Esse Taco

Esse Taco is what happens when one of the world's most celebrated Mexican chefs goes back to basics. Enrique Olvera, the chef behind Pujol in Mexico City and Cosme and Atla in Manhattan, opened this standing-room taqueria on the corner of Bedford Avenue and North 5th Street in May 2024 with Santiago Perez of the Casamata group. There are no chairs: you order at the counter, then eat at stainless steel barrels set up as tables, Mexico City style. The tortillas are made from heirloom corn that is nixtamalized and hand-pressed on site, and that simple, serious detail is the whole point. It is fast, casual and quietly one of the best taco counters in Brooklyn.

New York Turk brought a stranger here for lunch in 2025, and it is the kind of place that makes that easy. The menu is short: ribeye steak, pollo a la plancha, pork adobado, suadero, shrimp, a pork loin milanese and garlicky mushrooms, each on a corn tortilla, with the option to make any of them a gringa on a flour tortilla with melted cheese. As of October 2026 most tacos run between about $5.50 and $7.50. Add guacamole with heirloom totopos, and wash it down with a margarita, a michelada or a seasonal agua fresca. Two or three tacos make a light lunch; four make a meal.