Lately it seems like everyone’s moving to the Bowery. Now Hecho en Dumbo, whose owners shuttered their Brooklyn location last fall, is open for business on the newly-chic stretch above Houston Street. And by “newly,” I’m talking about what’s happened just over the last five years: John Varvatos moved into CBGBs, luxury hotels soared over nearby tenements, condos trampled the Liz Christy community garden, and the new Whole Foods and Think Coffee usurped the men’s shelter as neighborhood hubs. Let’s not even speak of that weird Cooper Union building. Hecho, with its artfully-repurposed Hershey’s Ice Cream sign, seems almost undercover compared to its neighbors.

The possibility of dining on good tacos in my neighborhood (a long-cherished, oft-dashed hope) compelled me to drag a friend into the thick of Hecho en Dumbo’s Saturday night rush. We put our names down for a table, and nursed margaritas ($10 each) near the ear-splittingly noisy bar. The crowd around us was young and frighteningly pretty, accessorized with dagger heels and Buddy Holly eyewear. After forty-five minutes I began stalking the host, who peered at his scribbled list and said “soon?”

After an hour we were seated in the dining room, a modern take on lower-east-side quaint: exposed brick, naked lightbulbs and ceiling pipe running the length of a long, windowless room. A few seats around an open kitchen in the back offered a full view of the preparations: a nice touch. Our first bite was a child-sized dollop of guacamole flanked by corn chips ($7) which came with three mild-to-moderately spicy salsas. Next I ordered queso fundido de rajas–roasted chile poblano pepper with sauteed onion smothered with oaxaca cheese and queso asadero ($10). This dish was heartily-sized, and meant to be scooped into fresh tortillas. Overall I enjoyed it, although I defy you to screw up anything that’s slathered in halfway decent cheese. My next dish was tacos de cochinita de pibil–three tiny tortillas topped with shredded berkshire pork and picked red onion ($8). They seemed rather like mouthfuls of soggy pork as opposed to proper tacos, although I suppose the meat was well-seasoned. My friend’s Burritas de Res ($8)–three small tortillas rolled around steak and caramelized onion–suffered from similar blandness. They lacked the interplay of spices and cooling sour cream that I usually enjoy with my burritos.

After just one visit I can’t say it’s not worth checking out the rest of the menu, but go on a weeknight. Waiting an hour for ok food at a trendy restaurant is for folks more patient than I. And if the cochinitas were any indication, my quest to find a delicious taco in my neighborhood will drag on. Holes-in-the-wall like Snack Dragon and Zaragoza will do only in a pinch. Pricey options like La Palapa and Mercadito are tastier, but don’t seem worth the tab. Hecho en Dumbo’s prices are actually not bad, provided you have the appetite of a small child. I recommend the queso fundido to help fill up.

Hecho en Dumbo
354 Bowery between Great Jones and E 4th St.
Brunch: every day 10:30am-4pm
Dinner: Monday-Thu 5:30pm-12am, Fri-Sat 5:30pm-2am, Sun 5:30pm-11pm

If you drink good beer, Drop Off Service is worth your time. If you happen to be a reasonably-attractive lady who drinks good beer, there’s probably somebody here who wants to talk to you. I’m not promising unicorns and rainbows, but it may not be a particularly off-putting experience either. Someone may try to sell you a glow-in-the-dark toy, invite you to his Bushwick-tastic gallery, ask you about the finer points of hobbit fashion, perform feats like clicking his heels together in mid-air (harder than it looks, if you’re not a leprechaun), or apologize for his overly-sniffy French Bulldog. A dog is an ideal entrée if you enjoy random conversations, but don’t relish starting them, and at this bar canine wing-men are welcome, as long as they’re well-behaved. Another rare sighting in Manhattan watering holes–a solitary reader squinting at a book–is also a regular here. In fact if it weren’t for the variety of its patrons, Drop Off Service would feel friendly enough to exist a river removed from Manhattan. The fact that it has an impressive beer list, and a generous happy hour, lasting from 3pm-8pm (1pm-8pm on weekends), is the basis of its appeal. Many of the draft beers are $3 during the popular 3-8 shift, including Yuengling, Magic Hat, Fuller’s London Pride, and Six Point’s Sweet Action Ale. A pint of Stone Brewing Company’s Arrogant Bastard Ale is a steal at $4, there’s usually a cask ale for $5, and Delerium Tremens–a Belgian ale that hovers at about 9% ABV–will run you a reasonable $7.

If you get hungry, not to worry. Tuck Shop meat pies are available, or even better, run next door to Zaragoza for some tacos ($2.50-$3.00), and bring them back to the bar to fuel another round. These are not gourmet foodstuffs–Zaragoza is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican grocery with a microwave and few hot trays, and it can be hit or miss depending on what’s available that day. The other night, the amount of hot sauce on my spicy pork taco hurt my face, while a tamale ($2.00) was rather enjoyable. But $6 for a taco and a pint of Sweet Action, plus some free entertainment? Sure, I’ll be right over.

