All in the
DETAILS
50 JULY 2 0 1 7
FOOD + DRINK
BY SEAN CURRY
@THESANDWICHENTHUSIAST
You couldn’t be blamed for thinking
that there’s no one left to defend traditional
Mexican cuisine. You’d be wrong,
but you couldn’t be blamed.
Las Catrinas arrived on Broadway in late
May, and it is here to remind our poorly
under-informed palettes of what Mexican
food really is. You won’t find a plate of nachos
or a single burrito (technically a San
Francisco invention, not a Mexican one)
here, but you will find a healthy reverence
for the papalo leaf, “Mexican truffles,”
and a bonafide, sincere tribute to Mexico
brought to life by one of its native sons.
Leopoldo “Polo” Tapia hails from Tulum,
Mexico, and has worked with fellow
Las Catrinas co-owner Lukasz Szydlowski
at various restaurants here in Astoria for
the past seven years. While both men
dreamed of owning a place of their own,
Polo also saw his beloved Mexican heritage
“destroyed” (his words) by so many
other restaurants who tried to combine it
with every cuisine they could. He longed
In The
Look up Las Catrinas online,
and you may draw up a
pretty standard “Mexican
joint” vibe in your mind.
Tacos, margaritas, beers with
limes in them, the works. I
can’t honestly blame you
— there’s plenty of tired
Mexican vibes gracing New
York’s culinary scene of late.
So over-exposed is the south
of the border aesthetic that
at a time when restaurateurs
are trying to bring new
and exciting cultures to the
hungry masses, Mexican
has largely been relegated
to a secondary influence in
broader fusion experiments:
Mexican barbecue, Korean
tacos, sushi burritos.