Lonestar Taco

Rain won't stop us

2012-04-23T16:08:26Z

Yesterday we slogged out into the rain to celebrate the grand opening of the 462 Halsey Community Garden. Under the tent it didn't feel like a rainy day. You see for us it's all about making folks happy. Smiles are a huge reward. Tacos are one thing, but we are those kind of folks that get thrills from seeing the smiles, thumbs up and smiling faces returning for more. Despite the cold and rain we sold a few tacos and a few drinks to regulars and new faces alike.

We were super happy to see so many folks come out to celebrate the launching of another terrific community asset in Bed Stuy despite the weather. Music and close huddling under the tent brought about shivering smiles and intimate conversations that we'd otherwise miss out at a busy event.

One of our guests, Ms. Chido, loved the pickled red onions we garnished our carnitas tacos with so much that she asked us to share the recipe. We're all about teaching and sharing easy ways to improve your food and cooking at home and this is one of our favorites.

I worked in many restaurants through the years that made pickled red onions and everyone has their way of doing it, neither is wrong, they are all just a little different.

Our recipe is inspired from my time in the kitchens of Bouchon Bakery, I've changed the proportions a bit, but the basic sentiment is there. Let the flavor and beauty of the ingredients come through. Our pickled red onions are sweet and acidic enough to help cut through the fat of a dish and brighten up your palate. We love to toss them in salads, top sandwiches with them or just eat them by the spoon full.

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Pickled Red Onions

Original Photo by Donny Tsang

I'm big on making Pickled Red Onions look lovely. That is left over from working under an OCD chef and it takes some practice to get them just right. I'm making a few assumptions here. One, you know how to slice onions evenly and quickly. Two, you also appreciate something that looks and tastes nice.

A word on pickling. In the restaurant world, I usually come up with pickles based on a hard and fast pickling ratio, 1 part Water : 1 part Vinegar : 2/3 part sugar (seasoning to taste); which I learned somewhere way back before Michael Ruhlman wrote his book or launched his app (both of which I recommend for beginner cooks). This ratio is a sweeter departure from that.

Yields: 1Quart/1028g of Pickled Onions and Pickling Liquid

Ingredients:

350g red onions, Peeled & Cored (~1# whole - red cipollini make beauties otherwise small onions)

250g Champagne Vinegar

250g water

50g white vinegar

125g sugar

3g salt (a pinch, 4g won't break the recipe ;)

Tools & Equipment:

Sharp chef knife, sharp paring knife, Digital Scale, 2qt Sauce pan, Scoop/Measuring cup, quart container or jar, 2 medium bowls, clean paper towel or napkin

Procedure:

Weigh out the vinegars, water, salt and sugar and combine into a saucepan and place on the stove. No, don't turn it on yet.
Peel the onions. Turn the onion with root end facing up. Hold with left hand and trim root. Flip and trim stem. Flip, and carefully peel off skins from root in small 'curtains'. try not to damage the red flesh too much.
Place top side down (root end facing up) on cutting board and divide through them all through the root and line up with root pointed towards right or left of board. One at a time, place your knife at about a 45 degree angle just above the root point. Trim out the root. Repeat on all halves.
Divide these root free halves in two down the vertical axis (through the missing root). Carefully remove the cores of all the pieces of the onions and reserve for some other purpose. We use them in our salsas and braises.
You now have 1/4 onion pieces that are ready for some even width slicing.They should weigh about 350g if you were efficient. Turn them with curved side up and slice carefully and evenly.
When you are nearly done and have a large pile building turn on the flame on your pickling liquid.
When you have all the onions evenly sliced, pack them into your pickling container. I use plastic quart or glass jar containers.
When the pickling liquid is brought up to a simmer and all the sugar is dissolved, pour the hot liquid to cover over the onions.
Place a clean napkin, folded or cut to fit container, on the top surface of the mixture and ensure all onions are completely submerged. Allow to cool to room temperature and then remove paper, cover and refrigerate. These are best in 2 to three weeks, although I've used them months later for myself.

Feel free to play around with the ratios, spice additions and different kinds of onions. Sometimes I'll buy onions from one farmer and get incredibly bright red pickled red onions and sometimes I'll get more pink ones. It varies, that's a good thing.

Whatever you do, I know there is this little bird on your shoulder telling you this, do not use a red wine vinegar for pickled red onions. You will get either a mess, a brown to mauve pickle, or just something you'll wish you hadn't. I've done it before, trust me.

Bounding into Spring

2012-04-06T21:32:40Z

Bed Stuy Crawl Round 2

It's an exciting time in the borough of Brooklyn, especially for transplants like us that have lived in the neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant for a while. It's been a terrific few years for business owners in Bed Stuy and while we're still in the throes us getting ours open, that doesn't mean we don't want to share in the success of those that have led the way.

Saturday April 14th, 2012

We're starting at SUD Vino e Cucina and crawling from there. Tweet about it to win raffle prizes.

View Larger Map

462 Halsey St. Community Garden

We're excited about spring, because it means we can spring back into making tacos at outdoor events.

We're celebrating Earth Day, April 22nd, 2012, with our friends over at the Grand Opening of 462 Halsey St. Community Garden. Having overcommitted ourselves to gardening over in New Jersey and hopefully starting construction in the next few months, we aren't able to contribute as full fledged gardening members. We have big hopes of sharing tons of compostable trim once we open. It's great to have yet another wonderful garden in the community.

