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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. — Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite

Note

With only Mena in the kitchen most nights, service can be leisurely, to put it mildly, and on weekends 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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Featured In

• Cheap Eats 2008: The Cheap List (7/28/08)
• Where to Eat 2008 (1/7/08)
• Restaurant Review: Hecho en Dumbo (10/1/07)

Recipes at Hecho en Dumbo

• Ensalada Rosaura (2009)