A Spot That Should Be Hotter

""You have to help me understand," a friend emailed recently. We'd run into each other at Dolores, the Bed-Stuy taqueria that routinely quotes two-to-four-hour waits. On weekends, it's hard to secure even the rickety garden chairs on the sidewalk for drinks, and it took me over an hour to find a spot at the bar wide enough to set a napkin. "Is this normal now? Is it a TikTok thing?" my friend wrote. "HELP!!!!""

"Frijoleros doesn't have the faddish cantina décor, and it doesn't have the lines. It's not even really, or at least primarily, a restaurant. Fabiola Juarez, who grew up in her family's Lower East Side Mexican restaurant, opened it as a cocktail bar (it has a generous hora feliz), and the drink offerings dwarf the food. And even still! The dark, chocolaty mole that most of us are familiar with is just a "phase-one mole," a bartender told me."

Delores, a Bed-Stuy taqueria, routinely posts two-to-four-hour waits and attracts weekend crowds that fill sidewalk chairs and bar space. A surge of new Mexican restaurants has opened recently, including Comal, Olmo, and pop-ups like Pujol, alongside upcoming ventures such as Vato and Santo Taco. Many openings reflect elevated pedigrees from notable Mexican kitchens and shift the city's focus toward tacos. Frijoleros in Greenpoint operates primarily as a cocktail bar with a compact menu; its hazelnut mole, served with confited lengua, offers a rich alternative to familiar chocolate moles. Bartenders emphasize the diversity of mole varieties beyond common expectations.

Read at Grub Street