Bed Stuy has been a beautiful place to walk around in spring, Halsey St. Community Garden is making it that much more welcoming by reclaiming an abandoned lot and creating a place for neighborhood kids and adults alike to learn from and enjoy.

Come on by and see the garden in early bloom and try a selection of our tacos and refreshments (Carnitas, Bean and Cheese, Horchata, and Lime Soda) to celebrate Earth Day. Two Tacos and a drink for $9. We'll cook until we run out.

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Zawadi by Youth

For those of you interested in the long road that is opening a restaurant. We couldn't have done as many events as we have without help from one of our many partners Accíon USA. Back in the Fall of 2011 we received a Micro-Loan to help us cover the costs of setting up the business and purchasing some durable goods for running the events. On April 29th, 2012, we get to travel up to the Bronx to visit the Riverdale County School and share our tacos to help raise awareness and money for future recipients of micro-loans from Accíon USA.

If you're like us, in the early stages of launching your business, Micro Lending is a great way to jumpstart your business if you are just starting out. We think that a combination of bottstrapping, mirco-lending, traditional friends and family rounds for investment and crowdfunding opportunities like those created by the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act; H.R. 3606, young entrepreneurs have a number of equitable ways to enter the business world. We're excited to help others get on their feet and on the right path early on and excited to be participating in a micro lending event put on by a Bronx high school club, kick it y'all.

A First Birthday Party and Our Flour Tortilla Recipe

2012-02-14T15:13:00Z

Photo Courtesy of Matt Jacobs

There is truly nothing as good as sharing something you love to do. Tracie was remarking just the other day how good it feels to 'deliver something' in her design work. In cooking, we create something everyday. But building a restaurant, can be a long and slow process with few visible outcomes for a long while. In our case, it has had its ups and downs. This past weekend was an up because we got to deliver on something. We've spent a lot of time planning, but doing it is what we are working so hard towards in opening this and catering allows us to step and create and cook.

And we especially get joy and love cooking for my friends and family, so it is that much more rewarding when our friend Alaina dropped us an email and asked us to cook for her son's first birthday. We were ecstatic because we love Malcolm, he is quite possibly one of the most joyful babies we've ever met. One smile from him just melts away all the worries in the world.

That's not to say we weren't a little nervous. Sure, we've done quite a few large events, but our friends are foodies of the highest caliber and they usually won't hold any punches in saying that something was mediocre or needs a little more development. That is part of why they are our friends. So, we wanted it to be great. We always do, but especially to share with a large group of our peers and mentors.

We know it went well because Anil's mom Mira was in and out of the kitchen throughout the course of the morning and afternoon and kept complementing us on the food. It feels good when someone who has years of experience behind the stove says your food is good. That means more to us professional cooks than any industry writer or chef's opinion.

We promised Mira (Mrs. Dash) that we'd share our flour tortilla recipe and we figured why not share it with everyone else as well. After all, it's taken some time to perfect this recipe to what it is today. In fact, I might still be working out how to get ours to have the right basic form were it not for the work of Lisa Fain of Homesick Texan or Diana Kennedy our favorite author and expert on Mexican cuisine. Our recipe evolved out of their efforts taking their basic form and ideas and building on it from there. That said, you'll be hard pressed to reproduce the flavor and texture of ours without the exact ingredients that we've gathered from New York regional sources, so when you make these at home, they'll be your own recipe.

Lonestar Taco's Flour Tortillas

Yields 8, 7" tortillas

Equipment needed: 8" (or larger) comal/gridlle/sauté pan, Large mixing bowl, small sauce pan, Sharp knife, rolling pin (we use a Chinese dumpling wooden rolling pin), airtight large lidded container, cutting board, hands, kitchen scale, and whisk

Optional: Water Spray Bottle for misting/re-heating

Ingredients:

66g Farmer Ground All Purpose Flour

68g Farmer Ground Pastry Flour ¹

41g King Arthur's Organic Bread Flour

95g Whole Organic Milk ²

9g Sunflower Oil ³

4g Salt

2g Baking Powder

12g Unsalted Butter ⁴

Set aside:

16g Farmer Ground All Purpose Flour for bench flour (dusting/rolling out tortillas ) later

Making the Dough:

Combine milk, butter and oil in a small pan and warm

Combine the rest of the dry ingredients and mix well with whisk. Remember to save the 16g or so for bench flour.

Add warm milk and fats to dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon or hands

Knead for about 5 minutes by hand

Place dough into container and rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes or store in fridge until ready to use.

Rolling them Out:

If you have a scale handy, then divide the dough into 8 pieces at roughly 35g. If you don't have a scale, it's easy to eyeball divide the dough by rolling the dough out with your hands on a clean dry cutting board (no flour needed for this).

Roll it out evenly by first shaping it into an even log. Start with your hands in the center and keeping your palms flat roll out towards the edge and form the dough into an even log. Shape with your hands to make it even. Divide in half, divide the halves in half, and the quarters in half. You now have 8 fairly even pieces. Roll those in your palm into balls and flatten with the palm of your hands to form even disks.

Heat your pan, griddle or comal to medium or medium high heat.

