Empellón al Pastor, the third restaurant from Alex (Empellón Cocina, Empellón Taqueria), is now open.
The doors opened at 12:30… or at least that's what the signs promised… that and football...
Here's a look at the menu… four of the five menu panels are devoted to alcohol …
There's also delivery via Caviar.
And Stupak said this about the space to WWD:
His choice of venue drives home the point: in the Eighties, it was a punk dive bar called Alcatraz. Stupak tapped several artist friends to re-create graffiti on the inside to look weathered.
“At the end of the day, I wanted it to feel like a quirky dive bar that someone happened to inject a taqueria into,” he says.
Previously on EV Grieve:
[Updated] Chef Alex Stupak vying for former Sushi Lounge space on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place
As the for rent signs turn on Avenue A
Here are a few scant details about chef Alex Stupak's new venture on St. Mark's Place
CB3 OKs liquor license for Alex Stupak's new restaurant on St. Mark's Place
More about Empellón al Pastor, opening this fall on Avenue A and St. Mark's Place
Yuck!!!
ReplyDeletewell, the micheladas are on the high side but overall not a bad menu. hopefully the clientele is more tolerable than the loud dj-fueled douchebaggery that inhabits the old 7a space.
ReplyDeleteare those tequila & mezcal prices per oz?
ReplyDeletesimulacra. EV is no longer Disney, it's EPCOT
ReplyDeleteAre they selling fresh tortillas?
ReplyDelete@Trixie
ReplyDeleteThey do have a small facility here to make tortillas for his restaurants. I'm not sure if they are available for retail purchase...
WOOOOOOOOOOO!
ReplyDeleteWhere's the beef? Where's the food? Where's Waldo?
I liked the yellow façade of the previous place a lot more.
ReplyDeleteBill the libertarian anarchist
This place is a scam pulled on residents and CB 3. The owner promised residents he would be running a restaurant and only needed mescal to serve with his tacos. He also said he would stay open until 1 am. Finally he promised to sell fresh tortillas by the bag for residents to pick-up on their way home from work. Instead he has opened a bar - a big lid bar with accordion doors opening out onto Avenue A and St. Marks place. He barely has any food and certainly didn't limit his booze menu to mescal, as booze is the main attraction. The only reason this got approved is because people thought this would be a cheaper, low-key version of his place on 1st Avenue. Instead we get a shit-show of epic proportions filled with deuchbags. Now both corners of Avenue A across from the park are like this as Miss Lilly's is no different. How does this guy sleep at night knowing he just flat-out lied to get a license at this location. In two years his license will be up for renewal and if he makes a mockery of residents and the CB he will face an angry-mob.
ReplyDeleteWait, do they serve liquor?!
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to kick chicken wings through his front door!
ReplyDelete$5 for a can of Tecate? What a great dive bar. These guys suck
ReplyDelete"I can't wait to kick chicken wings through his front door!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant! Thanks.
"In two years his license will be up for renewal and if he makes a mockery of residents and the CB he will face an angry-mob."
ReplyDeleteHe already is making a mockery of the residents and CB by opening this place the way he is opening it not the way he presented it at CB3.
Ever since the Jane's Sweet Buns bait and switch, there's no credibility and respect for CB3, esp. with Palitz--an owner of bars and clubs--at the liquor license committee's helm, anymore and they are easily duped with the phrase of "serving food" to obtain a full liquor license.
This guy is about as punk rock as Maroon 5
ReplyDeleteThank you for this. It's only good cuz those hags of cb3 need a lesson in humility. They think a restaurant that sells tortillas can actually last here and have to close by 12 everynight? No. They set it up that they need to make huge money in shrt amount of time everyday for a landlord that they have no control over or even try to tame
ReplyDeleteWho actually believed they could make insane rent by selling tortillas til midnight 5 days a week?
ReplyDeleteCb3 wasn't duped they're just morons . Putting more stress on business owners already being out right robbed by outrageous landlord greed isn't helping the community anyway.
I remember the when I moved to the EV (1995) the ONLY place that featured Sunday football was the Sports Page on 2nd Ave. (where Moonstruck is now). Few gave a shit and few would be caught dead in that culture. Now sunday afternoon finds the EV (and everyplace else) flooded with bros and gals in their matching hometown team jerseys and EVERY bar is filled with TVs.
ReplyDeleteI'm done now.
I walked by this place on Saturday night. It's definitely a crowded, trendy bar (there was a doorman checking IDs) that pretended to be a restaurant for 5 minutes.
ReplyDeleteWas hoping for nice tacos at this place. The menu "selection" is seriously lacking. Given their other two spots I was hoping for something nice here but it sucks!
ReplyDeleteThe EV doesn't get "nice". The EV gets "lowest common denominator for the B&T/NYU/Columbia/general moron crowd". Start kicking them chicken wings now!
ReplyDeleteI walked by and actually witnessed people slurping tiny tacos off of paper plates. Paper plates? Do they serve slices? What, they can't afford to use real plates? Why not use red solo cups too? Nothing says authentic East Village restaurant like eating off a soggy paper plate.
ReplyDeleteAnd a bouncer checking IDs? Already? This isn't a Restaurant, it's a Drinkaurant.
As for the Sunday football beer bash at every other Drinkaurant I give up. Even Nicoletta (a proud member of the EV Deathwatch list) is now promoting Sunday football beer & pizza, a sure sign of desperation, and I thought they were supposed to be above all of that.
