EAT - CALEXICO




If you've always wanted to feel like a junkie but never been man enough to try crack, Calexico food cart is here to help. There's a reason why they've named their special blend of chipotle and magic "crack sauce," and like real crack, you'll understand after you've tried it. That jones kicks in and you're back on the streets, checkin their twitter (like a real crackheads do), looking for that damn food cart with another helping of your fix.

Started by three brothers from California, Calexico has earned the Vendy award for best street food and cheers from numerous publications, but has also stacked up its share of naysayers. Apparently a couple of white dudes starting a Mexican cart in NYC that attracts unfathomably long lines of hipsters strikes some as an inauthentic Mexican dining experience. Only two things can explain such blasphemous nonsense: they clearly haven't tried the carne asada, and/or are too old or ugly to be hipsters.

Curmudgeonly Mexican traditionalist Yelpers aside, the appropriately named Vendley brothers opened their cart of dreams to bring the savory hybrid of Cal-Mex they grew up with to the east coast streets. Calexico specializes in the kind of knee-weakening food that makes it hard to eat while standing up but worth waiting 20 minutes in line for. Their carne asada is marinated overnight in a formula so secret even they don't know what it is, their slightly charred pollo asado mixed with melted cheese seeping through rice and covered in avocado crema and crack sauce is orgasmic, and their chipotle pulled pork - well, as the saying goes, chipotleness is next to godliness.

With expiring street permits and an aversion to working in rainy weather, the cart can sometimes be hard to count on. For now they're in SoHo and at the Brooklyn Bridge; for updates on current locations, hours and daily specials, follow twitter.com/CalexicoCart.  For the less patient and outdoorsy, the California Boyz have opened a real life bonafied restaurant in Red Hook this summer (which just got its liquor license), and twitter rumors have it that they're set to open another in Greenpoint, so it would probably save on transportation cost to just move to one of those neighborhoods.



Calexico [calexicocart.com]; Carts in SoHo at Prince and Wooster M-Fr 1130-330, Brooklyn Bridge Park M-Fr 5-9 and Sa-Su 1130-9; Restaurant at 122 Union St., Red Hook; 718.488.8226

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