Lightly dust with your bench flour a clean dry surface. Place disk of dough on the floured surface, turn over to coat with flour. Place the rolling pin in the center of the disk of dough and with your hands on the outer middle of the rolling pin, palms flat, press firmly and roll forward. Repeat from center downward. Flip the dough and rotate 45 degrees. Repeat. Gradually you'll achieve a round shape. By holding the rolling pin flat and rolling the end from center to edge you can stretch the dough into cleaner and more even circles if needed. Flip and turn as needed, keeping the dough dusted. Repeat.

Practice makes perfect here and don't expect to get good too quickly. We've made hundreds and still don't always get a perfect circle. And hey, it tastes the same either way.

Cooking tortillas:

We don't add oil to our pan or well-seasoned griddle. We cook over dry heat. There is enough oil in the dough to keep it from sticking to the pan if it's heated properly. We keep our cooked tortillas in a covered container until we're done cooking all of them.

Re-Heating:

They are usually still hot by the time we're ready to serve them with the fillings. If it's been some time and they've cooled off. We use a water bottle sprayer and mist each side before reheating them briefly in a hot pan. The pan must be hot, or the dough will stick to the pan at this point. Work fast and you needn't re-heat. But if you've made a larger batch, you'll want to know how, so there you go. Now, enjoy and share with your friends and family.

Storage:

If you were smart your doubled or tripled your first batch. Lay out the tortillas on a sheetpan and allow to cool to room temperature before storing in a plastic bag or lidded container. Otherwise you'll have a stuck together messy mass. They freeze well and you can re-heat on the stove or even in a toaster oven from frozen in a pinch.

¹ We special order this wholesale in 25# bags
² We use: Ronnybrook, GetNyMilk, and a host of other local producers.
³ We buy ours from Cayuga Pure Organics' wholesale. In NYC, you can pick some up at the Union Square Greenmarket on Wednesdays and Fridays or Saturdays in Brooklyn at Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket.
⁴ We use European style butter with about 82% butterfat, but regular American style will work too, it'll just be healthier.

Two Steps Closer

2011-12-23T16:54:00Z

Just because we're quiet around here doesn't mean we are not getting closer. These past six months have been a whirlwind of activity for us. It's hard to fashion in my mind that it was only back in June of this year that we decided to work on this idea. While it had always been brewing in the back of our minds, our traveling had inspired us to take action. We started with a much larger idea, requiring far too much capital, and then lil' Lonestar Taco came blazing into our lives when we were searching for a simpler beginning.

Shortly after Lonestar was born over coffee at our kitchen table, we entered the Brooklyn Public Library's PowerUp! Competition. We saw it as a great opportunity to get us motivated in finishing a well-researched plan and that the prize money might be a great way to rally support from friends, family and our neighbors. It seems like it has been working.

We found out we were 1 of the 13 finalists out of over a 100 submissions in the early Fall. Then, on December 12th, we got up early, packed our food, computer and marketing materials and headed over to the Brooklyn Public Library's Business Library. We arrived an hour and twenty minutes early. We spent a good 45 minutes cooking up miniature versions of our Carnitas, Bean & Cheese, and Chorizo & Egg tacos with fresh made corn and flour tortillas, wrapped them up and set in a chaffing dish, ready to reveal post presentation as samples of our menu.

We had spent a solid two weeks writing, re-writing and editing our presentation. By the time we stood in front of the judges, it was old hat. We gave our presentation and we felt really confident about it. That wouldn't have been possible without the support of hundreds of individuals and the organization brilliance of our Business and Marketing Manager, and my wife of over five years, Tracie Lee.

She is the star of our show and made everything look easier than it really was. Tracie I love you and we couldn't do this without her passion, love and support. We'll find out on January 10th, 2012, with everyone else, who won the competition. We wish everyone the best of luck, being surrounded by so many brilliant folks in the borough of Brooklyn, we feel lucky to have made it this far.

Our presentation felt strong, because we had already been grilled by a list of advisors and friends whom we'd shared our plan. Brave souls who had taken time out of their crazy busy lives to read over the monstrously long thing and share their wisdom and feedback on how we could make it better. And then an even smaller group spent more time listening to our preliminary presentation and offering further suggestions and observations.

Future entrepreneurs, we can't underestimate how important it is to seek help in everything you do, even if you think you are an expert at something, ask others that have come before you. You'll be surprised with how generous, thoughtful and insightful people are and just how much more they have to give than you expected.

Then the friday, two days before our PowerUp!, presentation, Erica Dorn, the Business Development Officer for Acción USA, our micro-lender, emailed us and invited us to speak at a press conference for a new bill that would encourage more micro-lending to small businesses throughout the U.S.

I had expected to miss the event as I'd had a prior commitment to run my first race ever with the New York Road Runners for that morning. Tracie wrote up a speech that evening and was ready to rock by the time I got back home. Luckily, I had time to go see her speak and I can share her inspiring speech. Please take a minute to turn up the volume and crowd around the iphone, blackberry, ipad, laptop, or whatever and take a listen to my inspiration, my joy, my number one love, my wife and partner as she shares a bit of our vision.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!

Find our more about the legislation that Representative Carolyn Maloney (D.-NY) introduced on December 11th.

