Chavela's – Crown Heights' mole and mezcal anchor since 2011

On the corner of Franklin Avenue and Sterling Place, in the stretch of Crown Heights that runs into Prospect Heights, Chavela's has drawn queues for Mexican home cooking since 2011 — the second and larger address for a restaurant that chef Arturo Leonar and his wife Desiree first opened a few blocks away on Classon Avenue in 2007. It holds a Bib Gourmand in the MICHELIN Guide, the distinction for cooking of real quality at a moderate spend, and the kitchen earns it with dishes that trace back to Leonar's own childhood in Mexico City rather than to any imported trend. Reclaimed-wood tables, a bar inlaid with hand-painted tiles and a drinks list running to roughly fifty tequilas and mezcals set the tone: lively, unhurried about reinvention, and entirely itself. Open seven days a week from 11am to 11pm, it has become what the owners themselves call an anchor on a street that has changed considerably around it.

01The room and the setting

Guests pass a bar inlaid with hand-painted tiles into a room that seats around sixty across reclaimed-wood tables, with beer brands like Negro Modelo and Pacifico behind the counter alongside margaritas and sangria poured on tap. At the colorful bar, inlaid with hand-painted tiles, find South of the Border beers (Negro Modelo, Pacifico), 50 tequilas and mescals, and the curious offering of margaritas and sangrias on tap. The restaurant describes its own décor as colourful enough to transport diners off the streets of Brooklyn and into the heart of Mexico for the length of a meal, with a street-facing terrace open through the warmer months.

It can get crowded on weekend nights, and regulars treat that as part of the appeal rather than a flaw — a party atmosphere of music, cocktails and conversation that the owners liken to welcoming guests into their own home.

02The chef

Arturo Leonar was born and raised in Mexico City before moving to New York as a young man and working his way up through restaurant kitchens. His career toward the stove began in 1987 at Arizona 206, then the city's leading Southwestern restaurant, before he helped David Walzog open Strip House in Livingston, New Jersey, and went on to cook with Alex Garcia at Calle Ocho and James Botsacos at Park Avalon.

Insider tip

Open daily 11am–11pm; walk-in style, so weekends can mean a wait.

When Leonar decided to open his own restaurant, he returned to the food of his own heritage, travelling back to Mexico to reconnect with the cooking he remembered from childhood. He and Desiree opened the first Chavela's on Classon Avenue in 2007, and ran the small restaurant together before outgrowing the space and relocating to the corner of Franklin and Sterling Place in 2011.

03The cooking

The kitchen works a traditional Mexican repertoire rather than a reinvented one — mole, birria, tortilla soup and a long list of tacos sit beside heritage touches like the Smoked Trout Guacamole, which folds smoked trout and chili de árbol into the classic pico de gallo version. Aurelia's Mole, chicken slowly simmered in mole poblano and served with rice, black beans and tortillas, carries the kind of recipe that reads like family history rather than restaurant invention.

Bigger plates lean toward the generous and the shared: a Molcajete de Carnitas brings slow-roasted pork and avocado to the table still in its stone mortar, while Pescado a la Veracruzana bakes salmon with olives, capers, tomatoes and sweet peppers in the Gulf Coast style.

04What to order

Start with the Smoked Trout Guacamole or the Crab Tostada, chipotle mayo and pickled jalapeño over a crisp base. From the mains, Aurelia's Mole and the Bistec Tampiqueña — sirloin steak with roasted poblanos, guacamole and a queso quesadilla — are the dishes regulars order on repeat, alongside the Plato Don Carne and Plato Don Pescado, built-your-own platters of chipotle chicken and beef birria, or shrimp and salmon al pastor, with rice, beans, guacamole and warm tortillas on the side. Camarones al Chipotle, shrimp simmered in chipotle salsa with sweet plantains and coconut rice, is worth the detour from the taco list.

05Wine and drinks

Spirits are the other half of the Chavela's story: the menu is organised by agave category, running through Mezcal, Tequila, Sotol and Raicilla, with flights for anyone wanting to taste across styles rather than commit to one bottle. The bar pours roughly 50 tequilas and mescals alongside hand-shaken margaritas and a rotating sangria.

Happy Hour runs Monday to Thursday from 4pm to 7pm, with draft margaritas, sangria and campechana at nine dollars, beers at five, micheladas at seven and most tacos at four — a practical window for anyone wanting the room's energy without the weekend wait.

06The neighbourhood

Franklin Avenue in Crown Heights has grown considerably busier since 2011, and Chavela's — by its own account a pioneer when it arrived on this corner — is now one of several reasons locals treat the strip as a destination in its own right. It sits within easy walking distance of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and diners have long used it as the dinner stop before or after an evening there. Visit Chavela's in Crown Heights recommended as one of the top restaurants in the neighborhood.

The restaurant also keeps a sister bar, Altar, nearby for anyone wanting to carry the evening on after the kitchen closes.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.