From the street the new Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans makes an immediate impression, with an orchard of faux flowers and tropical plants framing its entrance and its shaded patio. Walk inside and there's one surprise after the next as the details of this lushly designed space sink in.
But there's much more at play here than a pretty backdrop for your social media snaps.
At the Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans, Mexican traditions and styles play across the entrances, patio and interior. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
I knew Tacos del Cartel from its first location in Metairie, which opened in 2020 with a fairly standard taqueria menu and a striking design based on Mexican Día de Muertos motifs. When I heard the restaurant was expanding downtown, I pictured a perhaps larger version of the same.
But no.
The patio at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans sets a lush scene for meals.
This new Tacos del Cartel is a major addition to the downtown restaurant scene, and could be a boost for downtown at a time when that’s needed.
It’s also the transformation of a young local hospitality company with more plans ahead, and the arrival of a new culinary talent in New Orleans.
The design at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans evokes Mexican traditions and styles across the dining room and bar. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
“We love to travel, and we wanted to bring the kind of restaurants we’ve experienced but can’t find here,” said Vilexys Cruz, owner of the restaurant along with her husband Danny Cruz.
“We wanted to bring this to downtown to ignite a spark and bring more to the neighborhood,” she said.
More than just a spark, though, the first experiences of this new restaurant dazzle like a burst of fireworks.
A spread of dishes include the carna asada and the pescado sarandeado at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Early tastes show a menu that is by turns traditional, refined and playful. One of the most impressive parts is foundational, and that comes through the tortillas, as we’ll see below.
More to come
The design at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans evokes Mexican traditions and styles. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Tacos del Cartel opened in late April after a series of trial runs and tastings. It is part of the hub of restaurants in the South Market District development, near the Caesars Superdome. It’s on the same block as Morrow Steak, the forthcoming restaurant from Larry Morrow (of Morrow’s, Monday and Sun Chong).
VEHO Hospitality Group is the parent company of Tacos del Cartel, created by the Cruz family.
They have another Tacos del Cartel taking shape in West Palm Beach, Florida, and designs on more restaurants in New Orleans, including downtown.
El chingon sour is a cocktail blending mezcal and tequila, finished with bitters and apple slices.
The original Tacos del Cartel in Metairie has closed temporarily and is slated to reopen this summer after a revamp to align it closer to the New Orleans restaurant.
Design goes deep
The 100-seat downtown restaurant reveals its depth of detail and character turn by turn.
The designer is Jacquelyn Lindsey of JL Studio Designs, and she has a story behind seemingly every decision in the room, wending through the fabrics, tiles, finishes and décor pieces, many commissioned from small producers in Mexico.
The room is stalked by alebrijes, colorful, fantastical creatures, including a centerpiece of a jaguar carved from wood and hand-painted in Mexico.
An installation called the trees of life is a centerpiece in the dining room at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Another piece called the trees of life rises from coal-black trunks to a canopy of pink blooms over a row of tables. Hummingbirds dangle from the branches, a reference to a self-portrait by influential Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
A mural of the New Orleans skyline rises over the bar, and strings of lights draped over another bank of tables evoke Mardi Gras beads.
The design at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans evokes Mexican traditions and styles across the dining room and bar and also New Orleans touches.
“We were born as a hospitality group in New Orleans, so we want New Orleans to be part of what we do,” Cruz said. “We want it to feel Mexican and also be true to New Orleans as well.”
On the menu
New Orleans is a new chapter for the chef, Christian Chaussat, who was raised in Mexico with a French father and Mexican mother, and who has worked widely around the world.
The green ceviche is made with fish and octopus.
There’s a modern perspective across his menu, but Mexican roots anchor it, starting with the tortillas.
His kitchen makes its own tortillas using nixtamalization, the ancient preparation for turning dried corn into masa.
Blue corn tortillas are made in house at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
This is akin to a bakery milling wheat into its own flour, and it makes just as much of a difference in the fresh result on the table. The yellow and (particularly) the blue corn tortillas have a flavor and texture that had me tearing off pieces to eat all on their own.
The tuna tostada is topped with fried leeks and salsa macha at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Brunch is a major facet of Tacos del Cartel, which opens daily at 8 a.m. with a morning menu running through avocado toast and acai bowls to specialty tacos and breakfast burritos.
The first dishes I tried, though, are from Chaussat's dinner menu.
Fried tortillas become crunchy golden tostadas topped with slices of raw tuna, a hash of delicately fried leeks, and a trace of macha salsa (smoky and dark, like the garlic chile crunch of Mexican salsas). The green ceviche, made with octopus and red snapper, sings with its citrusy tigre de leche marinade, another magnet for those blue corn tortillas.
The Caesar salad is finished with anchovies and grated chicharron.
The Caesar salad is built on grilled shafts of romaine with salty anchovies and a crunchy scattering of chicharrons, a wonderful, porky stand-in for breadcrumbs.
There are tacos, of course, from grilled steak or chicken to such specialty versions as octopus, soft shell crab and duck confit.
Tacos birria are served clipped to a clothes line.
The birria tacos arrive fastened by clothes pins to string, suspended over the broth in which to dip these meaty, cheesy packages.
The carne asada is made with Angus rib eye and served over beans.
The menu really opens up around what are dubbed “experience dishes.”
That includes some family-style presentations, including a carne asada of angus rib eye with rajas poblanas.
The pescado sarandeado is a red snapper with dueling chile-based sauces.
For the traditional pescado sarandeado, a whole red snapper is butterflied and grilled with dueling sauces on each flank — sharp jalapeño chile adobo on one, more mellow, earthy chile guajillo adobo on other. You pull this apart and make your own fish tacos with more of the fabulous corn tortillas.
A corn cake for dessert tastes summery and bright, and is moist even before a moat of espresso-based cream sauce is poured around it at the table. But there’s nothing quite like the delight of seeing the ice cream and churros presentation.
Ice cream and churros are served in a miniature cart at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
This comes to the table as a miniature ice cream cart holding scoops of ice cream to make your own cones and churros filled with cream to dunk in an assortment of sauces, each with its own compartment in the toy cart. If this does not make you feel like a kid again, I don’t know what will.
The design at Tacos del Cartel in downtown New Orleans evokes Mexican traditions and styles across the dining room and bar. (Staff photo by Ian McNulty, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
This new restaurant is filled with good feelings, with a design that is transporting and a kitchen showing ambition fused with execution.
Looking out the windows over a table filled with this food and drink, through a frame of flowers, the view of downtown already seems just a bit rosier.
1010 Girod St., (504)-354-9038
Brunch, lunch and dinner daily, 8 a.m.-9 p.m. (10 p.m. Tue., Fri., Sat.)
Reservations at OpenTable.com.
