Streetlevel: New Mexican for Columbia Street Waterfront
Lost City reports that the space once occupied by Schnack, at 122 Union Street near Columbia, will be a “gourmet” Mexican restaurant called Calexico — no relation to the band, we don’t think. Neighborhood folks got to sample some of their fare at a street fair this weekend, and apparently they own a couple of…
Lost City reports that the space once occupied by Schnack, at 122 Union Street near Columbia, will be a “gourmet” Mexican restaurant called Calexico — no relation to the band, we don’t think. Neighborhood folks got to sample some of their fare at a street fair this weekend, and apparently they own a couple of trucks that roam Manhattan with taco offerings. There’s another Calexico on 5th Avenue in the Slope; any relation, you think?
Photo by Lost City.
Hey Neighbors,
The guys from Calexico here. Seems there are some questions about our name. Calexico is indeed a little border town in Imperial Valley, California. It happens to be where our family – and our recipes – are from. The name also happens to describe our food, which is a mash-up: California+Mexico=Calexico. Across the border from us is our sister city, Mexicali. And yes, there is a fantastic band from Arizona that uses the same name (we actually catered for them a few weeks ago). And to clarify, we are the guys from the carts, not the place on 5th Avenue. Legally speaking we own the rights to the name, but we don’t mind sharing it with them.
Anyway, we’re really excited about coming to the neighborhood. Hopefully we can make this “cursed” space work!
Thanks,
Jesse, Brian, and David Vendley
It’s the guys with the carts.
The Calexico Cart in Soho has excellent food. I get lunch there at least twice a week, and hopefully this one’s related to the carts…
Calexico is a city in California, right across the border from Mexicali:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calexico,_California
I had their carne asada burrito last weekend and it was great. Should do really well. Alma is not competition since it is much more upscale. Buddy’s and California on Court are just okay–California better than Buddy’s (and has tamales) but Calexico better than both, I would think, based upon my lunch and reactions from others and rep of their carts in Manhattan.
wasder, hopefully they would be Yonah Schimmel knishes and not those fried square potato ones.
Better yet “gourmet street knishes”!
wasder, I wonder if somewhere in Mexico City there’s a guy with a Nathan’s stand selling gourmet New York hot dog street cart weiners and pretzels.
As much as I love authentic mexican food, somehow the words “gourmet” and “mexican street food” seem contradictory.