-Wayne

Pre-Thanksgiving Event with Bed-Vyne Wine, November 16th

2011-11-03T16:53:04Z

A few weeks ago, Bed-Vyne Wine opened their doors and brought another great addition to our neighborhood. We dropped by for a bit and had an opportunity to speak with co-owner Michael Brooks. In our brief conversation with Michael, we were delighted to find a common thread and mindset of another small business owner wanting to build a community centered business and we shared the idea that perhaps we could partner on a wine tasting sometime.

Well, the time is just around the corner. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, November 16th. See the invite below for details.

We've been invited to share a taste of our menu. We came up with canape (small bites) versions of our tacos and added some mini-tamales in honor of the Texas holiday staple. I especially miss my friend Sarah's Grandma Queta's tamales. Nothing beats them, but we can try and remember them with our own efforts.

We'll be selling half-dozen bags of frozen tamales for your Thanksgiving and holiday needs for $15. Get them while you have a chance!

Our Menu

Chalupitas

Chalupitas are mini chalupas, kinda of like fancy nachos. We take fresh yellow masa from Hot Bread Kitchen, make fried tortilla chips and top them with a variety of delicious, freshly made ingredients.

Our Chalupitas flavors:

Black Beans and Millport Dairy Sharp Cheddar with Jalapeňos and Cilantro. Our black beans aren't those wussy hippie cousins most people are used to as we cook them with jalapenos and various spices. When combined with sharp cheddar cheese, it breaks conventions and destroys opinions of black beans as the ubiquitous blight of wraps near and far.
Chipotle Chicken with Salsa Chipotlé and Pickled Red Onions. We braise our chicken legs and poach the breasts until just tender in a steamy broth of dried smoked jalapenos and a blend of spices that layer in the flavor. We reduce our líquido de coccíon, cooking liquid, and add it back to our chicken to yield the juiciest and most flavorful chicken taco you've ever met.
Texican Chorizo. Like our founding chef, this takes a Mexican staple and introduces a Texas flair into a spicy yet not fiery loose mexican-style sausage. It is accompanied by our Almost Fuego salsa, our take on a traditional Mexican Salsa Roja, fiery with a hint of acidity. The most pronounced flavor stems from the dried 'chili de arbol', toasted in a hot pan before introduced to a blend of ingredients that gives it a sense of adventure without catching your house on fire.

Tamales

Made from fresh ground masa from Hot Bread Kitchen. We'll have very limited quantities of chipotlé chicken, chorizo, and beef picadíllo (made Arcadian Pastures' grass fed/finished beef). Try the canapes or bring them home for $15 per half dozen.

Pre-Thanksgiving Tasting Event Invitation

Invites you to:

A Pre-Thanksgiving Wine & Food Tasting

Featuring Wine & Food Pairings from Around the Globe

Wednesday, November 16th, 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Bed-Vyne Wine Shop

370 Tompkins Ave

Brooklyn, NY 11216

Please RSVP at info@bed-vyne.com

30 wines from:

Argentina, Australia, Chile, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, South Africa, New York, California, Washington.

Menu and Guest Chefs:

Sweet Potato Cornbread with Honey Ginger Butter Cream

Chef David Lee of The Chocodile Bakes

chocodilebakes@yahoo.com

Jerk Chicken Leg Quarter

Chef Khem Brady

khemjerkshop@gmail.com

917.685.1807

Chalupitas with Bean & Cheese, Chipotlé Chicken, and Chorizo & Mini Tamales
Lonestar Taco

Chef Wayne Surber / Tracie Lee

Roasted Butternut Squash w/ zucchini,onion and cranberries; Forbidden Rice Pilaf

Lenny the Chef (Lenny Stringer)

Lenny@LennyTheChef.com

718.483.8934

Five Spice Haitian Pulled Pork on Plaintain Chips w/ Pickled Onions & a Candied Yam Crisp

La Caille Events: Chef Jean-Pierre Dominique / Varick Boyd

lechefromain@gmail.com

347.582.1289

Organic Pumpkin Pie; Brown Butter Pecan Pie; Chocolate Pecan Pie

Brown Butter Brooklyn

brownbutterbrooklyn@gmail.com

Smooth Smooth Horchata

2011-10-20T17:53:12Z

Smooth Horchata was not something we just culled from some recipe book and viola we had our dream Horchata. This is an amalgamation of many recipes and much trial and error. We're finally happy with it, of course now the weather is all wrong, but put it somewhere in your summer recipe files. (the real deal, no condensed milk, no dairy . )

Y: ~1qt by volume

Ingredients:
50 g Short Grain Rice (Sushi Rice, most call for long-grain, this worked best for us)
13g Steel Cut Irish Oats, or similar
1g Ceylon Cinnamon (or a whole stick ~ 3")
1g Cassia Bark Cinnamon (usually comes in pieces, a few pieces)
½ Whole Fresh vanilla bean, split and seeded
1g Green Cardamom Seeds, removed from pod (they look like mouse poo, get over it)
50g Blanched Almonds
670g Water (+70 - 150g in simple syrup at end to taste, more if you want to thin a bit)
1g Lime Zest, zest a whole lime
70g sugar 1 -1/2 Ceylon Cinnamon Stick at end (new one)

Notes on Spice Weights: We make a batch about 12x this size for our restaurant and event needs, yielding about 3 gallons. You can't scale down or up the spice amounts and achieve the same results. It takes far less spices when scaling up than you think, but it becomes increasingly difficult to get it in smaller batches. So, this small batch, you'll find will really have a wham bam of spices.

