El Califa de León, a legendary Mexico Metropolis taqueria, will pop up in two Tacombi areas. {Photograph} courtesy of Tacombi.
Mexico Metropolis is—no shock—the promised land of tacos. Each neighborhood within the megacity is filled with stellar taquerias, many specializing in completely distinctive, proprietary types obtainable nowhere else.
One notably beloved hole-in-the-wall, Taqueria El Califa de León, obtained an sudden honor this yr: a Michelin star. For 56 years, taco followers have made pilgrimages to the spare, standing-room-only storefront amongst road stalls to eat gaonera (a selected reduce of steak, sliced skinny) and different grilled meats atop freshly made tortillas. The taqueria’s substances are so good and their preparation so dialed-in, Michelin wrote, that the home inexperienced and pink salsas are barely vital.
For 2 shining weeks this month, Washingtonians will have the ability to style these Michelin-starred tacos—or at the least an approximation of them—with out flying to Benito Juarez Worldwide Airport and taking the Metro to the San Cosme station. An El Califa de León pop-up is coming to 2 areas of Tacombi within the DC space this month. On December 10, the collaboration begins at Tacombi’s Bethesda location. The next night time, it strikes to the chain’s Crystal Metropolis location.
“After we began Tacombi again within the day, quite a lot of it was impressed by touring round Mexico and consuming tacos,” says Tacombi founder Dario Wolos. “Taquerias like these, they’ve gotten into doing one or two issues rather well, they usually’ve carried out it for a extremely very long time.”
The Tacombi pop-ups—just one night time every—characteristic renditions of El Califa de León’s total easy menu: gaonera, chuleta (pork chop), bistec, and costilla (beef rib) tacos, with the distinctive cuts of meat sourced from Pat LaFrieda and contemporary tortillas from Tacombi’s model, Vista Hermosa. A flight of all 4 tacos will price you $22.
The pop-ups—supervised by El Califa de León taquero Mario Hernández Alonso—are first come, first served. But a pair of El Califa de León-style tacos (costilla and chuleta) will likely be obtainable at each areas by way of December 26.
New York Metropolis already obtained a style of El Califa de León at a pop-up this fall, together with Chicago and Miami.
Can a pop-up recapture the magic of the hectic Mexico Metropolis stall? Wolos says he desires to encourage foodies to go to the unique location sometime.
“We hope that individuals will go and style this in Mexico Metropolis,” Wolos says. “It’s arduous to duplicate the terroir, the sensation, the sights and smells that you just get from being there.”
