Charlito's Cocina gets some love from Serious Eats, and they're from Queens

Image source: Charlito’s Cocina

Serious Eats profiled Charlito’s Cocina this week as part of their Food Artisans series. The charcuterie offerings consist of three cured meats including a country sausage made of pastured pork and fancy fleur de sel from Guatemala; trufa seca made from aforementioned pork and salt, with the addition of Italian black truffles; and a “minimalist” chorizo made of meat, paprika, garlic, and salt. He also makes a vegan fig “salami” made with Black Mission figs, red wine (he likes Malbec), and Baker’s bourbon. He goes to St. Louis to process and package the products in a USDA facility.

What the article didn’t mention is that owner Charles Wekselbaum is based in Western Queens, and does all his test batches (not for sale) in the borough. How do we know that? We meet with Charles last spring over plates of delicious barbecue at John Brown Smokehouse, and asked him all sorts of questions, and this topic came up.

Charlito’s Cocina also participated in the inaugural Queens County Market last April.

Food Artisans: Charlito’s Cocina [Serious Eats]