Gordo's Cantina – a Bushwick cantina named after a bulldog

Gordo's Cantina occupies the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and Stockholm Street in Bushwick, a dining room named not for its owners but for his restaurant's namesake French bulldog. JR Savage, from Queens, and his wife Paulina Loyo-Grigonis, who moved from León, a city in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, built the brand from nothing: established in 2014, the brand started as a Pop Up in New York's largest festivals, including Governor's Ball, Global Citizen, and Prospect Park's BRIC festival, before its first long term Pop Up opened in Long Island City in 2016 and the brand moved to its first long term brick and mortar location in Bushwick, Brooklyn in December 2019. It has held a spot on Michelin's Bib Gourmand List for five consecutive years since 2021. In the kitchen since those early pop-up days is chef Reyna Morales, who hails from central Mexico and tries to recreate the freshness of food she grew up with.

01The room and the setting

Gordo's Cantina sits low and glassy on its Bushwick corner, a single dining room that spills onto a pavement terrace where pets are welcome alongside their owners and the entrance is wheelchair accessible. Inside, the space is sun-filled and informal, dressed with plants and family keepsakes that recall the pop-up years when the whole operation fit onto a festival table.

The kitchen now runs well beyond its old festival hours: the restaurant lists lunch, dinner, brunch and drinks, served across indoor seating and the outdoor terrace.

02The chef

Reyna Morales has cooked for the Gordo's team since its earliest days in business. A special tasting menu for the Bushwick address's soft opening was prepared by head chef Rayna Morales, cooking chorizo during the soft opening, a role she has held through the brand's move from festival stalls to a fixed Bushwick dining room.

Insider tip

Walk-ins welcome; limited Resy tables; terrace seating; nearest subway Jefferson St (L).

Her cooking favours restraint over garnish: meat and sauce carry the dish, rather than a pile of toppings, an instinct for simplicity carried from her own family table in central Mexico all the way to this corner of Brooklyn.

03The cooking

The menu stays closer to central Mexico than to the border cooking more familiar in New York. Its two house moles anchor the savoury end of the table: amarillo and negro moles, nut-based sauces with yellow peppers and cocoa and charred tortilla, respectively, creamy and decadent but not overpowering, with a hint of heat.

Open-faced quesadillas, a chile relleno stuffed with queso fresco in tomato salsa, and birria served as taquitos or folded into quesadillas round out a kitchen built on contrast — crisp against creamy, mild against the occasional direct hit of chile.

04What to order

Start with the Guacamole de la Abuela, served with homemade chips, or the Flautas Ahogadas — three fried rolled tacos stuffed with queso fresco, drowned in salsa verde and topped with crema and cotija cheese. The Chile Relleno, stuffed with queso fresco in salsa de tomate, and the Enchiladas de Mole Negro Oaxaqueño — shredded chicken under the house black mole, with rice and beans — are the clearest statements of the kitchen's central Mexican leanings.

For the table, the Alambre piles steak with grilled pepper, onion and melted chihuahua cheese alongside warm tortillas, while Birria arrives as four taquitos or two quesadillas. The bacon-wrapped "El Chapo" hot dog, finished with crema and pico de gallo, is the menu's oldest dish, a holdover from the brand's festival-stall years.

05Wine and drinks

The bar runs on Mezcalritas, Margaritas and a Bicicleta, alongside a Carajillo and a Michelada. Non-alcoholic options include Aguas Frescas, an almond-milk Horchata with cinnamon, Mexican sodas, and a cinnamon-and-raw-cane-sugar Café de Olla for the coffee drinkers.

Gordo's calls itself the best happy hour in Bushwick, running from noon to 7pm, Monday to Friday, according to its own site in October 2026.

06When to go and booking

As listed on its own site in October 2026, Gordo's Cantina opens Monday from 4pm, Tuesday to Thursday from noon to 10pm, Friday and Saturday until 11pm, and Sunday from noon to 9pm. Reservations run through Resy for a limited number of tables, though the restaurant's own instruction is to walk right in.

The nearest subway stop is Jefferson St (L), a short walk from the murals of Bushwick Collective Street Art that line the surrounding blocks.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.