The larger batch is more refined in flavor. You can scale everything in this recipe up by 12 except the spices, here's the weights of the spices scaled up: 7g Ceylon Cinnamon, 7g Cassia Bark Cinnamon, 1 whole vanilla bean, 10g green cardamom, 16g Lime Zest, 2 more Ceylon cinnamon sticks at end.

Notes on Procedure: Read the entire recipe before doing the recipe. Seriously, we know it's long, but it really does take a little effort to get this right.

Equipment:
soaking container; glass or plastic pitcher
whisk
ladle
blender; preferably Vita Mix
extra fine cheesecloth or very clean white t-shirt (to sacrifice)
spice grinder
paring knife
scale; (digital is best! )

Procedure:

Weigh out the rice and the oats.
Using a Vita Mix (or coffee grinder), grind the rice and oats in two batches into a medium grained powder - with the Vita Mix on high, about 30 seconds. If you don't have a Vita Mix, use a spice or coffee grinder in small batches. Put into the soaking container.
Bring half of the required amount of water to a boil. By the time you've finished the steps in the following paragraph, the water should be ready.
Weigh out the cinnamon sticks and blanched almonds. Wrap the cinnamon sticks in small amount of cheesecloth and tie with a string for ease of retrieval. Add to the soaking container - no need to grind these. If you bought cardamom pods, remove the seeds from the pods. This is best accomplished with a small tipped pair of scissors, cut down the middle of the pod, shake or scrape each one out. Add the cardamom seeds to the soaking container. Cut the vanilla bean in half, then in half again lengthwise. With the dull edge of a paring knife, scrape out the inside of all four quarters. Start from the narrow end of the bean and move the knife towards the wide end. Add the vanilla seeds and the scraped pod to the soaking container.
Pour the boiling water into the soaking container and mix thoroughly so that there are no clumps.
Now add the second half of the required amount of water which is at room temperature. Mix again, cover and set aside for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight.
Remove cinnamon sticks from mixture.
Take the mixture in the soaking container in proportional batches (2/3 liquid, ⅓ settled ingredients - we use a slotted spatula to get the settled stuff and a ladle for the liquid) and buzz again in the Vita Mix on high for about a minute or two (each batch), or until the texture of the sediment is very silky, almost like clay slip.
First Pass: Pour the mixture through a fine mesh strainer, no cheesecloth this first time. If you have difficulty getting the liquid to strain through in the first pass, take a ladle and put it into the strainer and pump the ladle quickly, up and down like a plunger, so that the liquid drains through.
Press the resulting mash with the ladle to get additional liquid out.
Repeat the straining and grinding method at least two times to catch as much of the grit as possible.
The Final Pass: Line a clean, just rinsed in warm water fine mesh cheesecloth or t-shirt into your fine mesh strainer. Repeat the previous blending and passing process with this in place. As you get towards the end of the batch, re-puree the sediment that has been captured with some of the already passed liquid. In addition, if the sediment still looks too large and grainy, you can buzz it again in the Vita Mix with some liquid until you reach the desired silky consistency. The sediment remaining in the cheesecloth should be fairly minimal in proportion to your yielded mixture. It should feel like a slightly damp clay slip or wet fine grain sand.
When you're done straining, put the additional water, sugar, lime zest and whole cinnamon into a pot on the stove and heat it up. Constantly stir until all of the sugar is dissolved. Cool this mixture over ice or until warm to touch. Strain the sugar mixture (to remove the zest) into the main batch. Throw the whole cinnamon back into the main batch as well.We leave this sitting at room temperature overnight or for at least 6 hours.
Finally, after resting, it is ready to serve and will be at its peak flavor over the next day and a half. Be sure to mix the liquid with a ladle or large spoon before serving. You can thin it a bit more to your liking. We added about 1/10 more water and found it perfect.

Next time, what to do with all that leftover horchata:waffles, ice cream, oh my!

Occupy Main Street

2011-10-18T07:00:00Z

We've yearned to head down to the 'Occupy Wall Street' events and show our support over the past month, for we are just as outraged and dissatisfied as many out there. We have spent many hours discussing how we can integrate new models of financing into our our venture. Our absence is not a sign that we don't care or want to support those efforts, quite the opposite, we feel our time is better spent on a protest closer to home.

Time marches on. With the change in light and temperature outdoors and with the uptick in wind and leaves out our windows it seems that winter is steadily approaching. There is a slim window of opportunity in taking advantage of the weather and getting ourselves out there in order to build community awareness, support, inspire hope, and invigorate our own main streets. We've put our heads down over the last few months and we think we're building something important here.

We spend the past two weeks in our home of the past five years, Bedford Stuyvesant, Occupying Main Street, so to speak. Our fifth wedding anniversary passed while we were gearing up for Bed Stuy Alive and then a stoop sale and neighborhood tour this past weekend. We think it was worth it. We know we made the right decision by missing the protest in Manhattan for our own community celebrations.

We have been blessed with a group of people that have popped up, seeming out of the woodwork, to jump at getting the word out on our business. We love that, because we believe that starting a business that is not just community centered but community supported is a requirement in making this world and community a better place to live and thrive. It is that thrive part that we really want to see happen. And we think its the community part that many of our financial institutions have forgotten, that is why we have arrived at the dire straights the world faces today.