Drop Off Service
211 Ave. A between 13th St. and 14th St.
Mon-Fri 3pm-4am, Sat-Sun 1pm-4am

Zaragoza
215 Avenue A between 13th St. and 14th St.
Mon-Thu 9:30am-12am, Fri-Sat 9:30am-4am, Sun 10:30pm-12am

As country roadside burrito stands go, they don’t make ‘em better than Bubby’s. This teeny trailer with its green, hand-drawn “Burritos” sign appears sometime in May, near a farm stand at the intersection of Route 199 and 9G in Red Hook, NY (upstate, not Brooklyn). The vegetarian menu boasts just four items, all made-to-order: burrito with guacamole ($6.50), burrito without guacamole ($5.50), cheese quesadilla ($4.00), and auguas de frutas ($1.00). The guac burrito is a satisfyingly fat bundle of rice, beans, lettuce, tomato salsa, cheese, sour cream and guacamole wrapped in a toasted tortilla. Everything tastes fresh, and just a bit of chipotle hot sauce, available at the counter, adds some welcome heat. A couple of picnic benches suffice for seating, and the crowd–if you dare call it that–is a mellow mix of locals, daytrippers and Bardies (hippie-ish students from the art school up the road). The husband and wife team that run Bubby’s split their time between upstate NY and their cafe in Mexico, so come autumn the trailer disappears, not to return until next summer. HIghly recommended stop for lunchtime munchies if you’re in the area.

Bubby’s Burritos
intersection of Route 199 and 9G Red Hook, NY
open during the summer Tues-Sat 11-5
If the weather is stormy, or portends storminess, they may be closed. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Mayahuel feels like a tequila sanctuary that’s stationed halfway between glitzy LA and old Mexico–quite a trick, considering it’s entrance is affixed to East Village’s Indian Row. While dodging hosts hawking $8.95 curry specials, you’ll spot a squat, corrugated roof jutting out above a heavy, monastery door that’s slammed shut against your peeping eyes. Only the sound of a cocktail shaker escapes from the high, barred windows. Inside, cell-like booths encased in more bars and old brick, chintzy chandeliers, a harem-red lounge under cathedral lights upstairs, and our lady of Guadelupe in the basement, add up to a church-dungeon whorehouse ringed in spanish tile. If it sounds tacky, wait. After a few drinks it seems completely natural.

Like at Death & Company, owner Philip Ward’s other venture, the best seats are at the bar. The bartenders, now within badgering range, helped my alleviate my lifelong ignorance of tequila and mescal while making mixology magic. I also left with a new favorite cocktail. The whoopsy daisy ($13) uses blanco tequila, joven mezcal, pomegranate molasses and lime in proportions both potent and delicious. The watermelon sugar ($12), another tequila-mescal concoction, tasted like a refreshing spiked punch, with a cayenne and salt rim that added a peppery zing (recipe on Gothamist). The michelada ($9), a beer cocktail with spicy sangrita, a mixer of tomato, orange, and chilies, impressed me somewhat less, but añejo ($18), aged tequila served neat, was smooth and smokey, reminiscent of scotch.

There’s a menu featuring snacky tapas things like tacos and plantains but since the tab was creeping up towards $30 apiece after two drinks, it was soon time to flee in search of a cheaper harbors. I suppose if you’re going to serve $13 cocktails in the teeth of a recession they’d better be friggin special, and I felt the ones as Mayahuel were. Fortunately, there’s plenty of inexpensive Indian grub down the block when you run out of money.

Mayahuel
304 East 6th Street between First and Second Avenue
Daily 6pm-2am

Tasty Mexican street food is hard to come by in NYC, so this no-frlls tacqueria is worth the trek to Williamsburg. The tacos here, served on diminutive palm-sized tortillas, pack loads of flavor and at $2.50 apiece, are considerably cheaper than those you’d get at Mercadito in the East Village. (The tortillas also didn’t disintegrate while eating like my Mercadito tacos did, a good thing since at La Superior there was not a fork in sight). The carne asada taco was delicious by any standard, yet paled compared to the rajas taco–tender roasted poblano peppers drizzled in “Mexican” cream, and the chorizo toluqueno taco. The chorizo was like nothing I’ve tasted; a medley of spicy flavors that I devoured too quickly to contemplate. The flautas ($5.00) arrived hot and crisp from the deep-fryer, rolled around tender chicken and heaped with romaine and mild cheese, and the chips ($3.00) came with an assortment of sample-size salsas to satisfy any spice comfort-level. Two things you will NOT find here are dessert and alcohol. La Superior is BYOB but luckily there’s a deli right on the corner where you can pick up a few bottles of Pacifico or Bohemia. I can’t yet comment on the plates, which range from $8-$13, and include slow-cooked pork in banana leaves, grilled skirt steak and cheese with corn tortillas, and “torta ahogada”–sourdough bread stuffed with carnitas and beans, topped with hot arbol sauce. But you know a place is good when the waitstaff shows a clear passion for the food. When asked for a taco recommendation, one waiter said “that’s like asking me to choose between my children.”

La Superior in NYMag (3 stars)
La Superior 295 Berry St. at S. 2nd St. Williamsburg
Sun-Thurs 12:30pm-midnight, Fri-Sat 12:30pm-2:00am
cash only