation was a lost art, the crowds and servers were bubbling and merry, and the food promptly prepared.

We ordered Ceviche Tostados and Cochinita Pibil Tacos (pulled pork, shredded cabbage, picked onions, and jalapeno). The tostados were acidic and the tacos slightly dry, but we were flying too high to critique. As a main course I selected Camarones a la Plancha, Mayan shrimp with honey, lime glaze, over corn salad. I was well-pleased by the glaze and the large moist prawns. Perhaps the corn salad could have been further drained, but I was sucking down the ambiance. The spareribs and fried plantain sufficed without being evocative.

At $100 for three, La Esquina stands at some considerable distance from a corner taqueria. It merely plays one on TV. Mexican cuisine has not been one of the strengths of the New York ethnic dining scene; for that Los Angeles or Chicago is the ticket. La Esquina doesn't push far in that direction. Across the street from SoHo, La Esquina is environmental art. Yet, its rough charm is abundant, and when that is not sufficient, just imagine all of those suckers who couldn't have the pleasure.

La Esquina

106 Kenmare Street (at Lafayette Street)

Manhattan (Nolita)

646-613-7100

My Webpage: Vealcheeks

[tupac17616]

Finding myself joining a couple of friends at Room 4 Dessert without having had dinner yet, I quickly stopped in here for a couple of tacos to go a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised. The cactus and egg taco was merely good. But the grilled fish taco was outstanding. Incredibly moist and juicy and really bursting with flavor. I could see myself stopping in again sometime for a couple of fish tacos if I were in the neighborhood and looking for a snack.