So, with every decision around money, we've set a goal to tie the investment back into the community as much as possible. That is why we chose Brooklyn Cooperative Credit Union as our Business Banking partner and why we pursued a micro-loan from Accion, because in doing so we are investing in the kinds of businesses that express the social entrepreneurial values that reflect and inspire our own.

Sure, we want our business to be profitable and we want our investors to see returns unlike anything they might get from Wall Street. However, as our past few years of financial turmoil have shown us, we have to do more than build financial capital, we have to build social capital as well. The investors in our business will watch us and our staff (actual people) grow, our business ideas expand, and they will see first hand actual people being put back to work with their dollars. With our business, investment in the community, will be more than a banner thrown up by a bank on a building, more than a 5 second blurb in front of prime time TV, it'll be our staff and ourselves being secure in their health and livelihood because we love what we do and we know our community is that much better for our existence and perseverance.

For we aren't looking to create just "service" jobs at minimum wage, oft touted as 'wage-slavery', rather we are thinking bigger and looking to staff our business with owners, entrepreneurs and innovators who want a great place to work and have the support they need for their future innovations and ideas. Take ownership in what you do and you will be an owner some day. This is our protest. Making an investment directly in our community rather than waiting for Wall Street to gamble it all away while we are busy with our backs turned.

And we aren't trying to force our idea upon the neighborhood, we want it to want us here, and thus far, we have heard nothing but good things. Everyone wants to know when and where we're opening. It almost seems that everyone loves tacos and that everyone gets it. Looking at our twitter feed the past couple of months and turning the pages of the grey lady this weekend, we think it's working. The buzz of violence and crime is being diminished by the buzz of industry and vibrancy and excitement about new ventures. We are lucky to be a part of this community. We couldn't have found a better place to start a business and put up our own form of protest.

Photo by Donny Tsang

Two Weekends and Two Great Events

2011-10-16T22:22:13Z

Yesterday, we had another great event. Our neighbor Kay, yearning to make up for a missed block party this year, set out to organize a block wide stoop sale. We answered her call for food vendors and were met by over a hundred eager mouths.

We managed to setup and sell about a third of what we had with a staff of four the previous week, with just Tracie and myself. I think we rocked it out pretty well. Many neighbors, Texas transplants, Bed Stuy tourists, and twitter followers passed through our little block to share in some conversation, great weather, and we hope, delicious tacos.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by as 'regulars' and a big Texas 'Howdy' to all those new folks we met yesterday. We hope you enjoyed it and we look forward to feeding you at our next event, perhaps at your home or holiday party!!! Let us know if you have an event that you'd like to have some tacos or tex-mex and we'll see if we can make it happen.

Our neighbor and friend @Ultraclay stopped by and enjoyed a few with his wife to start off their day...

Revisiting Bed Stuy Alive! 2011

Also, in case you missed all the fun yesterday or last weekend, here's a little jaunt through last Saturday. All photos are copyright and courtesy of Ultrateg ( Donny Tsang, of EatToBlog and Foodaissance fame). Many thanks to Donny for capturing our first 'official' neighborhood event! Hopefully it leaves you salivating for some tacos.

Tracie, ready for orders

The Garnishes

Our Menu

Kitchen Team, Focused (X-man, Me, and Kathy)

Tortilla Station

Homemade Grapefruit, Ginger and Lime Syrups

First tortillas of the day

Cauliflower Two Ways: White with Sumac and Fresh Oregano and Golden with Cumin and Cilantro

Seasonal Veggies Fired

Meat: Pork, Chicken and Texican Chorizo (Unlike many tacos joints, we don't keep ours steaming on a hot line all day, we fire to order. Ice keeps it cold until fired.)

Carnitas; Roasted, Arcadian Pastures, Pork Shoulder

Good energy, great team, beautiful day...

As always, many thanks go out to our collaborators, supporters and purveyors without whose constant and quiet work none of this would be possible: Xavier James (Chef de Partie at Fedora), Kathy Ba (Former Sous Chef of Bouchon Bakery, Private Chef at Maison Privé), Hot Bread Kitchen, Arcadian Pastures, Tello's Green Farm, Millport Dairy, Eckerton Farms, Berried Treasures Farm, Cayuga Pure Organics (particular the magic of the miller Greg Moll over at Farmer Ground Flour), Empire Organics, Crop to Cup Coffee, Accíon, All of our Business Plan reviewers and advisers and countless others.

Your Party + Our Tacos = Awesomeness

2011-10-13T17:56:46Z

Yes, you heard it here first - we're offering catering services for the months of November and December. It's a little experiment for us to keep our culinary skills in shape and to further refine our recipes in collaboration with our customers. The holiday season is almost upon us, and we'd be perfect for your next family gathering or for your office party. We'll work closely with you to tailor our Tex-Mex menu, whether your guests are hungry for jowl bacon or prefer heaps of vegetables. We're especially excited about this because we're incorporating some desserts into our repetoire. As always, we source our ingredients locally and organically as much as possible.

And for those of you who are wondering about the restaurant - our search for a permanent space is still going on in earnest, but we want to keep the momentum going with the events that we did recently. So drop us a line!