Anon 2:10 good point. The EV is way more Hard Rock Cafe than CBGB at this point.
ReplyDeleteBAIT AND SWITCH
ReplyDeleteCONTACT SUSAN STETZER AT CB3-
sstetzer@cb3manhattan.org
212-533-6015
PROMISED A FULL SERVICE RESTAURANT
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/downloads/sla/2014/01/questionnaires/01-%20132%20St%20Marks%20Place_Questionnaire.pdf
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/downloads/minutes/minutes2014-01.pdf
http://ny.eater.com/2014/10/20/7013481/tequila-cocktails-cheffy-micheladas-and-a-few-tacos-on-the-menu-at
stupak is definitely talented (his desserts at wd-50 were mind-blowing) but this is clearly a bait and switch. this isn't the humble, tortilla-producing love letter to al pastor that we were told would open. this is a fucking bar with some snacks available. dishonesty shouldn't be allowed.
ReplyDeleteWhen are people going to realize that it is not that difficult, given good ingredients, to prepare tasty dishes and that chefs don't need to be hoisted up as heroes in the way that great musicians and artists used to be. Throwing around names like Alex Stupak or Wylie Dufresne the way people used to talk about Joey Ramone or Tom Verlaine. Giving people actual street-cred because they once appeared on "Top Chef". Whatever people. This celebrity chef thing is one of the worst pop-cultural developments of the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteSUSAN STETZER has no control over landlords robbing the working business man so she nags about noise like a whiney demerit giving narc.
ReplyDeletehow is she and her clan of nerds making anything in this community more like the east village we all have grown to love?
she denies anyone that isnt her 'upper east side fantasy' licenses and then cuts hours short on licensees that would need it most.
cb3 is another problem, not a solution. stop fooling yourselves
@ not cool
ReplyDeleteStetzer is not a voting member of CB 3 - have you attended a meeting. The problem is in fact Palitz - who votes everything in and Kaplan who thinks anyone saying they are a restaurant should get whatever they want. Stop blaming Stetzer for everything and show-up at a meeting and participate. this is less about CB 3 supporting this business and the owner just flat out lying to everyone by promising one thing and opening a fuc**ng bar - which we certainly don't need in the hood. people will be coming from all over town to eat bad, small tacos and drink, drink, drink and then probably head someplace to drink, before screaming in the middle of the street for a cab. This place is a joke of epic proportions.
I agree this restaurant is a lie and makes a mockery of the board but I'll also agree the board is disorganized and makes uninformed (and I say selfish) decisions.
ReplyDeleteI've been to some meetings and watched the brown nosings of the Stetzer clan at work. It too is a joke of epic proportions that left me frustrated.
But now I'm just bitching and not helping. Like the board I'm powerless to the landlord powers at work.
This comment section is ridiculous... some people complaining that it's a yuppie spot, while others whine about paper plates. EVERY SINGLE press piece I read stated it was supposed to give the impression of a bar that happened to sell tacos.
ReplyDeleteBottom line - it's solid, casual place for (relatively) cheap eats, and the drink prices are on par with other spots in the area.The tacos are good, though the tortillas are a bit dry.
Hey J --
ReplyDeleteThey lied. The Full Board of CB3 approved a quote "FULL SERVICE MEXICAN RESTAURANT."
Check the minutes yourself
http://www.nyc.gov/html/mancb3/downloads/minutes/minutes2014-01.pdf
They did not approve a bar that happens to sell tacos.
Hence the bait-and-switch comments. And we don't need any more bars or places that sell tacos.
These eats are not cheap, they are $4 for a tiny appetizer, and are so bite-sized small you would need 4-8 just to make a meal of them, which is $16-$32 for the food. Add in a couple of $10 drinks, tax and tip, you get an average check of $45-$60. Otherwise it's just another bar with appetizers, designed for fast service with high volume and turnover.
ReplyDeleteHaving a bouncer checking IDs at the door makes it look like a club, and if you have ever attended a CB meeting this always raises red flags as any outdoor lines or door policies inevitably leads to more noise and usually some fighting.
The white paper plates mean they have more focus on the drinks, and unless you are serving slices of pizza these have no place in any real eating establishment.
Restaurant owners have been forced to lie to community boards to get the liquor license. Once they get it the community is stuck with them. Even Pranna, which has a conga line of drunks vomiting and passing out in the streets every weekend, seemingly can not be forced to change or shut down.
This is the system we have, it obviously isn't working, so it's time to change it...
What would any of you put into this space that would appease today's neighborhood and a greedy lawyer? Don't forget they're paying probably 35'000$ a month?
ReplyDelete"What would any of you put into this space that would appease today's neighborhood"
ReplyDeleteHow about the full service Mexican RESTAURANT that they promised and presented to the CB3? And just because they're paying $35,000/month in rent does not grant them to open up a bar or club instead of what they promised to open, a RESTAURANT.
QUIRKY DIVE BAR? It's a fancy pants yuppie bar with a big door guy in a suit at the door. Fuck this place. I hope it calms down.
ReplyDeleteI used to work there when it was Alcatraz and then everybody freaked out that it was becoming a restaurant. Cries of, "There goes the neighborhood!". Now everybody is freaking out because it is becoming a loud bar again. Life is funny if you think about it :)
ReplyDelete