Barbaco Tio

Barbaco Tio Opens in Brooklyn With Lamb Tacos and Delivery

"Opened recently in Park Slope, this weekend-focused spot serves lamb barbacoa and consommé early (9 a.m. on weekends, 10 a.m. Wednesday–Friday) and famously sells its lamb by the kilo “como en México.” Weekends draw customers from Queens and New Jersey into a tented foyer with heat lamps and steam tables for takeout, quick tacos, or table service inside. The barbacoa is served with stacks of house-made tortillas, salsas, cilantro, onions, and on-site rajas and nopales; the menu also features chorizo-spiced pancita (spiced lamb offal), beef cabeza, and shredded chicken. Rather than a wood-burning pit, meats sourced from a halal New Jersey butcher are wrapped in maguey leaves and steamed overnight (barbacoa, pancita and cabeza cook together; chicken in a separate pot), with the consommé harvested from the drippings. The kitchen nixtamalizes and grinds its own corn for rustic tortillas, Frito-thick chips, jumbo pillow-soft tamales, and gently sweet masa cookies (plain or with cacao nibs), and plans to offer masa-cookie ice-cream sandwiches. It’s also notable for thoughtful delivery taco kits—meat and tortillas in insulated bags with a quart of consommé and condiments—where a half-kilo comes with 12 tortillas and is intended to feed two to three people." - Tammie Teclemariam