Craving Tacos on Thanksgiving?

Janae Pierre: Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Happy Thanksgiving. I don't mean to sound cheesy, but I'm so grateful to have you with us. There are thousands of podcasts out there, so thanks for taking the time to listen to this one. I'm thankful for so much more, and we'll get into that a little later. First, here's your news headlines from Michael Hill.

Michael Hill: Time is running out for the city to stay on schedule with its plan to demolish part of a public housing complex in Chelsea. WNYC reporter Joe Hong has more.

Joe Hong: Two buildings within the Fulton and Elliot Chelsea houses were set to be demolished for a redevelopment project by the end of this year, but a lawsuit filed by the residents' association argues that the city needs to go through a months-long public review process before the demolition. Then there's the two tenants who refused NYCHA's offer to relocate them to another apartment during demolition and construction. A judge sided with them last week and suggested NYCHA take them to housing court. Housing officials say the resistance represents a small minority of residents and that the plan can stay on schedule.

Michael Hill: The last few balloons and floats are making their way along the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade route. Spectators have come from all over the world. 10-year-old Isabella Chantry of Westchester says she was most looking forward to one specific float roll by featuring a mischievous-looking plush toy.

Isabella Chantry: The Popmart balloon has Labubu skull pandas, Molly.

Michael Hill: She had a special message for all of us.

Isabella Chantry: I hope everybody has a great Thanksgiving.

Michael Hill: Indeed. Indeed. More Code Blue advisories to come this afternoon till 8:00 in the morning. Outreach teams will canvass all five barrels to connect homeless New Yorkers to shelter. Officials say if you want to get someone out of the cold, call 311 to request help across the Hudson. Newark's Code Blue runs all the way through Saturday morning. 46 and partly sunny, going up to 47 today. Cold with winds gusting at 32 miles an hour. Mostly clear and freezing tonight.

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Janae Pierre: Many of you may be carving a turkey or loading up on more Mac and cheese today, but I bet you'll be craving tacos soon. There are a few must-try spots in downtown Manhattan. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: Downtown Manhattan has gone from taco wasteland to taco revolution. That's according to food critic Robert Sietsema. In his latest article, Robert makes the argument that great tacos are now very much on the menu in the neighborhood, although that wasn't the case a couple years ago. My colleague David Furst talked with the food critic about all things tacos.

David Furst: Hey, Robert.

Robert Sietsema: Hey, David.

David Furst: Compared to other neighborhoods, downtown wasn't really where you came for great tacos, right?

Robert Sietsema: Oh, never, never, never. We had a few Pueblan taquerias, and these served the southern tacos where they use commercial white corn tortillas. That was because their heart wasn't really in it. They wanted the huaraches and the sopas and the things fashioned by hand. All of a sudden, we have these taquerias, many of them originating in Southern California and in Mexico City itself. They make the corn tortillas from yellow corn, and they make them fresh. In some places, like this place, Tacos 1986, which is a San Diego chain, and LA Chain, they actually make them as you watch and then use them to make your taco just right there.

David Furst: I am so ready for this. Where are we going to start?

Robert Sietsema: Let's start at Cariñito, which is a branch of a place in Mexico City. Here, it's on University Place, around 10th Street. What they do is that they add Thai and Chinese flourishes to tacos, which sounds like it might not work, but just sink your teeth into the pastrami taco with Chinese mustard. Once again, on a fresh tortilla that you see them making right through the kitchen window. Taking a taco and making it from a tortilla that is made right before your eyes, it's like eating a piece of fresh bread that's just out of the oven. It's a revelation.

David Furst: Is there a particular location that maybe captures the spirit of downtown in its taco choices?

Robert Sietsema: The real interesting feature is the diversity of these places, that these places are taking tacos to new places, and they are very modern. One place that's taking the taco backward into history is this place called Carnitas Ramirez, which is on Avenue B and 3rd Street. They have striven to be the most authentic pork taqueria in the entire country, I think. I don't know any place, and I eat tacos everywhere I go. I don't know any place that has as many pork choices. You walk in there, and there's this beautiful window, and the window has craned on it all the different pig parts.

They have standard things like the pork leg, which will taste to you just like pulled pork, and it's absolutely delicious. They'll throw a couple of pieces of crisp skin on top of it at your request. They have things like pork face and pork ear and pork nose, pork uterus and pork brain, which is so runny that they have to wrap it in a separate tortilla and put a toothpick through it.

David Furst: Are these popular choices? They don't sound like they'd be flying off the shelf to me.

Robert Sietsema: David, there's been a group of foodies that we might call adventure eaters, not to mention people from Mexico that take these pork parts for granted. This is what Fergus Henderson was talking about in his nose-to-tail eating. Nothing goes to waste in the modern world that are at this taqueria, and people have developed a taste for all of these different pig parts. The food is beyond good.

David Furst: I think we have time for one more taco spot. Where could we go?

Robert Sietsema: Let me mention two places. I can't control myself here. One is Wayne & Sons, which is right on Second Avenue in the East Village. It's a place run by Texans that makes only flour tortillas. They make them there. They use fillings that are like Velveeta cheese and stuff like that. The other place is El Chato, which is named after the owner's dog, and there's two of them. There's one on MacDougal Street, and there's one in the new Time Out Food Court, which I highly recommend near Union Square. There, they have this brisket taco that is just out of this world, juicy and compact.

They have a salsa that they make there that's made out of crushed onions that is just absolutely out of this world.

David Furst: That sounds incredible. What's the name of that place again? The one named after a pet?

Robert Sietsema: After a dog. E-L-C-H-A-T-O El Chato.

David Furst: For Robert's full list of great tacos in downtown Manhattan, you can check out his Substack, Robert Sietsema's New York.

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Janae Pierre: That's food critic Robert Sietsema, talking with WNYC's David Furst. Before we get out of here, I'd like to introduce two colleagues who I'm also thankful for. Senior producer Jared Marcelle and assistant producer Iru Ekpunobi. Welcome, you two.

Iru Ekpunobi: Hey, Janae.

Jared Marcelle: Thank you.

Janae Pierre: Iru, you're remote this week as you visit the fam for the holidays, but what are you thankful for?

Iru Ekpunobi: I am thankful for my family, who, yes, I am visiting. I'm spending a lot of good time with my cousins, and there's been a lot of talk this year about the cousin walk. If y'all haven't heard of that, look that up. I'm grateful for this unseasonably warm weather and actually getting to go on a real walk with my cousins. Not a cousin walk, but a walk with my cousins.

Janae Pierre: Nice. What about you, Jarrett?

Jared Marcelle: I am also thankful for you, Janae. I'm especially thankful for Iru, the newest addition to our team, and I'm also thankful for our engineers. Shout out to Wayne, Leora, Owen, Amber-

Janae Pierre: Everybody.

Jared Marcelle: -everybody. Thankful to the listeners and New York City. Thankful.

Janae Pierre: Thankful for New York City,

Jared Marcelle: Thankful for New York City.

Janae Pierre: I, too, am thankful for Iru, as I said earlier. With Iru comes some new changes for the NYC Now team. You want to talk about that, Jared?

Jared Marcelle: Yes, absolutely. You all may have noticed that we have gone down to one episode a day, and we're going to see some more changes in 2026. It's going to be fun, exciting, and we hope you like them.

Janae Pierre: The best is yet to come. Thank you so much, you two, for joining me today, and thank you for all that you do for this podcast and for the WNYC newsroom. To the listeners, thank you so much for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. Jared's going to finish up his oxtails, and Iru's going to go on that cousin's walk. Whatever you decide to get into, do enjoy the holiday. We'll be back tomorrow.

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