We have traditional tacos and secret tacos and even crunchy tacos but NYC has an appalling dearth of breakfast tacos, the Texas hangover staple. A few places have made a go of it but there's a full-time breakfast taco situation unfolding over in Brooklyn Heights, where Jalapa Jar is nearly ready to start selling the egg vehicles in a kiosk inside the Clark Street subway 2/3 station. This is the most exciting food story to come out of a subway station since the Pizza Rat hoax.
Cousins Steve Smith and Tommy Byrnes began what's actually a salsa company last year and have been selling both their jarred salsas and breakfast tacos at Smorgasburg since October, they told the Brooklyn Heights Blog. Following some successful pop-up trials, the duo—along with two Texas-based business partners—will open up a breakfast taco stand at 100 Henry Street in Brooklyn Heights, in a kiosk just outside the turnstiles.
They'll be doing true Tex-Mex tacos at the kiosk, starting with a base of eggs and other additional toppings like bacon, cheese, chorizo, refried beans and even garlic mashed potatoes. “It’s all about the mush,” Byrnes explained to Brooklyn Magazine, describing the soft texture they're looking for with each taco. Once again, avert your gaze, true Texans, as the team's using softly fried corn tortillas for their tacos instead of the more traditional flour. (Edit: Byrnes tells us they'll be using flour tortillas, too!)
In addition to the savory tacos, there's something called "Sweet Sticks" in the works, which are mashed plantains with jalapenos rolled into a tortilla and topped with brown sugar and maple syrup. The kiosk will also offer coffee from Austin-based Summer Moon, who roast their beans over an oak wood fire. And if they serve this queso I will scream.
Byrnes tells us they hope to soft open at the end of the month—construction began on the 120-square-foot space this week. The kiosk will be in the arcade underneath the St. George Hotel that also doubles as an entrance to the subway. To start, they'll be open 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., with expanded late-night hours possibly debuting in the fall.