Bed Stuy Alive: Thank You

2011-10-11T17:54:23Z

Thanks to everyone who came out to Bed Stuy Alive! to try our tacos. This was our first "official" event, and we were a bit nervous about everything going without a hitch. We really appreciated the help of Xavier James and Kathy Ba - their expertise really helped make the whole day go so smoothly. We had to improvise a little bit with our set up, but we learned a lot about what's going to work better for future events. It was really encouraging to get feedback from our customers telling us that we need to open in Bed Stuy and that they've been dying for good tacos for, well, forever.

Photo courtesy of Stepha Krynytzky

We were really happy that we sold out of tacos and beverages by the end of the day - our biggest seller was the chicken taco followed closely by the carnitas. The sleeper hit was the bean and cheese - so many people who tried it came back and told us they couldn't believe how delicious it was!

We're looking forward to the stoop sale on Saturday, we're trying out a bacon and cheese taco and a barbacoa taco. We may try to slip a seasonal soda in, that'll be a surprise. Hope to see you there!

Choosing Our Bank

2011-10-03T17:09:04Z

or, rather, Why We Chose a Credit Union. This morning I was listening to the Brian Lehrer show on NPR and he was talking about why you'd choose a credit union, and it made me reflect on this very decision that Wayne and I had to make for our business a few weeks ago. After the economic collapse in 2008, the rising bank fees and finding out what the banks do with the money you give them, we were very uneasy about putting our money with a "big" bank like Chase or Bank of America.

The services that big banks offer sound great on the surface - ATMs and branches everywhere, fancy online bank sites. But what you really get is high fees and nothing in the way of supporting small businesses. We've been told time and again by other small business owners that these banks won't even consider talking to you for financing if you don't already have two years of revenue on the books, especially for restaurants.

So we started looking for alternatives. I had heard about credit unions before, but I didn't know much about them. Credit unions are made up of members who have a common bond, whether it's geographical and focused on a local neighborhood or through an employer like a university. The members own the credit union, so it's focused on lending money within that particular community. This really piqued our interest, so we looked around and found the Brooklyn Cooperative Federal Credit Union.

We thought BCFCU's mission aligned with our goals very well:

As your community development credit union, our mission is to support the economic development of our neighborhoods through consumer, business, and home loans and core financial services. Today Brooklyn Cooperative is helping to revitalize Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, two of the most under-banked neighborhoods in New York City.

We had a great chat with their business counselor and we met some of the people who worked there. Although they only have two branches and neither is overly convenient to where we live, we see this as more of advantage. We'll see the people who work and bank there on a regular basis and actually develop relationships with them. We are getting more transparency in the process, we know where our money is going and we're supporting other individuals and small businesses like us.

A great teacher of mine once told me that we should "think about money more as energy than money". Maybe this sounds hokey and George Bailey-eqsue, but I really believe in the power of banking at the small-scale, community level, and this is something that I think we need to reconsider especially after everything that's happened in the past few years.

On Why We're Not Doing A Food Truck

2011-09-29T07:45:00Z

In talking to many, many people about our business, the question that comes up very, very often is "Why don't you start with a food truck?" So we decided to put together our Top Ten List for why we are not.

"It'll be so much easier and cheaper to start a food truck!" Actually, not really. This is one we hear all the time. Outfitting a new food truck costs between $75,000 - $100,000, plus you have the logistical nightmare of powering all of your equipment in a mobile set up. Also, do you think that all that food is prepared ON the truck? Wrong, it's probably prepped in a commercial kitchen, which is another additional expense. And where are you supposed to park it at night? Beyond the start up costs, New York has a limited number of mobile food vendor permits available and there's a wait list. And never mind the costs of having to pay parking tickets.
"Food trucks are so popular, you should get in on that!" Exactly why we don't want to do it. It's so trendy that we feel like it's jumped the shark. You don't get any additional publicity by being a food truck nowadays because it's not novel anymore. You're constantly battling with other trucks for a prime parking spot. Big corporations have even gotten in on it (have you seen the Gap food truck lately?) and that's just a bad sign.
The weather really, really kills your business. I mean, really, who wants to stand in a line when it's raining out? I sure don't. We're concerned with providing a good customer experience, and standing out in the rain/snow/heat/cold is not part of that.
I hate driving. OK, this is more personal preference, but I moved to the city because I HATE DRIVING. Suggesting that I spend every day inside of a vehicle either serving food, driving around trying to avoid cabs and pedestrians, and looking for a parking space every day sounds like a miserable experience for me and I'd really like to avoid it. It's also a barrier for hiring people who don't have driver's licenses.
The hours are higher than they need to be. Remember those 18 hour shifts that restaurant workers pull? Yea, we're prepared for that. Now tack on a bunch of extra hours for driving around in traffic. No thanks.
"You can build a loyal following through Twitter!" Believe it or not, not everyone is on Twitter. We know we can build a core group of regulars in our neighborhood by just being in the same place all the time.
No alcohol. When was the last time you had a beer at a food truck? Oh right, you haven't.
Blocking pedestrian traffic and being a general nuisance. This one comes courtesy of David, but it is so true. There's a backlash by residents who get annoyed at having a smelly, noisy truck parked outside their door with people blocking up the sidewalk all day and night. And chances are that you're having to break zoning laws because you're taking up a parking space and you'll earn a ticket for that.
"I'll just sit down right down..." Where? Ever go to a truck and end up having a beverage, a few tacos, an iPhone, a bag of stuff you just bought? Where does that food usually end up? Yea, right, your lap or your shirt. Part of what we want to do with our restaurant is create a space where people can gather and chat, sit and relax and drink beer, and, down the road...plant a garden. Not really happening on a truck. Ok, you could plant a garden on the roof, I've seen that.
"Excuse me, do you have a bathroom?" Ohhh, right. Got a baby to change? Just had one too many coffees? Sure, you know that that Starbucks on 57th and 8th has a nice one, but 7 blocks, is that reasonable? Not to mention, hey, did you just wash your hands? Gee, I wonder why everyone is getting sick all the time.

