Oxomoco – a wood-fired Michelin star in Greenpoint

On a quiet stretch of Greenpoint Avenue, behind a whitewashed brick façade, Oxomoco has spent most of a decade proving that a taco joint can carry a MICHELIN Star without losing its nerve. It holds one MICHELIN Star. The restaurant was built around a single idea: that Mexican cooking's smoky instincts deserved a proper wood-fired hearth, not a decorative one. Chef and owner Justin Bazdarich, who learned the trade under Jean-Georges Vongerichten before founding the Brooklyn pizzeria Speedy Romeo, opened Oxomoco with his childhood friend Chris Walton on 5 June 2018, after years of trips across Mexico. The name honours Oxomoco, the Aztec goddess of the night, and the dining room's dreamy, plant-filled light does the rest of the storytelling. Within months, the MICHELIN inspectors agreed, and the star has stayed on the door every year since — making this unpretentious Greenpoint room one of the more improbable fine-dining stories in Brooklyn.

01The room and the setting

Oxomoco occupies a narrow Greenpoint Avenue storefront that opens, unexpectedly, into a tall, skylit space. Early coverage of the opening described the room's intent to evoke Mexico City architecture, with an outdoor patio and ample skylights bringing daylight deep into a space that could easily have felt enclosed. The effect, often likened to a resort rather than a restaurant, pairs whitewashed brick and trailing plants with a long bar and big round booths suited to a celebration.

The pass sits in full view: a wood-fired grill and hearth anchor the room, and a seat at the chef's counter gives a direct line onto the flames that do almost all of the cooking here. By day the patio and skylight carry brunch service; by night the same room turns moodier, lit by the glow of the fire at the back.

02The chef

Justin Bazdarich moved to New York from Kansas City in 2001 to train at the French Culinary Institute, then talked his way into an internship at Jean-Georges Vongerichten's flagship, rising from peeling garlic to opening sous chef of Perry Street within three years. A further stint as a chef-trainer for Vongerichten's global group took him through some fifteen restaurant openings, from Las Vegas to Istanbul, before he returned to Brooklyn to open the wood-fired pizzeria Speedy Romeo in Clinton Hill in 2011.

Insider tip

Dinner nightly 5–10pm; brunch weekends from 11am. Nearest stop: Greenpoint Avenue (G train).

Oxomoco, which opened the day after his son was born, was his first Mexican project and, by his own account, a chance to work in a simpler, more direct style after years of restaurant systems and logistics. He runs the kitchen today with Chef de Cuisine Maria Barriga, alongside General Manager Edith Proy and Beverage Director Marino Perez.

03The cooking

The premise, set out by Bazdarich at the outset, was to lean into the smoky register already present in Mexican cooking by running everything — proteins, vegetables, even some salsas — through a wood-fired hearth rather than treating fire as a garnish. The menu moves deliberately across Mexico's regions rather than settling on one: Yucatán-inflected tacos sit alongside Oaxacan tlayudas and Baja-style seafood, all built on heirloom corn tortillas made in-house.

The dinner menu runs from snacking plates through tostadas and tacos to full hearth mains. A caviar tuna tartare tostada and a corn aguachile built on the catch of the day sit near the top of the card; towards the end, a whole Pollo a las Brazas and a slow-cooked Cochinita Pibil give way to the kitchen's most ambitious plate, an American Wagyu bavette finished with mole coloradito.

04What to order

Start with the Oxomoco Guacamole, built on smoked cherry tomatoes and queso fresco, or the Flame Beet Tostada with candied walnuts and feta. The Caviar Tuna Tartare Tostada, dressed with kombu oil and achiote aioli, and the Corn Aguachile, built around the day's catch with pico de gallo and nopales, both show the kitchen's seafood register at its sharpest.

Among the tacos, the Suadero — beef cheeks with roasted jalapeño and guacachile — and the Lamb Barbacoa, served with squash blossom and salsa pipicha, are the two most frequently returned to. For a table ordering big, the Cochinita Pibil or the American Wagyu Bavette with mole coloradito make the wood fire's case most clearly.

05Wine and drinks

The bar leans hard into agave: the spirits list runs to dozens of small-production mezcals and sotols from producers such as Cinco Sentidos, Neta, El Jolgorio and Mal Bien, alongside a serious tequila selection from houses including Fortaleza, Siete Leguas and Cascahuin. Cocktails split between classics — a Classic Margarita built with lime and agave, a Michelada made with Clamato and dry chillies — and house inventions such as the Último Adiós, mixing mezcal with fennel, green Chartreuse and maraschino.

The wine list stays short and mostly European, with a Cava Brut from Parés Balta, a Rueda Verdejo from Familia Torres and a Blaufränkisch from Burgenland offered by the glass or bottle alongside a single Mexican red from Baja's Corona del Valle.

06When to go and booking

Dinner runs seven nights a week from 5pm to 10pm, with brunch served Monday to Friday from noon to 3pm and Saturday and Sunday from 11am to 3pm, according to the restaurant's own site in October 2026. The room is at its brightest — and loudest — on weekend evenings, when the skylight still holds daylight as service begins; a seat at the counter facing the hearth is the one to ask for.

07The neighbourhood

Oxomoco arrived in Greenpoint in 2018 just as the neighbourhood was shifting from a quiet, largely residential corner of Brooklyn into a genuine dining destination, alongside openings such as Vietnamese-American spot Di An Di and the bistro Chez Ma Tante. Both Bazdarich and other chefs opening nearby cited Greenpoint's relative distance from the subway as part of its appeal — a place that still felt like a neighbourhood rather than a destination strip.

The restaurant sits a short walk from the Greenpoint Avenue station on the G train, the only subway line serving the area, with Manhattan Avenue's shops and McGolrick Park both within easy reach for a walk before or after dinner.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.