The Flour Tortilla Revolution Is Here | Luke Fortney
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When I was growing up, nothing beat a flour tortilla. Plush, grill-blistered disks of flour and lard we folded into burritos, griddled into quesadillas after school or eaten in Crunchwrap Supremes from Taco Bell when we were up to no good. This was Southern California, after all.
I didn’t realize how good I had it until I moved to New York in my early 20s and struggled to find flour tortillas crimped by hand. Your best bet back then was a stack of plastic-wrapped ones from Trader Joe’s. (In a pinch, they still hit the spot.) But things are starting to look up: In the last few years, chefs here have taken on the flour tortilla mantle, producing them by hand in endlessly delicious styles. Their tacos, burritos and quesadillas are as good as any I tasted growing up.
Here’s where to find them.
Border Town’s thinly pressed tortillas are made with flour imported from Sonora in Mexico. Credit... Heather Willensky for The New York Times
The Home Depot to Greenpoint pipeline
The first glimmer of hope came from Jorge Aguilar and Amanda Rosa, Las Vegas transplants who moved to New York in 2019 and noticed a tortilla-shaped hole in the market. They started their Border Town pop-up, selling flour tortillas at Home Depots and carwashes around town.
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Last month, the couple finally set down roots in Greenpoint, opening a restaurant with a full bar. Their tortillas shimmer with lard and are crafted with high-quality wheat that Aguilar and Rosa import from Sonora, Mexico. The result is tortillas that can be fried into “croutons” for salads and folded into tacos with melty beans and cheese. All admirable uses. But there’s no beating the tortillas on their own. Pressed astoundingly thin, you can just about see through them.
189 Nassau Avenue (Humboldt Street), Greenpoint
Flour tortillas are made à la minute at Los Burritos Juárez. Credit... Heather Willensky for The New York Times
We’re renaming it Fort Guisado
Then came Los Burritos Juárez, a small burrito shop in Fort Greene that also started as a pop-up. (Why Brooklyn has cornered the flour tortilla market? I don’t know.) I first met the chef, Alan Delgado, in 2022, when he passed me an early attempt at a chile relleno burrito through the window of his Brooklyn apartment at an early event. His tortillas have vastly improved since then.
His are thicker than any tortilla in town with a light brushing of flour that clings to your fingers like Doritos dust. They’re the ideal conveyance for Delgado’s guisados, stewed meats like chicken smothered in mole and peppery simmered pork that spill out from the unrolled ends of his burritos. If there are seats available, I’d recommend eating them at the front counter. Not only are they best the minute they’re prepared, but you can appreciate the full life span of your tortillas as they’re shaped, flattened and griddled to order. One after another, they puff up on the flattop like roti or naan.
354 Myrtle Avenue (Adelphi Street), Fort Greene
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Follow one of Vato’s verde burritos with the restaurant’s twist on a churro. Credit... Heather Willensky for The New York Times
Fancy tortillas for the rest of us
Just when I thought we’d achieved some kind of tortilla-based stasis, the chef Fidel Caballero opened Corima, a fine-dining restaurant on the Lower East Side, supplanting a traditional bread service with a very fancy flour tortilla. A cross between a scallion pancake and a Sonoran sobaquera, he stretches them over the surface of an upturned wok and blasts them with a blowtorch.
When Mr. Caballero opened Vato, a more casual restaurant in Park Slope, last fall, he traded out the wok method for a commercial tortilla press that flattens hundreds of tortillas a day. The vegetarian tortillas are made with whole wheat, bread flour and butter, instead of lard, and folded around sauce-smothered guisados meant to be eaten for breakfast. One benefit of the new approach is that your burritos are ready in minutes, even when the small back dining room is crammed. At the same time, you might find that the fillings inside them — simmered chicharrones, refried beans with asadero cheese — outshine the tortillas, which are made the evening before and reheated to order.
OK, maybe I’m nitpicking. I’m just thankful to have any quality flour tortilla options at all.
226 Seventh Avenue (Fourth Street), Park Slope
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