Don't get us wrong, we love food trucks. I'm sure there are many good reasons for doing one, and I can think of a whole bunch that we admire that started from a truck and built it into a brick and mortar business (Clover Food Lab up in Boston, Big Gay Ice Cream, Van Leeuwen, etc.). We'd just rather spend our energy in ways that we feel are going to be more productive and conducive to our achieving our goals. Yes, we're starting to do events outdoors to get the word out. But not on a truck.

Upcoming Events in October

2011-09-27T15:54:10Z

We've been a bit quiet lately on the internets because we've been finishing up our business plan and getting geared up for a few events in October. We can't wait to see you!

Bed Stuy Alive!

Saturday, October 8th, 2011

10 am - 5 pm
Restoration Plaza

Find out more about Bed Stuy Alive! and the Restoration Rocks! Music festival. The lineup includes live performances by Idle Warship (Talib Kweli & Res) and Pharoahe Monach with a special appearance by the Brooklyn Philharmonic Featuring Mos Def.

Directions: Take the A express or C local train to Nostrand Ave. When you exit, make a right and walk east on Fulton St. The street will be closed off in front of Restoration Plaza.

View Larger Map

Block Wide Stoop Sale

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

10 am - 4 pm

We'll be out in front of our house again selling tacos. UPDATE: The annual Bed Stuy House Tour is at the same time. We'll be here until the tacos run out!

View Larger Map

A delicious dinner

2011-09-12T19:24:48Z

Last night Wayne and I headed to Prune for the Perennial Plate dinner, organized by our friends Daniel Klein & Mirra Fine. Dishes were inspired by their journey across America, where they've been gathering stories about local, honest food and the people behind them and making them into a wonderful video series. I think my favorite dish was the fried porgie, which was a homage to the catfish noodling episode. It had a thick and satisfying cornmeal crust, and the fish was ridiculously tender underneath.

Fried porgie with tomato salad

It was such a pleasure to share a meal like this with friends and strangers who are so passionate and interested in the stories behind the food. Daniel and Mirra are in town for the next week, and we're excited to see who they end up connecting with in the New York area.

We really enjoy participating events like this, and we especially appreciated the collaborative aspect between Daniel and Gabrielle Hamilton in coming up with the menu. And it's inspiration for one of many things we'd like to do with Lonestar Taco once we open. We can't wait!

DIY Funding

2011-09-11T23:43:23Z

One thing that we've struggled with is the notion of how we're going to fund this project of ours. I think for many small businesses it's the elephant in the room that nobody wants to talk about. And most of what I've heard or know about is from coverage of tech startups, where you're focused on finding funding from VCs and angel investors, or, conversely, you bootstrap the whole thing yourself.

It's a bit different with our business idea - it's a brick and mortar business, with relatively lower profit margins and a slower, longer term plan for growth than a tech or consulting based business. The initial outlay for renovations and equipment seems comparatively staggering once we put our estimates together, and not something that we could bootstrap. (We don't exactly have hundreds of thousands of dollars burning a hole in our pockets.) And banks won't even talk to you if you don't have at least two years of revenue to show - which puzzles me, because how are you supposed to start a business without access to capital? So we've been exploring other avenues of funding.

To help this along, we attended a workshop on Saturday called "Get Funding ASAP!", organized by the DIY Business Association. The first group of panelists gave insightful and concise information, and it was enormously helpful. Slava Rubin, a co-founder of IndieGoGo, pointed out some characteristics of successful Indie GoGo campaigns, which will certainly be useful once we're at that stage; Erica Dorn from Accion USA was exactly the person we needed to hear from when it came to microloans. We actually didn't know that they loaned money to startups, for whatever reason we thought they only funded existing businesses.

We also connected with some other aspiring and established entrepreneurs, like Sarah Bacon of Command C Design & Greenpoint Coworking, Jamie of Valentine Goods, Melissa of Callio Fragrance, and Jen Ng. It was helpful to bounce ideas off of others, get feedback about our project, and see how others are tackling similar issues. I'm really grateful that Wayne and I are working on this together because I think our strengths complement each other, but even then it's necessary to get an outside perspective. Some great questions cropped up, like "have you talked to the other restauranteurs/competitors in the neighborhood?" and "have you thought about negative responses from the community in terms of gentrification?". It's stuff that we've been thinking about but haven't figured out the answers quite yet.

We came away with a more solid understanding of how to approach crowdfunding and microloan resources as well as new things we have to research. That only gets us part of the way there, though; more on our funding ideas in future posts.