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Some good news for the new year: Birria-Landia is gearing up to open two more locations this year, bringing its consomé and crunchy tacos to the Bronx and Manhattan at long last. The taco truck with locations in Jackson Heights and Williamsburg will next open at East Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse thoroughfare, or within a few blocks of the intersection, in the Bronx, owner José Moreno tells Eater.
The expansion was heavily requested, according Moreno, who apparently received some flack from customers for opening in Brooklyn before the Bronx. He had hoped to open before the new year, but the latest surge in coronavirus cases delayed those plans by at least a few months. “It’s not a good moment to open,” he says. “The city is quiet, and the weather is coming.” He’s now eyeing a late February opening.
A fourth taco truck is planned for Manhattan later this year, likely in the Lower East Side or Upper West Side, but birria fans will have to be patient: The truck is still at least six months out from opening due to construction delays related to the pandemic, Moreno says. He’s hoping the Manhattan location — which will be open until 1 a.m. most nights — can capture the borough’s late-night crowds, when many restaurants have closed their kitchens.
Both trucks will serve the same menu of birria tacos, tostadas, and mulitas as in Jackson Heights and Williamsburg.
Moreno, a former chef at Parm, Del Posto and Eataly, opened the first location of Birria-Landia with his brother Jesús in the summer of 2019. Within a few months of opening, their Jackson Heights taco truck parked along Roosevelt Avenue received a rare two-star review from New York Times critic Pete Wells that helped propel birria tacos into a citywide sensation.
Trucks and restaurants advertising birria can now be found in all five boroughs, but the demand for Moreno’s version of the stewed meat dish remains strong, as the taco truck’s Instagram comments section is full of request for him to open in New Jersey, Long Island, and elsewhere. The chef followed up with a second location in Williamsburg in 2020.
