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Home > Restaurants > Hecho en Dumbo

Hecho en Dumbo

Critic's Pick Critics' Pick

DUMBO General Store
111 Front St., Brooklyn, NY 11201
nr. Washington St.  See Map | Subway Directions Hopstop Popup
718-855-5288 Send to Phone

Photo by Julie Mack

Hours

Mon-Wed, 6pm-11pm; Thu-Sat, 6pm-midnight; Sun, closed

Nearby Subway Stops

F at York St.

Prices

$5-$17

Payment Methods

Cash Only

Special Features

  • Bar Scene
  • Live Music

Alcohol

  • Full Bar

Reservations

Accepted/Not Necessary

Profile

Hecho en Dumbo, the creation of chef Danny Mena and his General Store collaborators, is more than a menu of Mexican antojitos, or corn-masa-based snacks. It’s a nightly transformation, via food, drink, and music, into a slice of Mexico City, where the chef grew up before attending culinary school in New York. Mena was working at the Modern, but he felt the urge to cook his native cuisine—not in emulation of the haute Mexican restaurants of Manhattan or the scruffy taquerias of the city’s immigrant enclaves, but somewhere in between. Initially, his plan was to take to the streets with friend and General Store barman Ethan Smith in a groovy taco-dispensing bus like a culinarily inclined Partridge Family. “We wanted to elevate street food,” Mena says. When that didn’t work out (“It just looked like too much time on a bus”), and General Store owner Anna Castellani offered Smith and Mena the opportunity to play with the dinner concept at the DGS, the pair jumped at the chance. Now Mena shops regularly at the Essex Street Market for Mexican ingredients and plunders Foragers Market, his Dumbo gourmet-grocery neighbor, for sustainably raised meats. Hecho en Dumbo means “made in Dumbo,” and refers to the hand-pressed tortillas, the fresh salsas, and the community spirit the whole venture is meant to foment.

Note

With only Mena in the kitchen most nights, service can be leisurely, to put it mildly, and on Saturdays the mood becomes more festive, with live music and menu specials like duck-confit mole. A good way to start things off is with the tequila con sangrita—a shot glass of fancy sipping tequila with a spicy tomato chaser.

Ideal Meal

Ensalada rosaura, steak tacos, sopes de nopal, torta del cielo.

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7.0 "Recommended"
Average Reader Rating
on a Scale of 10
Write Your Own Review

So close... yet so far away

alozada from 10128 | Posted on 1/17/08

Overall Reader Rating: 4 (Not Recommended)
Food: 9
Service: 2
Décor: 4
Value: 4

I AM a "chilango" living in NY on business. I was VERY disappointed --not by the food, which has an OUTSTANDING flavor, but by the appallingly bad, slow service. No napkins / silverware (had to stand and get myself), warm beer, cold...Read More

Best Mexican in NYC is in... DUMBO

antonybcn from 11201 | Posted on 12/4/07

Overall Reader Rating: 9 (Highly Recommended)
Food: 10
Service: 7
Décor: 7
Value: 8

When living in England I shared a house with three Chilangos and fell in love with Mexican food. Visits to Mexico City only increased this love. Hecho in Dumbo serves exactly the type of exquisite food you can find in 'el...Read More

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