Casa Carmen – the Mexican restaurant in Tribeca that pays homage to traditional Mexican food, heritage ingredients, and dining customs – will open a second location in the Flatiron neighborhood on Monday, June 5th at 5 West 21st Street. The restaurant will offer dinner service to start, with weekday lunch and weekend brunch to come.
Casa Carmen is named for the revered Mexican chef Carmen “Titita” who started the El Bajío restaurants in Mexico City 50 years ago, and led by her grandsons, brothers, Sebastian and Santiago Ramirez Degollado. They opened the flagship location of Casa Carmen in Tribeca in April 2022 as their family’s first hospitality endeavor in the U.S. Titita, as she is known by her many friends and family, was deemed a “matriarch of Mexican flavor” by Mark Bittman. At age 84, she is widely well-regarded for her restaurants in and around Mexico City which serve authentic, traditional Mexican recipes from Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, and the Yucatan.
At Casa Carmen, nearly all of the recipes come directly from Titita. Head chef Ivan Gonzalez trained at El Bajío for months in preparation for the restaurant’s Tribeca opening, undergoing exhaustive training about ingredients, recipes, techniques and cooking protocols.
The menu features several of the signature dishes for which El Bajío is known, including a duck tostada, plantain empanadas, enchiladas de mole (a special mole that only a handful of cooks know how to make), pescado a la Veracruzana and octopus mojo de ajo with garlic and epazote. Their tacos, ceviche and guacamole have also proved very popular. At brunch, guests can look forward to enjoying classic dishes including chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, and molletes gratinados (telera bread with refried beans, Oaxaca cheese and pico de gallo).
The cocktail program is agave-forward, and there is also a large list of mezcal and tequila. The restaurant also offers Mexican wines (mainly Valle de Guadalupe and Parras). They also offer a signature Carajillo cocktail as part of their dessert menu.
The restaurant – divided into a bar room and two dining rooms – was designed by Mexican interior designer Luis Enrique Noriega who also designs all of the El Bajío restaurants. The 74-seat, 2,400 sq. foot space immediately transports guests to a cozy casona in a little Mexican town, filled with carefully curated crafts and full of texture from the wooden beams and the volcanic stone sculptures.
“We always loved the Flatiron area. In fact, it was one of the neighborhoods that we were interested in for the first Casa Carmen,” said Sebastian, who is the general manager in a statement. “It has a great mix of offices and residential buildings, and a terrific culinary scene that we are excited to be a part of.”
Sebastian and Santiago grew up in Mexico City and have fond childhood memories of “helping” El Bajío’s longtime head mayora, Sandra, make tortillas in the restaurant. Sebastian trained at the École Hôtelière de Lausanne and will be the general manager. (He recently worked for El Bajío for three years, helping with operations and administration.) Santiago’s background is in finance; he will be in charge of the beverage program and administration. He also has experience helping with the financial management (forecasting, budgets, etc.) of the family restaurants in Mexico City.
Casa Carmen – Flatiron is located at 5 W 21st St, New York, NY 10010 and will be open daily for dinner from 5 p.m. – 11 p.m. Lunch and brunch will launch in the coming months.
