The Stories (and People) Behind the Menu at Rosie’s in New York

1. The Backstory

Meyer never wanted to be the chef of a Mexican restaurant, but he often thought about being the owner of one. While traveling in Mexico and later, while studying under the Mexican food historian Diana Kennedy, he couldn’t shake the feeling that New York had shortchanged Mexican food.

“The way Mexican food was being presented was a disservice,” he says. “There are a variety of ingredients, preparations, and methods of cooking that aren’t represented.”

Angel Andrade, the executive sous chef at Cookshop at the time, felt the same way. On several occasions, Andrade brought Meyer to his hometown in Puebla, Mexico, to roast goats with his family. As the mezcal flowed, the men debated their favorite subject — the possibility of opening a restaurant together with Andrade as the executive chef.

Unlike most other Mexican restaurants in the city at the time, they wanted to focus on regional recipes. “Real Mexican food,” Andrade says.

The timing couldn’t have been better. A year before Rosie’s opened, Mexican food was taking a turn in New York. The chef Enrique Olvera opened Cosme a modern Mexican restaurant, in 2014. In 2015 , Casa Enrique in Long Island City became the first Mexican restaurant in the city to be awarded a Michelin star.

“There was a boom for Mexican restaurants,” says Andrade, adding that Mexican food in the city was becoming more specialized.

While creating the menu, he and Meyer got in the habit of rolling out six-foot sheets of butcher paper on the restaurant’s counters and covering them with the names of Mexican foods that were challenging to find in New York City at the time. Many of them have since found their way to the menu.

2. Chiles en Nogada

Visit Rosie’s in the fall and you will likely encounter chiles en nogada. Considered by many to be the national dish of Mexico, the battered, stuffed peppers date back to the 19th century, when the general of the Mexican Army, Agustín de Iturbide, signed a treaty recognizing Mexico’s independence from Spain. According to legend, nuns from a convent in Puebla honored his arrival with a meal featuring the colors of the Mexican flag: a green poblano pepper covered in a white walnut sauce and red pomegranate seeds.

“It’s the most Mexican dish,” Andrade says. The nuns’ recipe called for peaches, pears, apples, and pork, but Mexican chefs have never stopped there. Andrade makes his chiles en nogada with bananas, apples, olives, capers, and slow-cooked brisket.

3. Tacos de Cecina

The way sous chef Ernesto Alonso grew up making and eating cecina is prohibited by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. “We hang the cecina on the patio or the rooftop and sun dry it,” he says. “It would never be allowed here.”

When he was tasked with creating a cecina recipe here in New York, he found a workaround using the restaurant’s dehydrator. He coats slices of marbled beef in salt overnight, and then runs them through a dehydrator to mimic the temperate heats of a Puebla patio. Like in his childhood kitchen, the meat is served on a platter with salsa, beans, cheese, and a stack of warm tortillas.

4. Quesadilla de Calabaza

In the summer, when squash is in season, Alonso will order a quesadilla de calabaza over one with meat every time. “They’re that good,” he says. The squash quesadilla features a homemade corn tortilla spilling over with melted Oaxaca and Chihuahua cheeses. On top: more griddled cheese and charred delicata squash. The recipe is based on a childhood memory. “I come from a farmer family,” he says. In the summer, his mother would harvest squash in the fields and haul them back to the kitchen to be fried with chiles, onion, tomato, and epazote.

5. Esquites

Esquites, by definition, aren’t always worth ordering at a restaurant. They’re one of Mexico’s oldest and most popular street foods. So, why do people continue to pay $11 for them at Rosie’s? Each order comes with a cup of charred kernels — the same ones used to make the restaurant’s corn tortillas. Chipotle mayonnaise, lime, and crumbly cotija cheese are spooned over the top with epazote, a fragrant herb that has notes of anise and mint.

6. Memelitas

If the tiny open kitchen in the middle of Rosie’s dining room went up in flames, the restaurant would cease to exist. From that U-shaped counter no bigger than a dive bar bathroom, “maestra de comal” Eduarda Balderas and her team press, pleat, and pat hundreds of tortillas a night — the same way she learned from her mother in southern Puebla. There are thin tortillas and sturdy, gondola-shaped tlacoyos. And there’s another specialty you may not know: her memelitas, called sopes in some parts of Mexico. The key to making them, she says, is thick masa that can withstand several layers of toppings, such as crema, salsa, and beans.

7. Nixtamalized Corn Tortillas

Guadalupe Pineda had worked in other kitchens since moving to the United States from Guerrero more than two decades ago. But it wasn’t until she was brought on as a prep cook at Rosie’s that she saw a restaurant make its tortillas using imported Mexican corn. (More often, she says, they used Maseca, a widely available bagged corn flour.) Andrade taught her the labor-intensive process known as nixtamalization, used to turn corn into dough and eventually, tortillas. Each day, Pineda soaks a heaping, 50-pound bag of kernels in slaked limestone (called cal in Mexico). As they simmer, the husks disintegrate, making it easier to grind them into corn masa.

8. Mole Poblano

In Tehuacán, about 150 miles southeast of Mexico City, it’s common for households to make tamales, menudo, and other foods to sell to their neighbors on weekends. The Andrade family was known for its mole poblano. The preparation at Rosie’s is based on that family recipe. More than a dozen ingredients, including chocolate, chicken stock, and fried corn tortillas, are blended into a loose paste using a Vitamix. “It has to have some body and texture,” Andrade says. “When you bite into it, a sesame seed or a little piece of cinnamon pops in your mouth.”

The preparation, of course, involved lots of trial and error. “I called my mom for the recipe, but she could only give me the ingredients,” he says. “I had to follow my memory and palate to finish it. That’s how we know a dish is done — it tastes how we remember.”

Rosie’s is open daily for dinner and on weekends for brunch.

Luke Fortney is a journalist who covers food, culture, and trends. Follow him on Instagram.

Donny Tsang is a food, lifestyle, and portrait photographer based in New York. Follow him on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.