Renowned for dishing up authentic tacos so good you have to book a table well in advance to dine on them, Hawthorne's Cartel Del Taco has good news for those on the north side—they’ve opened a second location in New Farm. After years of their regulars begging them to open on the other side of the river, owners Marco Ramirez And Erick Martinez are finally giving the people what they want, and are using it as an opportunity to level up their offering while they’re at it.
Landing on the corner of Brunswick Street and Methyr Road, the new vibrant new venue feels much like the OG venue, featuring bright red tiling and furnishings and an unmissable sign proclaiming ‘tacqueria’ over the open kitchen. However as well as a few quirky details that set it apart from its sibling—like the custom designed artwork on the walls and a yellow-tiled ceiling—the New Farm venue will stand apart with some fresh offerings. A breakfast menu dishing up lighter versions of Mexican morning feeds will be introduced after the first week of opening (complemented by coffee from Canberra’s ONA), while the kitchen will be making use of a charcoal grill for meat and seafood dishes, and serving up freshly shucked oysters from an oyster bar.
“It's not just another location—there are definitely plenty of similarities, but we want to make it different, and take the venue that we created in Hawthorne but level it up, in a way,” says Ramirez. “Everyone loves our tacos, and they will be on the menu in New Farm, but we want to bring some more traditional Mexican dishes to the table, while still keeping things fresh and light for the Australian palate.”
Co-founder Martinez, who has designed the entire menu, has been cooking since he was eight years old, learning in the kitchen of his mother and grandmother and in the streets and plazas of Mexico City—and if you’ve been to the Hawthorne eatery, you’ll know that authenticity shines through every dish on the menu, a characteristic that you’ll find here as well.
“The real street food of Mexico, what you find in the markets, what you find on the coast, that’s what we’re doing here, just a little less heavy, less spicy, because we know what Australians like. But the menu will be something new, something different, and we’ll also be making sure that the bar connects to the kitchen, with drinks that match the smoky flavours coming from the kitchen as well as our traditional micheladas and margaritas.”
Must tries on the New Farm menu that you won’t find at Hawthorne include the Senora Torre, a seafood tower featuring layers of king fish, scallops, octopus, prawns, salsa roja tatemada, salsa macha, avocado, cucumber, onion and lime, served with corn chips; and the pulpo tacos, with wood fired octopus, pineapple guajillo salsa, avocado and salsa. They’re also making good use of that charcoal grill for dishes like chargrilled prawns with clarified butter, and a hefty tomahawk served with smoked chimichurri.
Of course, if you want to stick to the classics you can just order up plates of spit-grilled pork, beer battered fish and slow cooked beef brisket tacos, alongside street food like gorditas stuffed with confit pork carnitas, and Cartel Del Taco’s famed birria tacos. What has us most excited though, is the 15-odd kinds of margaritas you’ll find on the drinks menu along with a hefty list of tequilas, mezcals and Mexican beers. There’s even an espresso martini-inspired marg—though we’ll be the ones sipping on a Peachame!, with peach, Mezcal Metoro, hibiscus liqueur, lime, egg whites and grapefruit bitters.
If the Hawthorne venue is anything to go by, you’re always going to need to book ahead, so book in via their website here.
Image credit: Ranyhyn Laine | Urban List